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5,000 Merchants Can Now Accept Cryptocurrency Payments in Chile

Last Updated March 4, 2021 3:54 PM
Francisco Memoria
Last Updated March 4, 2021 3:54 PM

Chilean cryptocurrency exchange Crypto MKT has recently announced that the country’s citizens can now buy products and services with cryptocurrency from over 5,000 merchants through a new integration with a crypto payment processor.

According to the announcement , a partnership between Crypto MKT and online payments platform Flow.cl allowed the merchants to add cryptocurrency payment options through a platform called CryptoCompra.com .

CryptoCompra’s platform is available in Chile, Argentina, Brazil, and Europe, and lets customers pay businesses using bitcoin, stellar, or ethereum, while letting merchants receive their payments in pesos, the country’s fiat currency.

From Crypto MKT’s end, there’s a guarantee fund that ensures payments made in crypto aren’t affected by significant price fluctuations. The announcement reads (roughly translated):

“There is a guarantee fund that allows payments not to be affected by large increases or decreases in the price of Bitcoin, Ethereum and Stellar. This gives tranquility and security to the client, since it will not have surprises in its payments.”

It further states that accepting cryptocurrencies allows businesses to accept payments from all over the world, and gives them a chance to be recognized as a “vanguard company” that can enjoy fast, secure payments.

The development is notable, as Chile is a country in which the top cryptocurrency exchanges, Orionx, Buda, and Crypto MKT, endured what was considered a blanket ban on the crypto industry, as local banks shut down their accounts, prompting them to seek clear regulations.

The ordeal saw the exchanges take the banks, Itau Corpbanca, Bank of Nova Scotia, and state-owned Banco Estado, to an appeals court that agreed to hear them. Chile’s anti-monopoly court ordered two major banks, Banco Estado and Itau Corpbanca, to re-open the accounts of Buda, an exchange that was reportedly seeing a daily trading volume of over $1 million before its accounts were closed

As CCN.com covered, Orionx later on won its case against Banco Estado, as the court noted the financial institution made an “arbitrary and illegal action” in closing its account. While it’s unclear whether Crypto MKT managed to see banks re-open its accounts, the other two cases seemingly point that way.

The president of Chile’s central bank, Mario Marcel, has earlier this year revealed he is considering implementing cryptocurrency regulations that would give financial institutions information needed to “monitor associated risks.”

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