Pizza Hut, one of the world’s largest fast-food chains, is now accepting cryptocurrency payments. It has recently revealed it will now be accepting Bitcoin and Dash payments in all its outlets in Venezuela.
Pizza Hut Venezuela partnered with Panamanian cryptocurrency payments processor CryptoBuyer to make cryptocurrency payments a reality. Announcing the partnership with Pizza Hut on Twitter, CryptoBuyer revealed that customers will now be able to pay in Bitcoin and Dash. They can also pay for their pizza in the XPT cryptocurrency, the native token on the CryptoBuyer platform.
“We continue to grow and work to expand your payment options in cryptocurrencies. We are happy to announce our most recent alliance with Pizza Hut Venezuela, from today you can share with your family and pay with Bitcoin, XPT and Dash,” the company tweeted.
¡Venimos con buenas noticias! Seguimos creciendo y trabajando en ampliar tus opciones de pago en #Criptomonedas.Estamos contentos de anunciar nuestra más reciente alianza con #PizzaHutVenezuela Desde hoy puedes compartir en familia y pagar con #Bitcoin #XPT #Dash #CryptobuyerPay pic.twitter.com/fawzIgoBCl
— Cryptobuyer (@cryptobuyer) November 27, 2020
In an interview with local outlet El Axioma, Pizza Hut Venezuela CEO Richard Elkhouri described the partnership as an important milestone for the franchise. “Pizza Hut has been adopting emerging technologies to stay competitive”, he stated. Cryptocurrency payments have become increasingly popular in Venezuela, making the partnership crucial for the fast-food chain’s growth. He explained:
“Pizza Hut nowadays cannot be detached from these technological advances and all those incorporations of new systems in our customers’ daily lives. That would be like staying in the past and not continuing to evolve – something that the brand has done and that is very important to us.”
Pizza Hut, which has over 18,700 outlets globally, joins Burger King Venezuela in accepting cryptocurrency payments. As Coinspeaker reported, Burger King also partnered with CryptoBuyer on the initiative. It accepts Bitcoin, Binance Coin, Tether, Litecoin, Dash and Ethereum.
South America Setting the Pace
South America has emerged as one of the leading hubs in cryptocurrency payments. While the US, East Asia and Europe lead in cryptocurrency trading and speculation, Latin America has been using cryptocurrencies for day-to-day payments.
Venezuela has been one of the best illustrations of cryptocurrencies solving challenges for ordinary people. The country has been embroiled in a political stalemate, fueled largely by interference from the US on one side and Russia and China on the other. The economy has been the biggest casualty, with the country experiencing record-setting hyperinflation.
Venezuelans have turned to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to escape the inflation. As per the Chainalysis Cryptocurrency Adoption Index 2020, Venezuela ranks third globally in Bitcoin adoption. Only Ukraine and Russia rank above the South American country.
The New York-based blockchain analytics firm pointed out:
“Our data shows that Venezuelans use cryptocurrency more when the country’s native fiat currency is losing value to inflation, suggesting that Venezuelans turn to cryptocurrency to preserve savings they may otherwise lose.”
The Venezuelan government has also encouraged the use of cryptocurrencies in global trade. Last year President Nicolas Maduro urged Venezuelans to use Petro and other cryptocurrencies to avoid economic sanctions.