Ingenico, Binance Pilot Crypto Payments in France

Ingenico and Binance have partnered to enable cryptocurrency payments in stores in France.

The first solution – where merchants are paid in crypto – is being piloted at two companies in France and will then be rolled out in European countries where Binance is regulated, the companies said in a press release on Wednesday (February 22).

Ingenico and Binance are also developing a crypto-to-fiat payment solution to be piloted in the second quarter, and Ingenico also plans to include Binance on its payments platform as a service called PPaaS, according to the release.

“As a leading payments ecosystem accelerator, we are excited to partner with up-and-coming brands like Binance to bring cryptocurrency payments to retail for consumers worldwide,” Ingenico Executive Vice President of Innovation and Global Solutions Michel Léger said in the release.

PYMNTS research has found that if cryptocurrency becomes regularly available in merchants’ coffers, there could be a trickle-down effect of demand for that payment from “technology-driven consumers.”

These consumers – who are 15% of the total consumer market – are typically the first to buy the latest connected device, the most willing to buy crypto and often the ones making technology decisions that often preview what will define the mainstream -consumer behavior over the next few years, according to “Shopping with Cryptocurrency: Tech-savvy Consumers Drive Market Acceptance,” a PYMNTS and BitPay collaboration.

The report also found that 24% of tech-driven consumers are regular crypto users — meaning they use it at least 10 or 20 times a month — and 26% of those consumers are willing to switch to merchants that accept crypto at checkout.

The first store solution resulting from the partnership between Ingenico and Binance is designed to accept more than 50 cryptocurrencies, according to the press release.

By bringing together Binance Pay and Ingenico’s Axium payment terminals, this will provide merchants with an “all-in-one” solution for in-store crypto payments; they don’t need to add another device or do an integration themselves, the release said. .

“One of the great benefits of this partnership is that it offers businesses a new approach to the market,” said director of Binance Pay and Binance Card Jonathan Lim in the release. “[Ingenico’s] dominant position in the market and their innovative payment solutions allow us to accelerate access to consumers, without having to create our own terminals or software.”