The payment structure seeks to reach other Latin American countries such as Colombia, Argentina,
Venezuela, according to LocalBitcoins, has reported movements and great interest in cryptocurrencies as a form of payment. This is due to the economic crisis that the country faces. This fact motivated Zac Cheah, CEO and Founder of Pundi X, to seek alliances in that country with the aim of boost payments with these digital assets.
In early July, the country broke its record again. The data reflected by LocalBitcoins indicate that the amount invested by Venezuelan users was almost Bs. 50,000 million (USD $ 5,029,625). This sum is based on the parallel dollar rate.
In that sense, Cheah met in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, with Michael Gomez, CEO of the CriptoTraki department, which belongs to the Traki chain of stores. The objective of the meeting was to evaluate the alliance between these two firms and the expansion of Pundi X in Latin America since the gateway to that expansion will be Venezuela.
Traki is one of the largest retailers in the South American country. One of its branches is in El Recreo, which is one of the largest shopping centers in Caracas.
“I am doing what any Venezuelan could do, buying food and goods with Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies”, Cheah said of the meeting he had with Gomez.
During the tour in Traki, Cheah was able to verify the operation of XPOS and XPASS, the physical point of sale and the debit card that works with cryptocurrencies; payments are processed with said tools.
“The commercial strategy seeks to capture part of the exchange volume, by proposing a cryptocurrency payment solution to potential customers”, explained the executive about the role played by Pundi X.
Until now, most of the consumption made with cryptocurrencies in Traki has been to buy clothes and food in that store, mainly Bitcoin has been used, according to representatives of CriptoTraki. In that store they work with the payment processor Cryptobuyer and in the country there are other providers such as Panda Group.
Safeguard Values
Pundi X offers financial services, points of sale and wallets as part of its objective to contribute in the adoption of cryptocurrencies more quickly.
Cheah considers the case of Venezuela as something interesting for the company not only because of the use of Bitcoin, but because they have detected that there are at least 30.000 wallets in the country.
This interest in cryptocurrencies would mean that approximately that number of people understand what cryptocurrencies are. In this way, for Venezuelans, cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and others are a potential safeguard of value, that is, it would allow citizens to save.
“People understand cryptocurrencies by nature, due to the fluctuation of the country’s currency, the bolivars. People are striving to understand the benefits of cryptocurrencies, but not only as an investment, but as a way to protect their own value, their wealth”.
New Projects
According to the CEO of Pundi X, the alliance with Traki is “just the beginning”. He said the plan is to expand XPOS and also the operations with this device throughout Venezuela.
“More people can use cryptocurrencies as part of their daily lives. I think this is one of the best contributions we can make. We see a great demand in Venezuela”, he said.
Starting in Venezuela, Panda X hopes to expand and bring its services to Brazil, Argentina and Colombia; these are other regions that also have an interest in Bitcoin.
“Venezuela represents an important use case and a significant point of study. We are very excited about that”, added the businessman.
At the moment, Panda X is looking to work with other large merchants in Venezuelan lands, as well as it is willing to offer their services to small and medium-sized merchants.
In a short time, the company will give information about new alliances. There are not details so far.
By María Rodríguez
