McDonald’s Is Now Accepting Bitcoin And USDT In One Swiss Municipality

The international fast food franchise is one of the pioneers in a crypto-friendly trial in the Swiss municipality of Lugano.

Lugano, a city of over 63,000 in Switzerland’s Italian-speaking zone, is rapidly becoming a hub for crypto acceptance in Western Europe, and McDonald’s has begun accepting Bitcoin (BTC) as payment.

On Oct. 3, Bitcoin Magazine tweeted a minute-long video showing how to use a mobile app to place an order at a McDonald’s digital kiosk and then pay for it at a traditional register. It’s hardly unexpected to see the Tether (USDT) logo next to the Bitcoin sign on the credit cash machine, given that the city of Lugano stated in March 2022 that it will recognise Bitcoin, Tether, and the LVGA token as legal money.

The city and Tether Operations Limited formalised “Plan B” with a memorandum of understanding on March 3, 2022. Tether has established two funds in accordance with this strategy: one, worth approximately $3 million (or 3 million Swiss francs), is an effort to promote the adoption of cryptocurrency among shops and businesses across the city, and the other is worth approximately $106 million (or 100 million Swiss francs) and is an investment pool for cryptocurrency startups.

Taxes aren’t the only thing that people in Lugano will be able to pay with cryptocurrency; parking tickets, public services, and student tuition will all be included in the initiative as well. One might also anticipate that over two hundred local establishments will begin accepting cryptocurrency as payment.

CTO of Tether and Bitfinex Paolo Ardoino told Cointelegraph in June that Plan B “is doing fantastic,” unveiling a two-week instructional programme on blockchain and cryptocurrency.

El Salvador was the first country to accept Bitcoin as legal money in September 2021. McDonald’s first accepted Bitcoin at only one of its 19 restaurants in the nation, but since then it has expanded to take the cryptocurrency at all of its locations.