The American multinational fast food chain McDonald’s has started accepting payments in Bitcoin and Tether in Switzerland’s city of Lugana, populated by around 63,000 people. The announcement comes in a tweet by Bitcoin magazine on October 3. And it posted a video in which a customer ordered food using McDonald’s kiosk and paid for it using a digital wallet app on mobile. The credit card machine used to scan the QR code to proceed with payment was labeled with Bitcoin and Tether.

Although cryptocurrency’s low prices have shaken the spirit of many, crypto adoption, on the other hand, continues to gain more ground, undermining the market downtrends. Like El Salvador’s move to give Bitcoin a legal tender, it’s Lugana city of Switzerland, based on Italian-speaking residents, to become the latest hotspot for crypto adoption in Western Europe. 

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The latest development is part of the city’s vision to transform the financial infrastructure into a digital ecosystem. Therefore, Lugana city signed a memorandum of understanding with stablecoin issuer Tether on March 3. The collaboration resulted in a joint Foundation Plan B. And it aims to accelerate the process of enabling Bitcoin and USDT payments for goods, taxes, and services within Lugana city.

The Tether has settled two funds of $100 million and $3 million for backing Plan B. The funds will provide investment opportunities to startups and boost crypto adoption by merchants and shops across the state. 

Furthermore, the Plan B Foundation has partnered with Go Crypto, a point-of-sale solution that will set the channels for the residents to use Bitcoin and Tether in their daily activities with an aim to expand crypto growth in the regime. 

Speaking on the McDonald’s initiative to onboard Bitcoin and Tether payments, Paolo Ardoino, CTO of Tether, added; 

Earlier this year, Lugano and Tether signed a memorandum of understanding to launch a strategic collaboration through several initiatives, including to help local businesses integrate their existing payment services with the permitted stablecoins and Bitcoin. We have been working together to ensure the technological infrastructure is in place to support this, and today, we watch all of that hard work come to fruition.

By the end of 2022, the foundation expects to include around 2500 new businesses and merchants to the lightning network. It will allow Lugana’s residents to use Bitcoin, Tether, and LVGA in payments. 

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Notably, the fast food chain has already started accepting Bitcoin payments in El Salvador, a nation that gave Bitcoin a legal tender in September 2021. People in El Salvador use Bitcoin to order their burgers. McDonald’s customers in the state can also order the food online and through delivery apps targeting any of the 19 locations of the food chain in the state.

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