By Mark Ackman
The Kingdom of Bahrain has recorded a massive rise in crypto adoption, as there are a number of local companies that are now allowing people to make payments in cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin.
Now, it appears that Binance has also decided to assist in this process, as it entered into a partnership with EazyPay for supporting crypto payments in the country.
The partnership
The Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) is the regulatory authority of the country and the online payment platform EazyPay is under its regulation.
It recently entered into a partnership with Binance Pay, which will help in facilitating crypto payments in the country.
The announcement was made on Wednesday by the founder and chief executive of EazyPay, Nayef Tawfiq Al Alawi.
The CEO stated that the newly introduced crypto payment option will be accessible to people at online payment gateways and more than 5,000 point-of-sale (PoS) terminals throughout Bahrain.
Some of the prominent local companies and merchants will be able to accept payments in over 70 different cryptocurrencies.
All they have to do is use the Binance App for scanning the QR code from Eazy’s Point-of-Sale (PoS) terminal.
This service will be available at Al Zain Jewelry, Sharaf DG, Jasmi’s and Lulu Hypermarket.
Licensing
It was clarified by Al Alawi that Bahrain’s central bank has regulated and licensed Eazy Financial Services as the fifth payment service provider, online payment gateway acquirer and PoS service.
He expressed his gratitude towards Eazy Financial Services, Binance and the Central Bank of Bahrain.
The CBB’s executive director of banking supervision, Khalid Hamad Al Hamad, also congratulated Eazy for introducing the new crypto payment service in the kingdom.
The chief executive of Binance, Changpeng Zhao also said that the crypto payment feature that EazyPay has introduced would be the first approved and regulated crypto payment service offering within the North African and Middle East region.
It had been reported previously as well that the world’s biggest crypto exchange for its trading volume, Binance, had gotten a number of regulatory approvals in Bahrain.
This included a Category 4 license and a license to operate as a crypto service provider.
Bahrain’s crypto adoption
Bahrain is Asia’s third-smallest country and crypto adoption in the country has recorded a rise in the last few years.
A framework was issued by Bahrain’s central bank in 2019 for a wide range of crypto-related activities that also established rules for risk management, licensing, governance, security, reporting and Anti-money laundering (AML) standards.
Since crypto regulations were implemented in the country, it has also been conducting experiments with crypto as well as its underlying blockchain technology.
A digital payments trial was completed by the CBB in January 2022 for which it collaborated with Onyx, the cryptocurrency and blockchain unit of JPMorgan.
A prominent local crypto exchange called CoinMENA, which is also regulated by the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB), announced in June that it would be expanding its crypto trading offerings in Egypt.