The US-based fast-food chain Burger King has begun accepting crypto payments at one of its Paris locations, thanks to Alchemy Pay and Binance Pay . The service will use the Instapower power bank top-up service.

Users and customers of the French capital’s fast-food chain will be able to pay with cryptocurrency through power bank devices. Instapower’s new solution is currently used in Asia, while Europe only now seems to be beginning to embrace the idea, the partnership with Burger King in Paris being one example. Alchemy Pay launched its first hybrid merchant payment acceptance system in 2019, which allowed in-store and online merchants to receive cryptocurrency payments from customers.

By 2021, the cryptocurrency payment acceptance system had touch points with more than 2 million merchants in more than 70 regions. Since 2021, the Alchemy Pay network has partnered with Binance to facilitate Binance Pay. Prior to the Instapower solution, Alchemy Pay and Binance Pay had already formed their own partnership.

As early as August 2021, Binance Pay had managed to bring crypto payments to Shopify, once again thanks to Alchemy Pay. Alchemy Pay is a fiat-crypto hybrid payments provider that, coupled with Binance Pay’s wallet, creates a bridge for cryptocurrency payments. In addition to Shopify, networks already relying on Alchemy Pay at that time included the likes of QFPay, Pricerite, Ce La Vi, Aldo, and Arcadier Saas.

Licensing of crypto companies in France At the start of 2023, the governor of the Bank of France proposed stricter regulatory requirements for cryptocurrency businesses in the context of the sector’s volatility. Governor François Villeroy de Galhau proposed that the current registration for cryptocurrency businesses should be replaced by a licence. The executive also emphasised that France should act before upcoming EU regulations come into effect and make French government licensing mandatory for digital asset service providers (DASPs).

At the time, the French financial markets authority, the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF), had registered about 60 companies that are involved in cryptocurrencies, including Binance. In the context of everything that has happened in the cryptocurrency sector in 2022, François Villeroy de Galhau urged France to move as quickly as possible to make DASP licencing mandatory. Digital asset service providers that are looking to obtain a licence are expected to adhere to certain standards as far as business conduct, available financial resources, and organisation are concerned.

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