Cars produced by the Chinese automaker Geely and its local subsidiary in Belarus can now be purchased using cryptocurrencies.
Customers will be getting the same prices and promotions, with the added benefit of using digital coins to make the payment through instant conversion to Belarusian fiat.
Cryptocurrencies accepted for Geely and Belgee cars in Belarus
A car dealership in Minsk, the capital city of Belarus, has launched a new service allowing buyers to spend cryptocurrency on their new vehicle.
Tochka, the auto retailer, is offering the alternative payment option in collaboration with WhiteBird, one of the oldest licensed crypto platforms in the country.
Belarusian media describes the initiative as the first case of integrating crypto payments in the Eastern European nation’s automotive market.
Buyers can choose any of the models offered by Geely, as well as Belgee, a joint venture controlled by the Chinese automotive conglomerate and the Belarusian state-owned BelAZ.
The latter is one of the world’s biggest manufacturers of large dump trucks and other heavy transport equipment for the mining and construction industries.
Speaking to the Belarusian news outlet Office Life, a Tochka representative emphasized:
“This is not an experiment or a promotion, but a full-fledged service operating within the legal framework of Belarus.”
The spokesperson also noted Tochka embarked on the project to “meet the wishes of the modern generation of car drivers.”
Crypto payments made possible through conversion to fiat
Buyers can place crypto orders without even visiting the dealer’s office, as payments are processed online. They only need to contact Tochka and confirm the final price in Belarusian rubles.
Customers are then transferred to a WhiteBird employee who helps them with exchanging their crypto into fiat at a preferential rate set specifically for the project.
Once the transaction is finalized, the vehicle can be picked up at the showroom or delivered to any address in the territory of Belarus.
Prices for crypto owners are the same as those for clients paying with rubles. They will also enjoy the same discounts for Geely or Belgee cars.
The dealership expects to sell up to 10% of the cars it offers from the two brands for cryptocurrency under the newly implemented scheme.
Belarus reacts to growing popularity of cryptocurrency
Crypto payments have been gaining traction in Belarus, a close economic and political ally of both China and Russia, especially under Western sanctions that have restricted the access of its citizens and companies to traditional financial channels.
The trend was recently highlighted by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who noted that the volume of external payments through cryptocurrency exchanges reached a record $1.7 billion in the first seven months of the year.
Belarus is a regional leader in terms of efforts to regulate digital assets. It legalized crypto business for residents of the Belarus Hi Tech Park (HTP) in 2018, with a presidential decree signed by Lukashenko in late 2017.
This year, the country’s long-term leader urged government officials and regulatory bodies in Minsk to swiftly update the national framework in order to catch up with the industry.
Speaking at a conference devoted to the development of the digital token economy in early September, he was quoted by the official BelTA news agency as stating:
“The task of the state in these conditions is to determine understandable, transparent rules of the game and mechanisms for control in this sphere.”
WhiteBird, car dealer Tochka’s partner for the crypto payments feature, is registered at the HTP hub and is arguably the first coin trading platform to obtain a Belarusian license.
In September, the exchange also helped Wildberries, Russia’s largest online retailer, to offer its Belarusian customers the option to pay with major cryptocurrencies, as reported by Cryptopolitan.
The Russian e-commerce giant now accepts Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and the U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin Tether (USDT), among others, through an integration with WhiteBird in Belarus.
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