Ukraine’s ANC Pharmacy Partners With Binance on Crypto Payments

Ukrainian pharmacy chain ANC Pharmacy has partnered with Binance Ukraine to enable cryptocurrency payments within the war-torn nation.

According to a reported in Cointelegraph on Tuesday (Jan. 3),the chain will use the Binance Pay contactless crypto payment service at more than 1,000 domestic locations to allow its customers to make instant payments online for purchases.

Citing an announcement on the pharmacy’s website, the report said the offering is being launched in Kyiv and will extend to the company’s three brands.

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said in a Tuesday tweet that ANC Pharmacy has more than 1,000 stores.

According to a Google translation of ANC Pharmacy’s announcement, customers can download the Binance app, go to the pharmacy’s website, select the products, pay with Binance Pay and pick up the products in a store.

“We have the status of the most innovative chain of pharmacies, which is constantly moving in the direction of digitalization, for a reason,” the translated announcement said.

As PYMNTS reported last month, Binance Pay lets users send money via a mobile app and allows them to send, request and receive nearly 150 different cryptocurrencies via mobile app and allows for instant, no-cost crypto transfers between users.

The payments system has been available to Binance users outside the United States since last year and was opened to U.S. users Dec. 13.

“Binance Pay eliminates the complexities of transferring crypto to contacts as users no longer need to enter a complex deposit or withdrawal address, pay gas fees, or wait an unspecified amount of time for transactions to successfully settle,” Binance said at the time.

Ukranian companies of all sizes are still going strong and remaining resilient in the face of the ongoing war that began with Russia’s attack in February, digital payments firm Payoneer said in October.

The company surveyed 4,200 business owners in Ukraine in July and found that 70% of the country’s small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) were still operating during the war, 63% were retaining most, if not all, of their employees and 38% were intending to hire more staff.

“The Ukrainian workforce has shown remarkable resilience since the war began,” Payoneer Senior Vice President of Europe James Allum said at the time. “It is amazing to see how SMBs have continued to operate under these terrifying conditions, and my message to the global business community would be to continue to engage with businesses and freelancers in Ukraine.”

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