The Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) has approved EazyPay, an online payments platform, to launch Bitcoin and cryptocurrency payments in the region, per an announcement from the company’s CEO Nayef Alawi.
Binance, a leading cryptocurrency exchange and payment services provider, partnered with EazyPay enabling over 5,000 point-of-sale (POS) terminals and payment gateways in Bahrain to accept bitcoin.
Users in the area looking to use bitcoin as payment will be prompted with a QR code from EazyPay’s terminal, which can then be scanned with the Binance App, allowing almost instant payments with the chosen currency. Additionally, Binance offers convenience for businesses such as EazyPay and the merchants who choose to leverage the platform by enabling instant fiat conversions for the merchants.
Khalid Hamad, executive director of the banking supervision at CBB, reportedly congratulated EazyPay on gaining approval from the bank. Additionally, the CEO of Binance celebrated that EazyPay would be the first regulated and approved Bitcoin and cryptocurrency payment services offering in the Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) region.
“Our strategic partnership between EazyPay and Binance is a historic regional & local milestone for both companies in the payment field,” said Alawi.
Alawi concluded by thanking the CBB “for their support towards launching this product, which empowered Eazy to provide its valued merchants & customers with competitive and innovative payment services, which cements Eazy’s position as the leading POS & Online payment gateway provider in the Kingdom of Bahrain.”
Recently, the Kingdom of Bahrain, in collaboration with the CBB and OpenNode, began testing Bitcoin payments through the central bank’s financial sandbox platform.