Crypto is slowly but surely changing the way we conduct business. It’s ever clearer that digital assets are inching themselves into the mainstream. Companies in many sectors have started accepting crypto payments, and provision merchants are no exception. Today we’ll be taking a look at businesses where you can buy food and drinks with cryptocurrency, so let’s get into it!

Restaurants where you can pay with crypto

Cryptocurrencies are taking over the world and many food merchants are already accepting crypto payments. That means if you want to have a burger or a coffee, you can easily use your BTC to buy it. Here is a list of places which have recently joined the Crypto World.

Subway

Their flexible business model has made Subway the world's largest fast food franchise by number of restaurants. The company has been known since the early days to have a favorable view of crypto. A Subway establishment in Moscow, Russia first started experimenting with Bitcoin 13 years ago, when almost no one saw the huge potential of crypto.

Today Subway accepts Bitcoin in three establishments in the German capital Berlin. The company CEO, a known fan of crypto, claims he dreams of widespread adoption claiming: “Five years ago, I started to deal with cryptocurrencies; and in the last two years, I have dealt very intensively with the topic of Bitcoin. With that in mind, I’ve decided that [Bitcoin] could be the better money system.”

McDonald's

Mcdonald's has recently made the news for having started to accept Bitcoin at one of its establishments. A McDonald's in the beautiful town of Lugano, home of the Italian community in Switzerland, now accepts Bitcoin for Big Macs, McFlurrys, and coffee.

The move is part of a bigger project headed by the company Plan B that aims to make Lugano a crypto haven. Many crypto enthusiasts from all over Europe are getting excited about what the future holds for the small town.

Starbucks

Starbucks has teamed up with third-party payment app Bakkt to make buying your morning coffee with crypto possible. The partnership allows coffee lovers to trade their crypto on Bakkt App and use their BTC to buy food and beverages in their affiliated stores such as Starbucks.

Chipotle

Everyone’s favorite Mexican fast food chain Chipotle has started to accept cryptocurrency in all of its establishments. The company partnered with the digital payment platform Flexa to allow US customers to buy their burritos with cryptocurrency. Currently, 98 cryptocurrencies are accepted, including BTC, ETH, and SOL.

Shake Shack

Shake Shack, popular for its hamburgers and milkshakes, recently announced its partnership with the Block Cash App. Customers that purchase their meals via the app are entitled to a 15% cashback in BTC.

Future of crypto in the food industry

Crypto presents a huge opportunity for the food industry and the economy at large. Companies such as those listed above and many more are beginning to notice just how much their business model could benefit from the adoption of cryptocurrency. Now you can find numerous brands of different spheres that accept Bitcoin, or are Ethereum-friendly.

Blockchain technology works P2P, meaning each transaction is only between the customer and the business. Third parties such as banks, payment, and other platforms get cut out from the equation, resulting in a smoother service and ideally a lot lower fees.

For starters, the most obvious use case is the delivery of food. Companies such as Uber Eats and Deliveroo take big percentages of each sale on their platform, eating up business owners' profits. However, with crypto, the process would be made a lot easier by cutting out the platform and directly sending the funds to the business owner's wallet.

Similarly, customers dining in the restaurant could purchase their meals without having to rely on credit or debit cards. By using quick services such as Bitcoin’s Lightning Network, buying food in a restaurant would only take less than a couple of seconds with fees that are negligible compared to credit and debit cards.

Additionally, projects such as VChain specializes in applying blockchain technology to the supply chain, making the whole process of receiving food supplies a lot smoother for business. There are endless more use cases that could benefit the industry at large and it will be interesting to see them develop with crypto.

Conclusion

The possibilities for crypto in the food industry are endless. However, there's still a lot of things to be done. Regulators have to get to work, businesses need a well-defined legal framework to know the rules of the crypto game to safeguard themselves and their customers. The technology is there, all we have to do is adopt it.

If you want to learn about more food companies adopting crypto and blockchain technologies, make sure to check our article.

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