BitX sees Bitcoin penetration in cardless South-East Asian population
Coda Payments has partnered with BitX in South-East Asia, in an initiative that will make Coda the first merchant in the region to accept digital currency for online payments. BitX has said that the growth it is observing in the Bitcoin market in the region is helped by the fact that much of the population do not have credit or debit cards; these people will be able to use Bitcoin to gain access to online markets.
Southeast Asian multichannel payment gateway Coda Payments has partnered with BitX to offer Bitcoin payments.

Due to this collaboration, Coda is the first merchant in the region to accept digital currency for online purchases.

Coda already offers the option to customers in Indonesia and Malaysia through its own online gift card platform, called Codashop. The store offers Steam wallet, Google Play, iTunes, Amazon, and several other gift cards and vouchers to customers.

Similar to other offerings in the Bitcoin market, BitX will allow real-time currency conversion from the user’s local currency and Bitcoin collections. Coda will handle the rest of the processes, such as merchant acquisition, integration, and settlement.

According to CEO of BitX, Marcus Swanepoel, there is tremendous Bitcoin growth in Southeast Asia.

Much like African markets, Swanepoel explains, not all of the population has access to credit cards or debit cards, which Bitcoin can address:

“We’re seeing tremendous growth in Bitcoin activity in Southeast Asia and we believe that Bitcoin will play a significant role in enabling fast, cheap and safe online transactions for large segments of the population that were previously excluded from this market.”

About a year ago BitX partnered with South African payments company PayFast, which effectively enabled shoppers to make Bitcoin payments to 30 000 merchant clients.

Read more: Kenyan bitcoin startup wins $100k Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Grant

Neil Davidson, CEO of Coda also believes the cryptocurrency’s accessibility and low transaction fees will help make it an attractive payment option.

BitX has had amazing growth. In recent months the company has integrated an airtime payment system, expanded into Nigeria, and raised US$4-million from South African media giant Naspers.

It will be interesting to see what the company does next.

Image by Jason Benjamin via Flickr