Amid the activity in the Cardano ecosystem, Flexa, an “all-digital” payment network, has recently added the native cryptocurrency ADA to its platform as a payment option. But the timing of Flexa’s move was rather interesting, coming just days after itpay disappointed the community by choosing to support the memecoin Shiba Inu instead of ADA.
According to Flexa’s Twitter announcement, the company will now provide instant payment support for ADA in more than 40,000 locations across the United States. Nordstrom, Barnes & Noble, Lowe’s, Gamestop, and Whole Foods are among merchants that accept Flex payments for point-of-sale purchases.
This was part of the Gemini-supported network’s “25 Days of Flexa” campaign, and during that campaign Avalanche, Filecoin, Solana and added payment support for a number of leading digital assets, including several other DeFi tokens.
Buckle up, because it’s DeFi Thursday on #25DaysofFlexa🎁! Introducing support for…@1inch #1INCH,@AaveAave $AAVE,@AlchemixFi $ALCX,@BalancerLabs $HONEY,@Bancor $BNT,@Barn_Bridge $BOND,@CurveFinance $CRV,@harvest_finance $FARM,@kybernetwork $KNC,@MakerDAO $MKR,
… 1/2 pic.twitter.com/cOEdI1DKJ7
— Flexa (@FlexaHQ) December 9, 2021
Flexa has been aggressively expanding its presence in the digital asset industry lately and has also developed a mobile app called SPEDN to facilitate cryptocurrency payments, which will now include ADA. The SPEDN wallet is fully secured and insured within Gemini’s infrastructure, thanks to Flexa’s partnership with leading cryptocurrency exchange Gemini.
Flexa’s support for Cardano has been hailed as pretty exciting news by the community after they had an unpleasant experience with Bitpay, another leading crypto payments provider, earlier this month.
ADA vs. SHIB?
The famous payment provider shared a Twitter poll asking users which token they would like to be listed. The survey included options like Polygon, Avalanche, and Cardano.
However, Bitpay infuriated many in the Cardano community by deciding to choose SHIB even before the poll ended. So much so that even its founder, Charles Hoskison, took to Twitter to express his disappointment and discontent. In addition to these, it is worth noting that Flexa has also added support for memecoin in the same way as BitPay.
While there is general enthusiasm in the community about Flexa’s announcement, some argue that unlike memecoins, digital assets with utilities like ADA will not be used by anyone for payment purposes. With this move, the payment provider may be trying to change this perspective among cryptocurrency holders by offering simpler payment options at “traditional stores”.
Disclaimer: What is written here is not investment advice. Cryptocurrency investments are high-risk investments. Every investment decision is under the individual’s own responsibility. Finally, Koinfinans and the author of this content cannot be held responsible for personal investment decisions.