Cardano ADA Now Accepted at Spar Supermarkets in Switzerland for Payments

Cardano’s ADA token is now accepted for payment at 137 Spar supermarkets across Switzerland and neighboring Liechtenstein. The rollout is driven by the Open Crypto Pay standard by the Swiss fintech firm DFX.swiss, in partnership with the Cardano Foundation and Brick Towers.

Summary 

• Cardano’s ADA is now accepted for payment at over 130 Spar supermarkets in Switzerland. 
• Users can directly pay from their ADA wallet by scanning a QR code. 
• This integration reduces merchant transaction costs by about two-thirds compared to cards. 

Open Crypto Pay is a decentralized, blockchain-based payment system allowing users to send and receive digital assets directly, bypassing traditional banks. It already supports payments in several cryptocurrencies at Swiss Spar locations, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the USDC, USDT, and DAI stablecoins. Now, ADA will be a part of retail payments in stores where it was already active. 

Open Crypto Pay now allows Cardano users to pay with ADA tokens directly from their native wallets at Swiss SPAR checkouts by scanning a QR code. Stores receive payment in Swiss francs, regardless of the crypto token the customer paid in. Transactions are processed in real time without being directed through a centralized exchange. DFX.swiss said Open Crypto Pay reduces transaction costs for merchants by roughly two-thirds compared to traditional card payments.     

Frederik Gregaard, CEO of the Switzerland-based Cardano Foundation, said this signals the start of “a fundamental shift in how value moves through society.” He also described the partnership as planting seeds for a financial ecosystem in which “paying with Cardano is as natural as paying with a card.”  

The Cardano Foundation has not disclosed transaction volumes after the rollout began. As per Crypto Pay’s website, the stores in Geneva, the capital of Bern, and Davos have not been brought within this network. It is currently active in 137 stores. 

About Switzerland’s Adoption of Cryptocurrencies 

Switzerland is known for the early adoption of cryptocurrencies. The City of Lugano has over 350 businesses that adopt Bitcoin for payments as of December 2025. Tether and the city of Lugano also committed 5 million Swiss francs ($6.4 million) this week for the second phase of the Plan B forum, scheduled from 2026 to 2030, aimed at building Lugano into a global hub for digital asset infrastructure.

However, the Swiss National Bank has been cautious despite the country’s broader crypto-friendly environment. In April 2025, Martin Schlegel, the Swiss National Bank Chairman, rejected the proposition to add Bitcoin to the central bank’s reserves, saying that cryptocurrency cannot currently meet the requirements for currency reserves given its volatility and market liquidity profile. 

Conclusion

The addition of Cardano’s ADA token in Spar stores enables customers to directly pay from their native ADA wallets at the checkout counter by a QR code. The transactions are settled in real-time without routing through any centralized exchanges. This new addition is also beneficial for merchants, as the Open Crypto Pay reduces transaction costs by roughly two-thirds. 

The DFX.swiss infrastructure handles the conversions, making everyday utility possible. This form of on-and-off ramp design removes the gap between holding a crypto token and spending it.