A press release from Eligma said that this was one of few international investments in a global company that has raised start-up capital by means of an initial coin offering.

"Global trends indicate that cash is slowly becoming a past, also because cash transactions are time-consuming. A major issue with cryptocurrencies today is that it may take several minutes to confirm transactions, which is completely unacceptable with everyday payments," said Eligma CEO Dejan Roljić.

Eligma solved the problem with the app Elipay, which allows instant cryptocurrency transfers, while the merchant gets paid in the local currency of choice, in order to avoid potential currency volatility.

"This makes the use of cryptocurrencies extremely fast and simple. We should bear in mind that the idea behind cryptocurrencies is a vision of payment transactions in the future," Roljić was quoted.

Eligma has established more than 430 locations in Slovenia and Croatia that accept cryptocurrencies on a daily basis. They include hotels, stores, restaurants, sports facilities, 14 Tuš supermarkets, 19 Big Bang stores and a number of services such as plane ticket purchases, car rental and tax rides.

The buyer makes a purchase by scanning the product's QR code at the store by a mobile app, picking a cryptocurrency to pay for it and the seller gets the payment in euro.

Payments in such a way can currently be made on the 430 locations by 20,000 Elipay users and more than four million Bitcoin.com Wallet users. Eligma plans to make payments possible to users of other crypto wallets in the future.

With the investment, Bitcoin.com and Pangea Blockchain Fund have joined Eligma's other partners, including the Ljubljana shopping mall operator BTC.

"We are being contacted daily by retailers and companies from various countries where cryptocurrencies have become a major alternative to local currencies," Roljić said.

"Bitcoin.com is investing in Eligma because I believe that together we'll contribute to a simpler use of cryptocurrencies in an increasing number of currencies world-wide," Bitcoin.com CEO Roger Ver was quoted as saying.