The German arm of global fast-food chain Burger King now accepts Bitcoin (BTC) payments on its delivery website and mobile application. Payment options on the Bklieferservice.de homepage Despite BTC's sudden apperarance on its official website, it is unclear whether Bitcoin is also accepted in the 600 physical Burger King restaurants across Germany. BK embraces crypto again In summer 2017, Burger King Russia announced it will start accepting Bitcoin payments, and then introduced their own virtual currency called Whoppercoin. Also in 2017, BTC started to be accepted by a restaurant in Arnhem, a city in the Netherlands. According to Crunchbase, Burger …

The German-speaking world continues to keep up a fast pace in regard to cryptocurrencies and blockchain implementation. Among other stories during the past week: the Cabinet of Germany and Deutsche Bundesbank are working closely on issues related to central bank digital currencies, the Swiss Federal Council expressed its official opinion on Facebook's Libra, Bitwala launched an all-in-one mobile Bitcoin bank app and more. Swiss crypto banks receive licenses from a financial regulator Two Swiss crypto-specializing organizations, Seba Crypto AG and Sygnum, received banking and securities dealer licenses from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA), the banks announced in separate …

The Cabinet of Germany and Germany’s central bank Deutsche Bundesbank are working together closely on issues related to central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). Awareness of global CBDC situation On Aug. 29, Germany’s federal parliament (Bundestag) published official feedback to a request from parliamentary group the Free Democratic Party, which asked the Cabinet to respond to six questions related to CBDCs in July 2019. In the document, dated Aug. 16, the Cabinet answered all questions by the group, citing major reports and surveys in the space, including a January report by the Bank of International Settlements (BIS). Specifically, when asked about …

TSMC, the world’s largest independent semiconductor foundry and chip supplier for Bitmain, is facing multiple lawsuits from its competitor GlobalFoundries (GF). Alleged patent infringement GF, the second biggest semiconductor foundry by sales after TSMC, filed several lawsuits in the United States and Germany, accusing Taiwanese TSMC of infringing on 16 GF patents, according to an official GF statement on Aug. 26. In the lawsuits, the California-based company seeks orders to ban TSMC from importing semiconductors produced with its technology to the United States and Germany, with GF claiming that importation of infringing Taiwanese semiconductors is unlawful. Additionally, GF is seeking …

The German-speaking world was highly active as far as crypto was concerned this past week. Among other stories, the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) issued several items of interest to the crypto community, a new fund for blockchain startups launched in Hamburg and an Austrian crypto ATM service filed for bankruptcy following an armed robbery. BaFin publishes summary of current regulation On Aug. 16, the BaFin published a leaflet for issuers of crypto tokens that summarized current German legal standards in the field. By condensing active regulations in such a fashion, the BaFin reportedly hopes to encourage compliance among …

Money transfer service Xendpay has joined Ripple’s global network RippleNet to support international transactions. Going beyond the U.S. dollar Ripple announced the news on Aug. 20. Per the news release, RippleNet will allow Xendpay to provide money transfer services beyond the United States dollar. Xendpay will use Ripple’s pre-existing network of banks and other financial partners to facilitate money transfers via other forms of currency — especially Ripple’s XRP. New capabilities with RipplePay As stated in the announcement, Xendpay previously had trouble transferring anything other than dollars in foreign markets. Offering a smaller currency involved establishing direct partnerships with local …

Luxembourg-registered financial firm Black Manta Capital Partners has received a license from the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) for its Security Token Offering (STO) platform. A regulated STO platform in Germany Black Manta Capital Partners announced on Aug. 19 that its Berlin-based entity received a MiFID II license by BaFin for its regulated STO platform on Aug. 1 nine months after filing. Now, the company will be able to offer regulated brokerage services using blockchain technology. On its platform, the firm represents rights to an asset as tokens managed by on-chain contracts. This system reportedly allows for new access …

German financial services giant Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty SE (AGCS) is developing a blockchain-based ecosystem to facilitate cross-border insurance payments for its corporate customers. Experimentations with blockchain technology Allianz is working on a token-based blockchain system, expecting it to streamline international insurance payments for its corporate customers, Forbes reported on Aug. 8. An Allianz spokesperson told Forbes that the company is still in the experimentation phase, although the basic core infrastructure of the ecosystem has already been built and tested. The spokesperson further explained that Allianz will next examine money transfers with a limited scope and for a short …

Frankfurt bank and financial services firm Commerzbank tested blockchain-based machine to machine payments with trucks produced by the firm behind the Mercedes-Benz auto brand, Daimler. Automated, human-free, payments According to a Commerzbank press release published on Aug. 8, the bank tested the exchange and settlement of payments between an electronic charging point and a Daimler truck system without any human intervention. To allow the transaction, the bank reportedly tokenized euros on the blockchain used in the pilot and provided the funds to the automaker to process the payments. Towards a more efficient supply chain The aim of the system is …

Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) payment processor BitPay confirmed that it suspended its operations in Germany in an email sent to Cointelegraph on Aug. 1. BitPay: “We have paused operations in Germany” In the aforementioned email, a BitPay PR rep. Jan Jahosky cited regulation coming into force next year in Germany as the reason why the company decided to suspend its services in the country. The firm added that it is currently evaluating adding support for Germany again in the future. A BitPay spokesperson told Cointelegraph: “Germany has publicly stated that they want crypto companies to apply for a …

Germany-based Bitcoin (BTC) bank Bitwala announced that it received €13 million (almost $14.5 million) in funding in a press release shared with Cointelegraph on July 31. Connecting Bitcoin and banks Per the release, an international investor consortium led by Sony Financial Ventures, Global Brain and British investment company NKB Group invested in the German bank. Furthermore, half of the funds have been reportedly provided by investors Earlybird Venture Capital and coparion. Jan Goslicki, co-founder and Chief Compliance Officer at Bitwala declared: “We started Bitwala to do something that nobody thought was possible: to connect Bitcoin and the conventional financial system …

The Senate of Hamburg has introduced the first comprehensive report on the development of blockchain activities in the city. Hamburg Senate expects the role of blockchain to increase in the coming years In an official statement on July 23, the Hamburg authority stated that several blockchain initiatives have been piloted in the city as the senate expects the role of blockchain technology to grow in coming years. Senator Michael Westhagemann emphasized that the city of Hamburg relies on real strengths of the technology, while other cities are positioning themselves as a location for the development of blockchain-powered financial instruments in …