United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM), the second-largest United States-based mortgage lender, is planning to accept cryptocurrency payments this year starting with Bitcoin (BTC). UWM CEO Mat Ishbia revealed the crypto plans on Monday in a conference call regarding the firm’s Q2 results — with the firm posting $138.7 million in net profits for the quarter. “We’re excited that hopefully (this year) we can actually execute on that before anyone in the country,” Ishbia said. “We are evaluating the feasibility and requirements in order to accept cryptocurrency to satisfy mortgage payments.” – @Mishbia15 — United Wholesale Mortgage (@UWMlending) August 16, 2021 Speaking …

Australian crypto influencer and Nuggets News founder Alex Saunders is facing backlash over his nonfungible token (NFT) sale from late last year. Nuggets News is a paid group providing technical analysis and crypto tips to subscribers that was founded by Saunders in 2017. As of Tuesday, Nuggets News had roughly 146,000 subscribers on YouTube. In November 2020, Saunders minted 100 NFTs comprising tokenized tickets he said would grant holders access to an exclusive Nuggets News community headquarters being developed in the crypto-powered virtual metaverse Decentraland. Saunders priced the NFTs at 1 Ether (ETH) each, worth around $570 at the time. …

Jack Dorsey’s cryptocurrency-friendly digital payments firm Square is expanding competition with global payments giants like PayPal by acquiring a major Australian lending company. Square announced Sunday that the firm has entered into a scheme implementation deed to acquire all of the issued shares in fintech company Afterpay in a $29-billion deal. The transaction is based on the closing price of the Square common share and is expected to be paid in all stock in the first quarter of 2022. The acquisition enables Square to further accelerate its strategic plans for payment ecosystems as the company is looking to integrate Afterpay …

A DeFi platform has launched a lending and borrowing network that allows nonfungible tokens to be used as collateral. ETNA Network says it is developing a suite of products that are designed to work in an interconnected manner — creating a tangible use case for NFTs in the process. The project’s DeBank also enables those who hold ETNA, the platform’s native cryptocurrency, to access loans on an interest-free basis. Elsewhere, an NFT factory is described as an all-in-one marketplace for crypto collectibles — bringing digital art creators and collectors together while ensuring that tokens can be traded instantly. Beyond the …

Galaxy Digital has issued a $20 million loan to United Kingdom-based crypto mining company Argo Blockchain for building a data center in West Texas. In a Tuesday announcement from Argo, the firm said it secured 14 million euros — roughly $19.4 million at the time of publication — in a six-month loan agreement from Galaxy Digital using a portion of its Bitcoin (BTC) holdings as collateral. According to Argo, the proceeds of the loans, along with cash raised from previous funding rounds, would be used to expand its mining operations in Texas and meet current operating costs. “This agreement allows …

A fintech platform says it is on a mission to stop passive hodling — helping them to unlock value from their cryptocurrencies in new ways. YouHodler offers crypto-backed loans that enable enthusiasts to generate liquidity from their digital assets without having to spend them. A suite of trading solutions encourage experimentation — while web and mobile wallets deliver “a safe and easy-to-use alternative to senseless crypto wallets.” By integrating a range of payment methods, including stablecoins, bank transfers and credit cards, YouHodler’s goal is to create seamless connections to the real world — ensuring crypto can be used for everything …

Decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Arcx has announced the launch of Sapphire v3, a DeFi passport allowing crypto users to pseudonymously build and verify their reputation on-chain. Announced June 2, the DeFi passport will score users on a scale between 0 and 1,000, with Arcx advancing that the passport “incentivizes reputation-building and curates on-chain identity into DeFi.” In the absence of a DeFi passport, Arcx asserts that “protocols are left to treat every user the same, occasionally giving preferential consideration to wallet size, institutional backing, or restrictive KYC.” Arcx expects its passport will be integrated onto many DeFi protocols, predicting Sapphire …

DeFi lending platform Liquity Protocol has secured $6 million in Series A funding to expand its on-chain borrowing services, underscoring the continued growth of cryptocurrency loans. The funding round was led by Pantera Capital, a crypto-focused venture capital firm, with additional contributions from Nima Capital, Alameda Research, Greenfield.one and IOSG, the company announced Monday. Angel investors including Meltem Demirors, David Hoffman and Calvin Liu also contributed to the raise. Liquity has raised $6M in Series A funding led by @PanteraCapital. Read the full announcement here: https://t.co/OhqrKT8N9x — Liquity (@LiquityProtocol) March 29, 2021 Robert Lauko, Liquity Protocol’s CEO, said the new …

Before the 2017 bull run, growth hacker Giacomo Arcaro often slept in his car. Now an entrepreneur who speaks at crypto conferences and forums, he is looking for ways to promote adoption and help those financially struggling as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Last weekend, Arcaro prepared to issue up to $50,000 in Ether (ETH) crypto loans to homeless and unhoused people in New York City. After speaking with some of the roughly 80,000 individuals in the city’s homeless population on a different occasion — and giving away some Bitcoin (BTC) in the process — he said many …

Institutional investors will soon be able to receive Bitcoin-collateralized U.S. dollar loans through Silvergate Capital Corporation — the holding company of pro-crypto institution, Silvergate Bank. According to an announcement from Silvergate, Coinbase Custody will be the custodian for loans funded through the bank’s Silvergate Exchange Network, or SEN. The network will provide access to capital through U.S. dollar loans collateralized by Bitcoin (BTC) while Coinbase holds the crypto in cold storage. "Traditional lending services generally do not exist in the digital currency industry, which means there aren’t many lenders for investors to choose from," said Jon Melton, Silvergate director of …

A crypto app that makes crypto asset management accessible to everyone says it is delivering the best of all worlds by bringing the advantages of centralized and decentralized finance together in one place. SwissBorg’s Smart Yield wallet enables investors to generate a return on their digital assets that isn’t based on whether the value of a coin is going up. The company’s systems scan a range of programs across the DeFi and CeFi space — scoring them based on risk versus reward. An automated and optimized approach means that users gain exposure to the best programs without needing to perform …

Non-collateralized borrowing and larger loans could start to be offered by the DeFi sector if decentralized digital identities are rolled out, a blockchain project says. Metaverse claims digital identities are an essential piece of infrastructure that’s currently missing from this thriving industry — despite the fact that they would allow protocols to offer personalized services, and achieve regulatory compliance. Digital identities normally consist of data including an online user’s search history, social media activity, usernames, national ID number, date of birth, and current location. The team behind Metaverse claims that this information can be put to good use without compromising …