After a limited buy/sell/hold crypto trading launch that "exceeded expectations," PayPal CEO Dan Schulman said on the company's Q4 earnings call today that the payments giant is ready to double down on cryptocurrencies. “We also saw an exceptional response from our crypto launch,” said PayPal CEO Dan Schulman. “[...] The volume of crypto traded on our platform greatly exceeded our expectations.” Schulman said that crypto would be accepted “as a funding source when [users] shop at any of our 29 million merchants” late first quarter, and that 2021 will feature an “extensive roadmap around crypto, blockchain and digital currencies.” Schulman …

Uphold, an American digital wallet and trading platform, has acquired European card issuer Optimus Cards UK Limited to launch a cryptocurrency-enabled card on the continent. According to a Feb. 2 announcement, Uphold is planning to roll out its crypto-powered debit card in Europe starting in April 2021. Uphold CEO JP Thieriot said that the launch in Europe follows a successful roll out in the United States: “From April, we plan to start rolling out the world's first, multi-asset, crypto-enabled debit card on the Optimus platform in Europe. The card has already proved a hit with our U.S. customers offering a …

LUNA, the native coin of the Terra blockchain, shot up another 37% to $2.46 on heavy trading volumes today, continuing a parabolic climb that started in mid-November. The coin is currently up 100% in price since news broke one week ago that Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital made a $25 million investment in Terraform Labs, the Seoul-based company that manages development of Terra. Terra is an ambitious stablecoin project from Korea working to combine the stability of fiat currency with the non-censorable nature of cryptocurrency. Terra-based mobile payments DApp CHAI is also growing in popularity. It cuts down on fiat payment …

Digital asset market data firm Brave New Coin may soon be helping Nevada residents buy marijuana using crypto. According to Brave New Coin, blockchain firm Multichain Ventures will be using the company’s data and pricing infrastructure to fulfill regulatory requirements for cannabis businesses in the U.S. state of Nevada. Recreational and medical marijuana has been legal in Nevada since 2016, but a bill introduced to the state’s legislature two years ago seeks for registered cannabis businesses to have a cashless payment system. The bill says this measure is intended for regulators to "monitor and facilitate the financial transactions of marijuana …

During the Visa Q1 earnings call on Thursday, chairman and CEO Al Kelly devoted a portion of his comments to reaffirming the financial giant’s commitment to crypto payments and onramps, as well as explaining “how Visa thinks about crypto in general and our approach.” The financial services firm with over $72 billion in assets as of 2019 has been aggressively pursing crypto payments as of late, including by way of partnerships enabling crypto debit cards, and investing Zap, a crypto payments startup. Additionally, earlier this month Visa was forced to abandon a $5.3 billion acquisition of payments platform Plaid on …

The majority of cryptocurrency users reportedly prefer to hold their crypto as part of a long-term investment strategy, according to a new survey by Binance Research. Released on Thursday, the survey report shows that as much as 55% of respondents own cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) as a long-term investment. The “2021 Global Crypto User Index” report is based on a global survey that includes input from more than 61,000 crypto users across 178 countries and regions. The survey was conducted over a period from Sept. 15 to Oct. 25, 2020. According to Binance Research’s findings, the majority of respondents were …

SIA, an Italian company specializing in e-payment services, is working on a blockchain-based system to enable secondary credit trading. The upcoming platform will allow banks, funds and financial operators to negotiate secondary credit transactions via blockchain, SIA announced on Tuesday. A spokesperson for SIA told Cointelegraph that the company plans to pilot the platform in the second quarter, while the full-scale launch is expected in the second half of the year. SIA’s new credit trading platform is being developed in collaboration with fintech startup WizKey. The Milan-based firm is building financial solutions with a focus on structured finance products and …

Circle, the company behind the second most popular stablecoin USD Coin, has rolled out a new API that will allow for the seamless transfer of USDC to USD via automated clearinghouse (ACH) systems. The first exchange to adopt the new API will be derivatives and futures specialist FTX, looking to speed up USD settlement processes on behalf of their customers. In a blog entry, project manager Gee Chuang described how Circle’s ACH API improves connections between the fiat world and the digital world by introducing interoperability among payment rails, such as card, wire and blockchain transfers. Using the API, USD …

Older generations have started recognizing the potential of cryptocurrencies and blockchain in global payment systems, a new survey says. On Jan. 21, digital payment platform Wirex released a special report devoted to the topic of cryptocurrency adoption in 2021. Compiled in partnership with the Stellar Development Foundation, the report includes survey results from 3,834 people across 89 countries, aiming to understand the latest trends in the global adoption of blockchain-powered digital payments. The survey was conducted over the course of three weeks, with both Wirex and the SDF sending out emails asking for voluntary participation in a survey related to …

The Mobility Open Blockchain Initiative, or MOBI, a non-profit consortium of the world’s top vehicle manufacturers including Ford and BMW, has launched an initiative to combat fraud in the secondhand markets with blockchain-powered “birth certificates.” The initiative will leverage blockchain to track the registration and maintenance history of vehicles using MOBI’s second vehicle identification standard, “VID II.” The system will help reduce fraud in the used vehicle markets, with an announcement stating: “Vehicle registration on blockchain allows formerly disconnected vehicle registration systems between states and countries to connect using a secure, shared, and trusted ledger. Maintenance traceability will provide a …

The Chinese national blockchain project, the Blockchain Service Network, is planning to pilot integration with global central bank digital currencies. According to a Jan. 15 blog post, the BSN is looking to build a universal digital payment network, or UDPN, based on CBDCs of various countries as part of its 2021 roadmap. Currently at the design stage, the beta version of UDPN is expected to launch in the second half of 2021. The BSN plans to complete the UDPN development in five years. With the UDPN, BSN aims to enable a standardized digital currency transfer method and payment procedure. The …

The United States Department of Justice saw a victory in a major fintech acquisition case that could set the stage for a host of antitrust enforcements. On Tuesday, the DoJ announced that Visa and Plaid had called it quits on their planned merger. Originally announced almost exactly a year ago, Visa was planning to pay $5.3 billion for the upstart tech firm. Plaid's ubiquitous software is designed to connect disparate systems of financial data securely. In its November 2020 complaint, the DoJ alleged that Visa was using the acquisition to snuff out competition. Today, Makan Delrahim, of the DoJ's antitrust …