The major Chinese city of Shenzhen is launching a pilot program to promote the digital yuan with a public giveaway. In collaboration with the country's central bank, Shenzhen is planning to distribute a total of 10 million digital yuan ($1.5 million) — China’s central bank digital currency, local news agency Sina Finance reports Oct. 9. As reported, the giveaway pilot will be funded by Shenzhen's Luohu District. The giveaway money will be reportedly distributed to 50,000 recipients through a lottery. Shenzhen residents can start applying online to participate in the giveaway on Oct. 9. According to the report, each “gift” …

The London-based online banking platform Cashaa is planning to launch a crypto-friendly neobank — or internet bank — in India. Kuman Gaurav, the founder of Cashaa, told Cointelegraph that Cashaa India will allow Indian businesses and individuals to open a savings account with them and buy, store and save cryptocurrencies just like any other financial instrument. “For lending, we will be adding crypto assets class together with gold and real estate as collateral,” he said. Gaurav explained the need for a crypto-friendly bank in India, saying that most Indian banks are reluctant to provide banking services to the crypto users. …

Today, paying for purchases in cryptocurrencies no longer seems like something out of the ordinary. Many online stores accept Bitcoin (BTC) and other coins along with traditional currencies, while in some cafes, cryptocurrency holders can even pay using point-of-sale terminals. However, there is one thing that distinguishes traditional financial systems from cryptocurrencies: advanced interoperability. Thanks to interoperability, cardholders can make payments anywhere in the world without worrying about device compatibility and currency conversion. Crypto interoperability An owner of a crypto wallet can only dream of this, but a sign hanging on the door of a restaurant that says “Cryptocurrency accepted …

The central bank of Kyrgyzstan has disabled cross-border transactions on the SWIFT financial network amid widespread unrest over the country’s disputed parliamentary elections. Aida Karabaeva, an official representative of the National Bank of the Kyrgyz Republic, announced a temporary suspension of SWIFT in Kyrgyzstan in a statement on Oct. 7. According to Karabaeva, the bank decided to suspend SWIFT transactions in order to prevent capital outflows from the country and ensure the safety of assets. The executive claimed that the bank is planning to resume SWIFT transactions as soon as the situation in the country stabilizes: “The measures taken are …

Italy's largest payments firm Nexi has struck a deal with its rival, SIA, to create a digital payments behemoth with a market cap of 15 billion euros ($17.6 billion). It's estimated the new entity will take a domestic market share of 70%. According to a report from Reuters on Oct. 5, the all-share agreement will give Nexi roughly 70% of the newly merged company, with SIA having an equity value of 4.6 billion euros ($5.4 billion). Nexi’s private equity owners Advent, Bain Capital and Clessidra will own 23% of the newly created fintech group. On the eve of the deal's …

A crypto payments network is celebrating three years in business — and claims it has now surpassed 4 million users worldwide. Electroneum says it is continually unveiling new features that help make our world a better place. One of its flagship products is a mobile-based cryptocurrency that allows people to top up their phones in more than 140 countries. And as Cointelegraph reported back in May, the digital payments project also allows consumers in four African countries to top up their electricity meters directly from the ETN app — with plans to expand this service to even more nations in …

An Australian developer has almost completed work on a Cardano () app that will allow all Shopify stores to transact in ADA tokens and other tokens that run on the Cardano network. The project is being developed voluntarily by Jeronimo Backes who wants to help bring utility to the blockchain. The independent developer told Cointelegraph that he chose Cardano not only because he is already invested in the network, both financially and emotionally, but because he sees it as the most enterprise-ready blockchain that can scale appropriately, adding: “Unlike others, this one is the one I think is being built …

BitPay recently released a study highlighting four merchants from different businesses that have implemented Bitcoin as a payment method. The parties selected to participate included a gold broker, an online gift card marketplace, a domain registrar that also serves as a hosting service, and an electronics retailer. In the report, the unnamed merchants praised crypto’s lack of fraud-related chargebacks, noting the immensity of this issue when dealing with traditional institutions. They also reported that while only 0.5% to 6.5% of their total eCommerce sales came from crypto transactions, these helped to boost the flow of new customers by 40% on …

Swipe, a Binance-owned cryptocurrency debit card provider, is expanding its offering with a new crypto Visa card that allows users to borrow funds using blockchain technology. Dubbed the “LendFi Visa Card,” the new product deploys major decentralized finance protocols to provide “near-instant access to lending balances.” The card is integrated with the LendFi app — a decentralized lending platform that is connected with the borrower through their mobile device. At launch, the platform will support major DeFi protocol Compound, a spokesperson for Swipe said. According to an announcement, the new blockchain-based lending platform approves loans for users and disburses them …

In a hearing on Tuesday, the Congressional Fintech Task Force heard arguments on new rules that would potentially expand banking regulations to accommodate more technology firms providing financial services. A subunit of the Financial Services Committee, the Fintech Task Force leads the committee’s examinations of emerging technologies. As Task Force Chair Stephen Lynch (D-MA) noted, “Banking is becoming less centralized. Consumers are facing more choices than they ever have.” Banking the unbanked? Much of the back-and-forth in today’s hearing was as to whether or not loosening the rules of banking — which would allow more firms to, for example, offer …

The newly established XRP Ledger Foundation has raised $6.5 million from Ripple, Coil, and GateHub. This non-profit and open-organization was been set up with a goal to accelerate the development of the XRP ledger, the blockchain upon which the XRP token runs. All the three platforms that have put up the funds were built upon the XRP Ledger. According to reports, the foundation aims to improve and develop the XRPL infrastructure and promote scalable and sustainable practice on the platform. The foundation also seeks to create an objective list of checkboxes to evaluate validator performance and support the development of …

The European subsidiary of bitFlyer, one of the largest Japanese cryptocurrency exchanges,has integrated PayPal deposits to their platforms. The official announcement calls bitFlyer’s integration with the internet payment giant a significant move in bridging the gap between the fiat and cryptocurrency world for European users. While bitFlyer Europe already supports wire card transfers, it takes between one to three days for clearance. The integration of PayPal is expected to make deposits almost instant. bitFlyer Europe users will now be able to directly deposit euros to their wallet to trade cryptocurrencies, bitFlyer Europe business strategy manager Jacek Bastin told Cointelegraph. He …