Brazilian exchange Mercado Bitcoin announced its partnership with the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) on Tuesday. The company said it intends to develop one of the nine projects selected for the LIFT Challenge Real Digital, promoted by the Central Bank of Brazil. The LIFT Challenge Real Digital is a collaborative environment carried out by the Central Bank of Brazil (Bacen), in partnership with the National Federation of Associations of Central Bank Servers (Fenasbac). With the announcement of Stellar's integration, SDF will join the consortium created by Mercado Bitcoin to develop solutions for Real Digital and which also has CPQD and ClearSale. …

On the second day of the Global Blockchain Business Council's (GBBC) Blockchain Central Davos 2022, Cointelegraph’s editor-in-chief Kristina Lucrezia Cornèr moderated a panel discussion focusing on the current direction of the financial industry. Panelists included co-founder and CEO of Soramitsu Makoto Takemiya; fintech expert at Oesterreichische Nationalbank Johannes Duong; and chief operating officer (COO) of theStellar Development Foundation Jason Chlipala. The panel tackled various issues such as educating the mainstream about blockchain, how blockchain companies are breaking stereotypes at the World Economic Forum (WEF) 2022 and current market issues surrounding central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and stablecoins. The common perception …

Crypto-focused enterprise payment platform Tribal Credit has concluded a $40 million debt offering that was funded through fiat and stablecoins — giving the company additional capital to expand its business services in Latin America. The so-called hybrid debt round was financed by Partners for Growth, a California-based investment firm, and Stellar Development Foundation (SDF), which is a non-profit organization supporting the growth of the Stellar blockchain. Tribal said it will use the capital to fund receivables from its customer base throughout Latin America, particularly Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Peru. Tribal COO Duane Good explained to Cointelegraph that funding receivables …

The digital asset-based economy is creating a financial alternative that extends across the planet to anyone with internet access, making these services more readily available than ever before. This transition is coming at a time more necessary than ever before, as emerging from the pandemic, many have noted the increase in consumer debt from high unemployment alongside inflation stimulated by the government. Alongside changing world conditions, most of the world has already admitted to lacking financial literacy. Now, without the right tools in place to understand and manage one’s wealth, the concept of financial freedom feels farther away than ever …

On Dec. 8, top executives from six major crypto companies faced the United States House of Representatives’ Financial Services Committee during a special hearing on digital assets. While the tone of the conversation was largely proclaimatory, the industry reacted with an optimistic buzz — it seems that crypto is bound to become a hot topic on the Hill for years to come. The meeting that took place in Congress also garnered much attention from mainstream media. What’s notable is the fact that this hearing is the first time that the industry’s senior leaders (aka “crypto moguls”) directly expressed the fears …

Tascombank, one of the oldest commercial banks in Ukraine, is launching a Stellar-based pilot for Ukraine’s national fiat currency, the hryvnia. The Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) announced on Dec. 14 a private electronic hryvnia pilot launched by Tascombank and fintech company Bitt. The electronic hryvnia pilot is being implemented under the supervision of the National Bank of Ukraine and is supported by the Ministry of Digital Transformation (MDT). Oleksandr Bornyakov, deputy minister of the MDT, said that the pilot project will provide a “technological basis for the issuance of electronic money” and is the “next key step to advance innovation …

An open-source wallet has launched that offers a simple way to interact with the Stellar network. Rabet describes itself as "the key" to entering the world of Stellar (XLM), which is one of the world's oldest blockchains after launching in 2014. Through an intuitive app that's available for desktop and mobile devices — alongside browser extensions for Google Chrome, Firefox, Edge and Brave — users can transfer and exchange assets, as well as interact with decentralized apps "in a safe, user-friendly environment." Developers can also benefit — and Rabet's bespoke API enables skilled professionals to interact with Stellar in "the …

Enterprise payment platform Tribal Credit has partnered with Latin American crypto exchange Bitso and the Stellar Development Foundation to create a new cross-border payment service for businesses, opening the door to broader use cases for blockchain technology in the region. The new service, which is geared towards small- and medium-sized enterprises, enables companies in Mexico to pay for goods and services in their native peso currency and have their counterparts in the United States receive the payments in dollars. The service will rely on the Stellar blockchain, a decentralized open-source payment network specializing in cross-currency transactions. Tribal Credit’s cross-border payment …

Maxine Waters, the chair of the House Committee on Financial Services, has announced several chief executive officers at major crypto firms in the United States will speak at a hearing to discuss digital assets and the future of finance. According to a Wednesday announcement, Waters said Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire, FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, Bitfury CEO Brian Brooks, Paxos CEO Chad Cascarilla, Stellar Development Foundation CEO Denelle Dixon, and Alesia Haas, the CEO of Coinbase Inc. and the CFO of Coinbase Global, will be witnesses at a full House committee hearing held on Dec. 8. The hearing, named Digital Assets …

When Bitcoin (BTC) first launched in 2009, critics were quick to raise questions about the impact of the lack of backing on the asset. This negative view was maintained even with the abandonment of the U.S. gold standard in 1971. Although fiat currencies offer no inherent value, this thought process has been enough to deter risk-averse investors from avoiding investing in cryptos altogether and others to abstain from using it in their day-to-day transactions. While cryptocurrency is volatile, it still offers benefits from traditional fiat currencies. As a result, finding a more stable option for cryptocurrencies could prove advantageous for …

The Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) has announced that it will facilitate a new remittance channel between Europe and Africa using the USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin. On Oct. 25, the SDF announced that global payments technology company Flutterwave will use the USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin on the Stellar network to simplify remittances between Africa and Europe. Flutterwave will work alongside Stellar’s principal EU payments partner, Paris-based money transfer operator, Tempo Payments. Olugbenga Agboola, CEO at Flutterwave, commented that it is more expensive to send money to sub-Saharan Africa than to any other region in the world. He added that the new …

Financial services company MoneyGram International has partnered with the Stellar Development Foundation to enable consumers to send money using Circle’s popular stablecoin, USD Coin (USDC), and convert directly to and from fiat. Per a Wednesday announcement, MoneyGram has integrated support allowing crypto wallets connected to the Stellar Network to access its global retail platform. Working alongside Circle, MoneyGram will also enable “near-instant backend settlement,” account funding and local fiat withdrawals using the USDC stable token. United Texas Bank will act as the settlement bank to complete the process within the regulatory framework. “As crypto and digital currencies rise in prominence, …