Gonzalo Pérez del Arco, director of government affairs in South Europe for card payment giant American Express, believes that making payments with crypto is not currently cost-effective. Pérez’s comments came during an exclusive chat with Cointelegraph editor Aaron Wood at European Blockchain Convention 2022, during which they discussed American Express’ current crypto-related plans and prospects. Pérez explained that several factors make crypto payments nonfeasible in the current market, such as high transaction costs and the willingness of merchants to accept digital payments. However, he noted that crypto payments could become a reality in the future, and American Express is bullish …

Payments giant Mastercard has filed 15 nonfungible token (NFT) and metaverse trademark applications with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, or USPTO. Highlights of the filings include plans for a virtual community for interacting with digital assets, processing of payment cards in the metaverse, an online marketplace for buyers and sellers of downloadable digital goods, virtual reality events and more. One trademark filing for the company's “Priceless” slogan consists of multimedia files such as artwork, text, audio and video, that are authenticated by NFTs. Another application illustrates plans for its red and yellow “Circles” logo in order to process …

Major credit card company American Express has filed trademark applications for some of its logos and designs, hinting at expanding into the metaverse. According to applications submitted to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on March 9, American Express may be readying to provide “virtual concierge services” related to credit card transactions “in the metaverse and other virtual worlds.” The applications included trademarks on the use of some of its logos and branding with virtual payment cards, conducting banking services in the metaverse, and using its cards at a non-fungible token, or NFT, marketplace. AMERICAN EXPRESS has filed 7 trademark …

Cryptocurrency exchanges and financial services companies will soon likely no longer be able to accept transactions completed with many major credit cards following the companies ceasing operations for Russia-based users. On March 5, Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal announced they would be suspending operations in Russia following the country’s military actions in Ukraine. Visa called Russia’s actions an “unprovoked invasion” while Mastercard said its decision was aimed at supporting the Ukrainian people. The following day, American Express made a similar announcement, saying it would stop operations in both Russia and neighboring Belarus. Apple Pay and Google Pay reportedly have restricted services …

New research has found that the annual transaction volume on the Bitcoin network surpassed that of some well-known card networks, such as American Express (AmEx) and Discover, during 2021. The NYDIG Research Weekly’s Jan. 29 report stated that Bitcoin processed $3 trillion worth of payments during 2021, placing it above popular credit card networks American Express ($1.3 trillion) and Discover ($0.5 trillion). The report authors, NYDIG Global Head of Research Greg Cipolaro and Research Analyst Ethan Kochav, also found that the Bitcoin network had settled more transaction volume in Q1 2021 than “all credit card networks combined for the entire …

American Express credit card holders may one day be able to redeem points for cryptocurrencies, but the company has no immediate plans to issue a crypto-linked credit card. In a Tuesday interview with Yahoo! Finance, Amex chief executive officer Stephen Squeri said credit card holders were “probably not gonna see a Amex crypto-linked card anytime soon” but the company was already involved in using cards for stablecoins, and monitored for central bank digital currency developments from the U.S. government. The CEO said he considered major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) as “more of an asset class” like gold, but did not …

Cryptocurrency trading platform Abra has raised $55 million in funding to bootstrap the next phase of its growth strategy, bringing several high-profile investors on board from both inside and outside the blockchain industry. Abra will use funds from the Series C investment to grow its product offerings in wealth management, trading and payments, as well as expand its in-house capacity, the company announced Wednesday. Amex Ventures, a venture capital arm of American Express, was among the contributors alongside Blockchain Capital, Ignia, Kingsway Capital and Stellar Development Foundation. Abra has now raised over $85 million since its inception. Bill Barhydt, Abra's …

According to new data from marketing analysis firm SEMRush, Bitcoin (BTC) is the third-most preferred online payment method in Italy. Bitcoin comes in third place On Oct. 31, the Italian news outlet La Stampa reported that the Boston-based marketing analysis company, it was stated that in the list of the most used methods of online payment systems in Italy, Bitcoin comes in a strong, third place, just behind PayPal and the Italian reloadable prepaid card service PostePay. The data further revealed that Italians use Bitcoin for shopping online more widely than traditional credit cards, such as Visa, Mastercard or American …

Financial services giant American Express (Amex) has filed a patent for a blockchain-based system to capture and transmit the image of a receipt, according to a U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) patent filing published Nov. 13. The patent applicant is listed as American Express Travel Related Services Co., Inc., the company’s travel subsidiary. The new filing, titled “Linking digital images with related records,” includes a new method for receiving, recording and transmitting the image of a receipt. The filing describes how the system lets a user with a mobile device capture the image of a receipt. The system then, …

Financial services giant American Express (Amex) has filed a patent for a blockchain-based proof-of-payment system, according to filing published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Thursday, July 12. The patent’s applicant is listed as American Express Travel Related Services Co., Inc., Amex’s travel arm. The proposed system would automate proof-of-payments by encrypting payment payload data with a public key on an initial node of the blockchain –– the data in question comprising the merchant’s identifying information and the transaction amount. According to the patent filing, the encrypted data could then securely be propagated to a second blockchain node. …

Financial services corporation American Express (AmEx) has announced a blockchain application to its Membership Rewards program in partnership with online merchant Boxed, Associated Press reported May 23. AmEx announced that it is integrating blockchain technology developed by Hyperledger, an open source blockchain project under the Linux Foundation, to let merchants design customized offers for AmEx cardholders in order to increase customer engagement. AmEx has started with Boxed, allowing the company to reward its clients for purchasing specific items, but AmEx reportedly expects to make the program available to almost all their merchants in the coming months. Apart from promoting specific …

Visa has a dedicated team in London looking at specific use cases involving blockchain technology but argues that bitcoin won't reach mainstream acceptance "unless there is trust in the system," according to Jonathan Vaux, executive director of innovation partnerships at Visa Europe. Speaking to the International Business Times at MoneyConf in Belfast, Vaux shared his firm's blockchain strategy, and said that his company was "certainly looking at applications involving blockchain." "What can you do with this? We know there's a peer-to-peer transaction network happening but we don't see it scaling unless there is trust in the system," Vaux said. He …