Cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex has revealed the first of two major upgrades it says will completely change user payments and spending habits. In a tweet on Dec. 2, the platform’s CTO, Paolo Ardoino, confirmed that as of Tuesday, it would support Bitcoin (BTC) transactions on the Lightning Network (LN). The move is a first for a major cryptocurrency exchange, Bitfinex announcing it via its updates mailing list. Exchange eyes free and instant BTC payments Users will benefit from instant transactions and will pay almost zero fees to send funds via Lightning. The reveal appears to correspond to the first of two …

Swiss-based email service, ProtonMail, has revealed on Nov. 16 that it hasn’t cashed in any of the Bitcoin (BTC) it has accepted as payment for its premium service in years. The tweet was in response to a customer who complained that he felt guilty for spending Bitcoin ion a ProtonMail invoice instead of holding or “hodling” it for the long-term. ‘No worries, we will HODL for you’ The exchange came about following a tweet from the CCO of digital gift card retailer BitRefill, urging Bitcoiners, “Please do not ‘put your Bitcoin to work.’” This prompted one follower to reply that …

NASDAQ has agreed to provide the New York-based startup Noble Markets the core technology to power a marketplace for trading bitcoins, Russia’s Ministry of Finance is expected to take measures against the usage of monetary surrogates such as bitcoin, and more top stories for March 24. NASDAQ to Provide Trading Technology for Bitcoin Marketplace NASDAQ OMX Group Inc, which owns and operates the NASDAQ stock market, has agreed to provide the New York-based startup Noble Markets the core technology to power a marketplace for trading bitcoins and related digital-currency assets. Noble Markets will use NASDAQ's X-stream trading system, which is …