As a sector, plastic cryptocurrency cards have had a bumpy ride. While for some they are the perfect way to spend those hard-stacked sats, it has evidently been a struggle for crypto companies to provide such a service. Wracked by regulation, supplier issues and the volatility of digital assets, crypto debit cards have had a rough start. Nonetheless, crypto debit card use is growing and is considered an important development for the growth in the adoption of crypto around the world. So, in which countries are most of the crypto cards available? Wirex Wirex is a London-based crypto debit card …

German blockchain banking firm Bitwala has partnered with pioneering decentralized finance, or DeFi, platform Celsius to offer annual interest on Bitcoin (BTC) holdings of up to 4%. Funds deposited from customers who opt to use Bitwala’s Bitcoin Interest Account will be loaned to institutional borrowers via Celsius, earning weekly interest on their Bitcoin in the form of BTC. German blockchain bank integrates Celsius Bitwala frames DeFi as “a new way to generate wealth,” emphasizing the opportunity for passive income to be generated from crypto holdings. Users can deposit from $12 worth of Bitcoin into Bitwala’s interest accounts, and are able …

All 80,000 users of German neobank Bitwala can now purchase, hold and earn interest on Bitcoin (BTC) in their bank accounts thanks to a new partnership with cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius Network. According to Defiprime, Bitwala is the first classic fiat bank to offer interest for holding Bitcoin in an account, with three other decentralized finance apps offering similar products. While the DeFi products have higher rates, up to 8.6% per annum, Bitwala is more regulated and offers fiat and cryptocurrency services in 32 European countries under license from leading German bank SolarisBank AG. Users can buy as little as …

On Aug. 29, German blockchain-based banking startup Bitwala announced the launch of its smartphone app for Bitcoin banking on iOS and Android. Customers in over 30 European countries can now open a German bank account with integrated Bitcoin wallet and trading. Open an account directly from within the app in minutes The onboarding process for new customers has been directly integrated into the app. It uses a video identification feature, with which residents throughout the European Economic Area can verify and open an account within minutes. Bitwala CTO Benjamin James explains: “Once you have an account, you can seamlessly integrate …

Germany-based Bitcoin (BTC) bank Bitwala announced that it received €13 million (almost $14.5 million) in funding in a press release shared with Cointelegraph on July 31. Connecting Bitcoin and banks Per the release, an international investor consortium led by Sony Financial Ventures, Global Brain and British investment company NKB Group invested in the German bank. Furthermore, half of the funds have been reportedly provided by investors Earlybird Venture Capital and coparion. Jan Goslicki, co-founder and Chief Compliance Officer at Bitwala declared: “We started Bitwala to do something that nobody thought was possible: to connect Bitcoin and the conventional financial system …

On October 12, Finance Magnates reported that payment giants Mastercard and VISA will both soon group cryptocurrency and Initial Coin Offering (ICO) jurisdictions in a new “high risk” category. What are the consequences for those ‘high risk’ merchants? According to the publication’s undisclosed sources, the ban will be applied to brokers who operate “from unregulated or loosely regulated environments,” and therefore have no license that would show that proper due diligence has been applied to their business. The action reportedly deals with forex, binary, cryptos, and ICOs. More specifically, the alleged move seems to target non-EU countries “in the Balkans, …

Bitcoin mining pool F2pool has become the latest signatory to U-turn on its commitment to the controversial SegWit2x hard fork. Following wallet provider Bitwala, F2pool’s Wang Chun said he “didn’t pull out of anything” and had only voiced support for the project “until July.” I didn't pull out of anything. I told @JihadWu long time ago that I would support segwit2x only until July. Now it is September. pic.twitter.com/L6777re9tP — Wang Chun (@f2pool_wangchun) September 1, 2017 The news marks another blow for Barry Silbert’s New York Agreement, which has faced trouble with consensus since its inception. SegWit2x was originally due …

Leveraging the power of ICOs is a habit of brand-new startups, or even just projects - but the phenomenon is turning into something bigger. The ability of small groups - in fact anyone - to now issue a digital token and potentially make millions of dollars is a mixed blessing for the Blockchain industry. While the average entrepreneur now has more power than was imaginable even two years ago, ease of access to funds in a nascent industry has led to major concerns. Full-on ICOs, empty promises Well-known investment figures, both in Blockchain and beyond, have released formal warnings to …