Gone are the days of dusty ledgers and checkbooks. Over the last decade or so, the word “money” has taken on a completely new meaning for a lot of people all over the world. This is partly due to the masses being utterly frustrated with the way many big banks handle their business transactions. In fact, with the use of physical money on the decline, the market for digital payments has started to replace a whole host of traditionally popular banking avenues. To put things into perspective, in Asia alone, more than 1.4 billion individuals make use of China’s two …

Crypto-Twitter has reacted with horror to the news that the United States Federal Reserve has been given a mandate to print as much new money as it needs to in order to avert a deeper financial crisis due to the coronavirus pandemic. Charles Hoskinson, CEO of Cardano developer, IOHK, even tweeted on March 23 that he was, “getting a real OneCoin vibe,” from the U.S. Dollar. Congress tells Fed to just print more money In an interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Neel Kashkari referred to there being “an infinite amount of cash …

OKCoin, one of the world’s oldest cryptocurrency exchanges, is continuing to expand its fiat-to-crypto onramps by adding support of the Singapore dollar (SGD). Starting March 12, OKCoin users can deposit and withdraw Singapore’s official fiat currency — the Singapore dollar — for major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH). As the Singapore dollar is also officially accepted in its neighbor country Brunei, individuals and institutions in both jurisdictions are able to start trading their Singapore dollars for crypto, OKCoin announced to Cointelegraph. The Singapore dollar is the third fiat currency supported by OKCoin after the United States dollar and …

Amid the ongoing growth of the cryptocurrency lending industry, major crypto wallet service Blockchain.com launches a new lending product for all users, not just institutions. After first launching an institutional crypto lending desk in August 2019, Blockchain.com is now rolling out its crypto lending service to all users across more than 180 countries, the United Kingdom-based firm announced to Cointelegraph on March 10. Borrow allows users to borrow Paxos Standard against Bitcoin at the launch The new lending product from Blockchain.com, dubbed Borrow, allows to users borrow Paxos Standard stablecoin (PAX) against Bitcoin (BTC) directly from the platform’s native cryptocurrency …

Major cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex, the sister exchange of stablecoin firm Tether, has rolled out futures trading for Tether’s new gold-backed coin. Starting on March 6, Bitfinex users can trade futures contracts on Tether Gold (XAU₮) against Tether (USDT), a widely-known and controversial stablecoin pegged to the United States dollar. New feature is only available to verified users in certain jurisdictions Announcing the news on Friday, Bitfinex specified that the futures trading enables traders to buy or sell assets at a specified price and data in future, featuring up to 100x leverage. The exchange also noted that futures and derivatives trading …

Gold has been regarded as an eternal value since times immemorial. This shiny metal still acts as a store of value — especially in countries like India. Due to its exclusivity, gold is an essential element of the global financial system, and since this metal is not subject to corrosion, it has many areas of technical application. Unfortunately, the metal is heavy, its transportation is fraught with certain difficulties, and storage costs a lot of money. The last century, however, has brought more changes within the existing world monetary system than all the previous millenniums. Following the national fiat currency …

Christopher Giancarlo, the former chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) believes it's time for the Federal Reserve to issue a fully digital currency on Feb. 21. Giancarlo told Yahoo Finance’s On the Move program that the Federal Reserve must issue a digital currency in order to compete with China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC). The former CFTC chairman highlighted that online shopping would benefit from the U.S. offering a digital payment option as there won’t be any intermediary fees involved like with the traditional debit and credit cards. Giancarlo also added: “When we talk about a digital dollar …

While major industry actors argue that central bank digital currencies (CBDC) are years or decades ahead, the Bahamas plan to adopt a CBDC no later than 2020. John Rolle, the governor of the Central Bank of the Bahamas (CBOB), has reportedly confirmed that the Bahamian digital dollar initiative will be introduced across all islands in the second half of 2020. Bahamas has already launched a pilot in the Exuma region According to a Feb. 13 report by local publication The Tribune, Rolle has presented the plan addressing a Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation on the initiative, which is …

The United States intelligence community is seeking a researcher to model risk scenarios for how and why the dollar could lose its global supremacy, and how best to respond. The role was advertised on Feb. 14 by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). The successful candidate will be tasked with evaluating threats to the dollar’s status as world reserve currency — most notably cryptocurrencies and the rise of major new economies such as China and India. Candidates have until Feb. 28 to apply for the role, which forms part of an intelligence community (IC) postdoctoral research fellowship …

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin wasn’t the only one to make waves at the U.S. Senate this week when it came to the future of currency. Tom Cotton, a Republican senator from Arkansas, spoke at length regarding digital currency while addressing the cameras and a nominee for the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, Judy Shelton: “We need the digital currency a little bit less I would argue internally, but rather to help preserve the primacy of the dollar worldwide.” When asked how she would protect the dollar as a reserve currency and what this would mean with a digital dollar, CoinDesk …

Major Canadian investment fund manager 3iQ and blockchain firm Mavennet co-launched a new regulated stablecoin pegged to the Canadian dollar (CAD). Developed by Canada Stablecorp, a joint venture between 3iQ and Mavennet, QCAD is the latest CAD-based stablecoin and was officially launched on Feb. 11. QCAD total supply accounts for about 150,000 CAD at the launch Based on the Ethereum blockchain, QCAD implements popular token standard ERC-20 and is targeting the mass market. While QCAD is not yet listed on major websites tracking crypto market capitalization like Coin360, QCAD transactions can be now tracked via Ethereum blockchain explorer Etherscan. According …

Japan is feeling the pressure of China’s strident moves forward with a digital yuan. According to a Feb. 7 Reuters report, top lawmakers in the country are calling on their government to push for digital currencies to be placed on the G7’s agenda this year. Akira Amari — former economy minister and a prominent member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party — told a group of lawmakers convened to discuss the matter that: “Japan should work in close coordination with the United States. As part of such efforts, we should ask the United States to set (digital currency) on the …