Central bank digital currency (CBDC) development aims squarely at inclusion, both for the central bank in the national economy and for the people it serves. Meanwhile, the technology for cross-border payments is being developed elsewhere for the most part, according to a new report on the payments industry. The Digital Money Institute (DMI), part of the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum think tank, released its third annual Future of Payments report on Dec. 8. The report was sponsored by several payments companies and crypto exchange Binance, and those companies penned sections that supplemented DMI's findings. This was the first …

On Oct. 29, 2013, a coffee shop in downtown Vancouver, Canada opened what is understood to be the world’s first publicly available Bitcoin (BTC) automatic teller machine (ATM) operated by Robocoin. The crypto ATM saw 348 transactions and $100,000 transacted in its first week of operation. As of Oct. 30, 2022 — nine years and one day on — Robocoin has ceased operations and the first crypto ATM has likely been removed or replaced, but crypto ATMs have continued to increase in number with 38,804 cryptocurrency ATMs in existence today, according to Coin ATM Radar. The global hub for crypto …

Governments across the globe see central bank digital currencies (CBDC) as a means to improve the existing fiat ecosystem. Cryptocurrency’s technical prowess supported by the central bank’s underlying trust is key to enabling a rich monetary ecosystem, suggests an International Monetary Fund (IMF) publication. “Digital technologies promise a bright future for the monetary system,” reads the publication attributed to IMF deputy managing director Agustín Carstens and BIS executives Jon Frost and Hyun Song Shin. A BIS study from June revealed that cryptocurrencies outdo fiat ecosystems when it comes to achieving the high-level goals of a future monetary system. Some of …

Across the globe, citizens in many countries still face high costs of money transfers both domestically and internationally. That's why digital assets have become the logical solution to answer this challenge — as a decentralized store of value that could enable everyday transactions, regardless of borders. Unfortunately, despite its positioning to level the playing field, many users face high fees when they're trying to use digital assets. Addressing these concerns head-on is Zen.com, a digital money transfer service licensed to operate in the European Union by the Bank of Lithuania. The platform has made it its aim to provide users …

MoneyGram International, one of the world’s largest cross-border transfer services, is partnering with the Stellar blockchain to create a stablecoin-based platform for money transfers. The new service will allow Stellar wallet users to send Circle’s USD Coin (USDC) to recipients, who will be able to cash them out for fiat currency through the MoneyGram network. “We’re trying to be a bridge from the crypto world to the fiat world,” MoneyGram CEO Alex Holmes said in an interview. Holmes also said MoneyGram is in talks with third-party companies that provide digital wallets in El Salvador alongside the government-backed Chivo wallets, which …

The process of introducing a central bank digital currency (CBDC) is fraught with unknowns, some of which were elucidated in a panel of experts gathered Monday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The panel concluded that good design is key to a successful CBDC, and there are fewer challenges for wholesale CBDC introduction. Bank of Thailand governor Sethaput Suthiwartnarueput said that although many central banks are considering a CBDC, there is little practical experience with them. The Thai National Bank began proof-of-concept programs in 2018. Its mBridge project began as an experiment in establishing a cross-border wholesale payment …

The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, or SWIFT, the Belgian financial messaging network used by banks in international money transfers, announced Thursday that it is teaming up with French IT company Capgemini to conduct experiments with cross-border central bank digital currency (CBDC) payments. This is SWIFT’s second research project on CBDC. SWIFT and Capgemini are testing ways to link multiple CBDC networks, as well as CBDC and traditional currency networks, as a proof of concept. The majority of central banks worldwide are working on creating CBDCs, “with numerous central banks developing their own digital currencies based on different technologies, …

Ethereum is an open-source blockchain-based software platform with thousands of decentralized applications (DApps) that powers its native cryptocurrency, Ether (ETH), that can be sent and received globally without any third-party interference. First conceptualized in 2013 by Russian-Canadian programmer Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum was designed as a platform for self-executing, permanent and immutable DApps with use cases varying from finance to gaming and art. DApps are often referred to as smart contracts which are Ethereum transaction protocols that automatically carry out certain functions and actions like transaction processing with predetermined conditions and agreements. Sending a transaction, canceling it, or resolving a pending …

Signs that an altseason is underway are beginning to increase across the cryptocurrency market after numerous altcoins posted double-digit gains on Aug. 31. Meanwhile, the price of Bitcoin (BTC) continued to face headwinds and the digital asset trades at $47,100. The top altcoin Ether (ETH) looks poised to stage a 40% rally against BTC according to analysts, and a 5% gain in the ETH/BTC pair on Tuesday is thought to be the fuel behind altcoins which rallied more than 30% today. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that the biggest gainers over the past 24-hours were Metal (MTL), …

Paysafe, the parent company of online money transfer service Skrill, announced this week that the payment platform has integrated an additional 20 cryptocurrencies into its digital wallet, providing users with another legacy onramp to digital assets. Beginning this week, customers outside the United States will have access to 35 cryptocurrencies in total, the company said. Crypto buy and sell services are also available in 48 U.S. states and territories. The newly supported cryptocurrencies include major DeFi assets like Aave, Balancer, Curve, Compound, Synthetix, Uniswap and Sushiswap. Polygon and Dogecoin (DOGE) were also added. Users of NETELLER, another money transfer service …

A new ecosystem with a goal of bridging the centralized and decentralized worlds of digital finance is going to be home to a brand-new DeFi platform that allows consumers to become their own bank. Fusion says its vision is to deliver key infrastructure for value transfer — integrating the cryptocurrencies that exist today, as well as those that will emerge in the future. This blockchain is now being used by Chainge Finance, a project with the ambition of ensuring anyone can gain 100% control over their daily activities — empowering consumers with the ability to provide and get financial services …

Global money transfer platform MoneyGram recently unveiled year-over-year growth numbers, showing double the number of transactions seen in May 2019. MoneyGram ended Q1 2020 with 57% growth in digital transactions, a June 9 statement from the company said. The firm saw activity ramp up another 43% by May's end. MoneyGram's partnership with Ripple Blockchain-based money-transfer company Ripple entered a deal with MoneyGram in June 2019, investing $50 million into the MoneyGram's platform. The partnership saw the digital money transfer platform able to harness Ripple's xRapid technology. In February 2020, calling on Visa's technology, MoneyGram unveiled real-time money transfers. Ripple reportedly …