During its Q4 2021 earnings call late Tuesday, Adam Aron, CEO of iconic theatre-chain AMC Entertainment, briefed the community on the company's latest crypto adoption efforts. As told by Aron, AMC will start accepting Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB) "in a couple of weeks." AMC began accepting online payments for movie tickets via major cryptocurrencies last year. The company said it is also still exploring options to issue its own coin; an idea that has been in the making for quite some time as it monitors the current cryptocurrency regulatory framework. Aron also shared his praise for the blockchain …

Apart from high-profile athletes and politicians who are taking salaries in crypto, a study shows that the number of ordinary people who take some of their salaries in crypto has increased globally. Tracking trends that occurred in 2021, global hiring firm Deel published a report that noted a 10% month-over-month increase in people who want to be paid in crypto since November 2020. The data, pulled from over 100,000 contracts in over 150 countries, shows that Latin America (LATAM) and Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) are on top of the regions that have employees taking a portion of their …

Crypto-focused enterprise payment platform Tribal Credit has partnered with Visa to expand credit and financing options for small- and medium-sized enterprises across Latin America, highlighting the growing synergies between traditional payment providers and the blockchain industry. The partnership with Visa allows Tribal to issue business credit cards in local denominations and currencies across Latin America, including Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Panama, Uruguay and the Dominican Republic. A Tribal spokesperson informed Cointelegraph that the company’s initial focus is on providing this credit facility to the countries of Colombia, Peru and Chile. While the Visa partnership is centered around providing …

Japan’s biggest financial conglomerate, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), will abandon its three-year-old blockchain payment project to focus on other digital and fintech initiatives. MUFG officially announced Tuesday the suspension of Global Open Network (GO-Net) Japan, a blockchain-based project aiming at high scalability and multi-connectivity data processing “in response to the rise of the internet of things.” The project was officially introduced back in February 2019, with MUFG joining forces with the United States content delivery network Akamai, planning to create a payment service featuring multiple functions like communication and “management of value through blockchain.” The initiative was first announced …

After the Taliban took full control of Afghanistan in August last year, many international non-governmental organizations and services stopped operating in the country. Among them were payment services like Western Union and Swift. Many Afghans subsequently began to learn about cryptocurrencies and the underlying blockchain technology to — at the very least — receive remittances from abroad. As electronic payment services like PayPal and Venmo have never been available in the 5,000-year-old country, Afghans have lost many opportunities in the online business world. “We lost many opportunities like blogging, affiliate marketing and online dropshipping because most of them pay with …

California State Senator Sydney Kamlager, representing the 30th Senate District including parts of downtown Los Angeles, has introduced a bill which would amend the state’s code to allow for the acceptance of cryptocurrencies for certain payments. According to Senate Bill 1275 introduced in the California Legislature on Feb. 18, Kamlager proposed authorizing a state agency “to accept cryptocurrency as a method of payment for the provision of government services.” The modification of the current state law, which allows for the establishment of state agencies to provide services to residents which require payments, would add crypto to the list of acceptable …

Protesting anti-vax truckers blockading downtown Ottawa, Canada had their fund-raising platform shut down because their host fears the “promotion of violence.” The protesters move to a Bitcoin crowdsourcing funding service. It quickly raised $900,000. Russian troops gather on Ukraine’s borders. Ukrainian NGOs and volunteer groups embrace cryptocurrencies to help defend their country in the event of a coming war, according to a Feb. 8 investigation by Elliptic, a blockchain analytics firm. Recent reports like these raise the question: Are Bitcoin and other cryptos becoming the preferred fundraising platform for political protesters and social movements — given that cryptocurrencies don’t respect …

In Sept. 2021, Twitter enabled Bitcoin payments as the first cryptocurrency payment option available via its tipping jar. Wednesday, the social media platform added a slew of fresh payment services to these existing tipping options, including Ethereum (ETH). Have you set up Tips on your profile yet so it's easy for people to show their support? Yes: Cool, we’ve added Paga, Barter by Flutterwave, Paytm, and the option to add your Ethereum address. No: What are you waiting for? Here's how: https://t.co/Id5TwTpnCF — Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) February 16, 2022 Users looking to receive ETH tips simply need to enable the …

Jared Polis, the governor of Colorado, has announced that the state government plans to allow residents to pay taxes in cryptocurrencies as early as summer 2022. In a Tuesday CNBC interview, Polis said crypto holders in Colorado could have the option of sending tax payments in digital currency, which the state would then convert back into fiat. The governor said that an unnamed intermediary would likely handle the exchange of crypto to fiat. “We expect by this summer — pretty soon — to accept crypto for all of our state tax-related purposes,” said Polis. “Then we plan to roll that …

Blockchain infrastructure company Fireblocks has finalized the acquisition of First Digital, a stablecoin and digital asset payment platform, as part of a broader effort to expand its payment capabilities for the cryptocurrency sector. The acquisition gives Fireblocks additional resources to enable payment service providers to acquire cryptocurrencies and accept payments in digital assets, potentially opening the door to wider use cases for the emerging technology. According to Fireblocks, merchants today are eager to integrate crypto payments but high wallet integration costs and manual Know Your Customer and Anti-Money Laundering screening hinder adoption. Through the acquisition of First Digital, Fireblocks plans …

The secret to fast-track cryptocurrency’s mainstream adoption lies within addressing a contradicted consumer demand for crypto payments across business verticals, reveals a new survey. In a study participated by crypto exchange Crypto.com’s 110,000 customers and over 1.5 million Worldpay merchants, roughly 60% of both merchants and customers shared their interest in crypto payments. However, the consumer demand does not reciprocate the business verticals that accept cryptocurrencies. As evidenced above, the consumer demand for crypto payments exceeds merchant availability across four major industries — travel, automotive, digital media and hospitality. The gap in merchant availability poses a massive opportunity to capitalize …

The 2022 Winter Olympics participants, visitors and organizers could be spending more than $300,000 in China’s digital yuan every day, according to new reports citing officials from the People’s Bank of China. The e-CNY, China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC), is being used to make 2 million yuan ($316,000) or more worth of payments each day, PBoC’s Digital Currency Research Institute director-general Mu Changchun said. The official provided the data during a webinar hosted by the Atlantic Council, Reuters reported Tuesday. “I have a rough idea that there are several, or a couple of million digital yuan of payments every …