Crypto investors are betting big on real estate this year as the cryptocurrency market continues to grow. New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG) recently conducted a survey that found that 46 million Americans own Bitcoin, equating to 22% of all adults. While optimistic, some cryptocurrency investors have expressed concerns regarding the security, custody and volatility of digital assets. For example, Nickel Digital Asset Management, a regulated European investment manager dedicated to the crypto market, surveyed institutional investors and wealth managers from the United States and Europe who collectively have $275 billion in assets under management. Findings show that 76% of …

Tech giant Amazon is looking to dive into digital currency and blockchain development with a new major hire within its payments-focused team. Amazon’s payments acceptance and experience team is seeking a digital currency and blockchain product lead to develop the company’s strategy of digital currency and blockchain as well as a product roadmap. The team is responsible for Amazon’s customers’ payments on Amazon’s sites and through its global services. Posted on Thursday, the new role seeks an experienced product leader with expertise in blockchain, central bank digital currencies and cryptocurrencies to “develop the case for the capabilities which should be …

The Reserve Bank of India, or RBI, continues to investigate the issuance of a central bank digital currency, or CBDC. T Rabi Sankar, the deputy governor of RBI, said in a speech organized by the Vidhi Center for Legal Policy that private digital currencies could be part of what makes CBDCs ultimately necessary. He felt that the RBI’s development of it’s own CBDC could provide the public with many of the same uses as digital currencies such as Bitcoin, while limiting the average user’s exposure to volatility. He stated: “Indeed, this could be the key factor nudging central banks from …

NatWest, a major United Kingdom-based retail and commercial bank, has blocked all credit and debit card payments to crypto exchange Binance until further notice, the bank confirmed to Cointelegraph on Thursday. "All credit and debit card transactions to Binance have been blocked. We have been limiting payments to Binance for a number of weeks," a spokesperson for NatWest said, adding that resuming Binance support will be continually under review. The representative said that the bank has seen a high level of cryptocurrency investment scams targeting its customers across retail and business banking, particularly through social media sites. "We’re temporarily reducing …

A self-funded, community-driven decentralized blockchain wants to create a privacy coin ecosystem that doesn’t consume large amounts of energy. This platform, called BlackHat Coin, will use proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mining in addition to implementing its privacy layer on the zk-SNARK sapling protocol to provide fast, anonymous, and untraceable payments. “Today, it is not a secret to anyone that artificial intelligence-based systems for analyzing cryptocurrency transactions have been developed, terms of tokens use have been tightened, the interests of various centralized projects have been lobbied in every possible way,” the project said in its whitepaper. According to them, despite the fact …

Visa officially announced on Thursday that it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire Currencycloud, a fintech platform supporting about 500 banking and technology clients across more than 180 countries. The new acquisition aims to improve Visa’s foreign exchange business and expand them to serve financial institutions, fintechs and partners. The deal will specifically improve Visa’s payment transparency and speed, the company’s global treasurer Colleen Ostrowski said, stating: “The acquisition of Currencycloud is another example of Visa executing on our network of networks strategy to facilitate global money movement. Consumers and businesses increasingly expect transparency, speed and simplicity when making …

Coinbase Commerce, the e-commerce arm of the United States-based crypto exchange, has added support for Dogecoin (DOGE) payments. According to a Twitter announcement, Dogecoin became the seventh cryptocurrency for merchants to accept payments on Coinbase’s e-commerce portal. The platform currently supports Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), along with stablecoins Dai and USD Coin (USDC). An integration with Coinbase.com enables Coinbase Commerce customers to convert their crypto payments into U.S. dollars, euros, British pounds or USDC without leaving the e-commerce portal. According to a blog post dated October 2020, the same integration for Coinbase Prime and Pro …

Cryptocurrency exchange Okcoin has selected merchant service provider Worldpay to aid in its expansion efforts, which includes bringing crypto-to-crypto payments to a global audience. Okcoin will leverage Worldpay’s foreign exchange services, allowing customers to purchase cryptocurrency with credit and debit cards. Jason Lau, Okcoin’s chief operating officer, said his firm selected Worldpay for its extensive experience working with cryptocurrency exchanges. He further explained: “As we activate new markets and local currencies, opening up new channels of payments will play a key part in our growth, as well as the overall cryptocurrency industry.” Related: 40% intend to use crypto for payments …

The European Commission has submitted a new proposal that would require crypto-asset service providers to collect additional Anti-Money Laundering information from those who utilize cryptocurrency for money transfers. The stated purpose of this proposal is to prevent the further propagation of money laundering activity within the European Union. Under this proposal, service providers conducting transfers must have the name of the originator of the transfer, the account number, where the account exists and where it is used to process the transaction. The originator’s address, official personal document number, customer ID number, or date and place of birth would also be …

American fintech giant Mastercard has announced plans to revamp its crypto card program, to enable traditional banks and crypto companies to offer cards to its users for transacting with digital assets. According to the official statement: “Mastercard and its partners will test this new capability to enable more banks and crypto companies to offer a card option to people wanting to spend their digital assets anywhere Mastercard is accepted.” This effort involves Mastercard partnering with crypto businesses to involve “cryptocurrency wallets and exchanges, making it simpler for partners to convert cryptocurrency to traditional fiat currency.” To allow exposure to cryptocurrency …

While Bitcoin (BTC) may be considered as a store of value for many, some consumers across the globe may be thinking otherwise. Recent data has revealed that 46 million people in the United States plan to use cryptocurrency to pay for things such as groceries or real estate. Payments giant Visa further revealed in July that its crypto-enabled cards processed over $1 billion in total spending during the first half of this year. As such, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that major brands like Starbucks, Home Depot and Target have started putting Bitcoin on their balance sheets. Yet, as …

United States’ city of Jackson, Tennessee, continues exploring a potential dive into cryptocurrencies, now looking to accept Bitcoin (BTC) for property tax payments. Jackson Mayor Scott Conger announced late Thursday that the city’s blockchain task force had launched a study on potential methods to accept property tax payments in Bitcoin in the city. The blockchain group will also explore how to allow employees to dollar-cost average Bitcoin, or purchase smaller amounts of Bitcoin over regular time intervals. Dollar-cost averaging Bitcoin purchases are considered to be the best strategy for accumulating Bitcoin, multiple studies confirmed. Conger earlier took to Twitter to …