Binance has informed its retail customer base of a potential incoming service disruption that may halt on and off-ramp bank payment transfers. The service disruption will impact U.S Dollar-held bank accounts that are looking to buy or sell cryptocurrencies for less than $100,000 via the SWIFT payment system. The disruption will take effect on February 1. Binance announced the news to its “Binancians” by email on January 21, stressing that they’re now “actively seeking” a new SWIFT (USD) partner to avoid service disruptions for future bank payment transfers. The cryptocurrency exchange added that this was the banking partner’s decision and …

As crypto traders debate whether Bitcoin (BTC) is going to $25,000 or $15,000 first, the world’s largest financial institutions are laying the groundwork for mass adoption. The proverbial floodgates are unlikely to open before the United States provides a clear regulatory framework for crypto, but regulators and industry insiders are confident that guidance could come in 2023 at the earliest. In the meantime, megabanks like BNY Mellon, whose roots date back to 1784, are entering the space. This week’s Crypto Biz chronicles BNY Mellon’s foray into digital assets, JPMorgan’s ongoing experimentation with blockchain technology and Crypto.com’s new European headquarters. BNY …

Traditional finance and payment giants JPMorgan and Visa are teaming up to streamline the use of their private blockchain solutions Liink and B2B Connect to facilitate cross-border payments. According to an Oct. 11 report from Forbes, JPMorgan’s Liink is a network specifically designed for cross-border transfers and is offered under the bank’s blockchain and payments initiative Onyx. Onyx provides a platform for institutions to share financial information and validate transactions. Visa’s B2B Connect is a similar network to Liink that was built for institutional grade use and has now been integrated with Onxy’s Confirm. Confirm is an account-information validation product, …

SWIFT is a payments colossus. It operates across more than 200 countries, has 11,000-plus financial institution clients and transmits some 8.4 billion financial messages every year. It is the global leader in cross-border bank-to-bank payments and recently played a key role in the West’s economic sanctions on Russia. That doesn’t mean the Belgium-based cooperative is immune to disruption tremors, however. Critics have long maintained the interbank messaging system, founded in the 1970s, is “old, inflexible, slow, and increasingly prone to cyberattacks.” In May, Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach cast doubt upon SWIFT’s ability to survive the next five years. Meanwhile, it …

Interbank messaging system SWIFT has partnered with price oracle provider Chainlink (LINK) to work on a proof-of-concept (POC) project which would allow traditional finance firms the ability to transact across blockchain networks. Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov announced the project at its SmartCon 2022 Conference in New York on Sept. 28 alongside SWIFT strategy director Jonathan Ehrenfeld Solé. SWIFT is using the Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) in an initial proof of concept. CCIP will enable SWIFT messages to instruct on-chain token transfers, helping the SWIFT network become interoperable across all blockchain environments.https://t.co/8GOBNhzwCk pic.twitter.com/Pvm0Cex45e — Chainlink (@chainlink) September 28, 2022 At the …

Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach said on Tuesday that he does not expect SWIFT, one of the most widely used platforms for cross-border fiat transactions, to exist in five years' time. Miebach was speaking at a panel session on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) as part of the Global Blockchain Business Council’s (GBBC) Blockchain Central Davos conference, which ran adjacent to the World Economic Forum 2022 in Davos, Switzerland. Kicking off GBBC’s #BlockchainCentral Davos session on CBDCs with @eva_szalay @FT @YuvalRooz @digitalassetcom @Jbrookslassiter @Digital_Dollar_ @MiebachMichael @Mastercard @BIS_org @DBTreat @Accenture pic.twitter.com/C2fvgy0Bij — Global Blockchain Business Council (GBBC) (@GBBCouncil) May 24, 2022 Toward …

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, …

Bitcoin (BTC) entered an upward channel in early January and despite the sideways trading near $40,000, order book analysts cited "significant buying pressure" and noted that the overall negative sentiment might be heading towards exhaustion. Independent analyst Johal Miles noted that BTC's price formed a bullish hammer candlestick on its daily chart on Jan. 24 and Feb. 24, hinting that the longer-term downtrend is close to an end. However, the rally above $41,000 on Feb. 28 was unable to create strong demand from Asia-based traders, as depicted by the lack of a China-based peer-to-peer Tether (USDT) premium versus the the …

The European Commission announced to remove a number of Russian banks from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) messaging system, aimed at hindering Russia’s capacity to carry out cross-border payments. In a joint statement released by the European Commission, leaders from France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States highlighted their shared interest in defending Ukraine from the war against Russia: “We will hold Russia to account and collectively ensure that this war is a strategic failure for Putin.” While condemning the Russian president Vladimir Putin’s move to lay siege across Ukraine, the EU Commission …

Despite rapid advancement of a digital yuan, China's progress in internationalizing its currency has stalled out in recent months. Per data from SWIFT's RMB Tracker released on Jan. 20, the Chinese yuan (CNY), also known as the Renminbi (RMB) had gained only .02% in international usage between December 2018 and last month. Meanwhile, it had fallen from 1.26% to 1.16% between November and December of 2020. While not a catastrophe, it's nowhere near the numbers that China has become used to since making the internationalization of the RMB a priority in 2009. An August report on the project from the …

SWIFT, the Brussels-based interbank cooperative, has unveiled its first active instant cross-border payment connection — a move that could have major implications for the global payments landscape. The cooperative announced Thursday that United Kingdom-based Lloyds Banking Group has become the first to connect with SWIFT gpi Instant, the high-speed cross-border rail that settles payments in seconds. The payment system connects SWIFT gpi with the U.K.’s Faster Payments infrastructure, allowing customers to send cross-border payments 24 hours per day, seven days per week. According to SWIFT, the new system: “Enables banks to use existing infrastructure to provide better service 24/7, with …

The central bank of Kyrgyzstan has disabled cross-border transactions on the SWIFT financial network amid widespread unrest over the country’s disputed parliamentary elections. Aida Karabaeva, an official representative of the National Bank of the Kyrgyz Republic, announced a temporary suspension of SWIFT in Kyrgyzstan in a statement on Oct. 7. According to Karabaeva, the bank decided to suspend SWIFT transactions in order to prevent capital outflows from the country and ensure the safety of assets. The executive claimed that the bank is planning to resume SWIFT transactions as soon as the situation in the country stabilizes: “The measures taken are …