Venezuelan crypto exchange Criptolago has announced that it will launch a text message-based payment system that can process transactions in Venezuela’s oil-backed Petro (PTR) and other cryptocurrencies. The system may expose new segments of Venezuela’s population to cryptocurrencies amid the country’s ongoing hyperinflation crisis — with the value of the Venezuelan bolivar fluctuating by 1.58% in the past 24 hours and roughly 2,500% in 12 months. Criptolago unveils SMS-based crypto transfers In a tweet published on April 6, Criptolago stated that it developed the service in response to a call from the country’s president for financial companies to develop payment …

While many crypto holders around the world are practicing self-quarantine and other measures to limit social contact, some are turning to the adult industry for comfort. Speaking to Cointelegraph, cryptocurrency payment processor CoinGate reported an increase in purchases from adult stores in March over activity in February. Sites like ManyVids had a 17% increase in their cart sizes. Other adult stores reported a 36% increase in turnover. Most of these merchants are based in Europe, where measures are in place to limit people from leaving their homes and many retail businesses are closed. However, crypto shoppers are making their purchases …

The $2 trillion economic stimulus package the United States Congress passed on March 26 might not cause the Bitcoin (BTC) market to skyrocket just yet, but investors could see modest, gradual improvements starting in 2020. Wayne Chen, CEO of Interlapse and founder of virtual currency platform Coincurve, spoke to Cointelegraph on Wednesday regarding the outlook of Bitcoin following measures to help the U.S. economy recover. Stimulus package targeted at those without disposable income Even in the midst of a global pandemic, many crypto traders are expecting Bitcoin to reach all-time highs before 2021. Online searches for cryptocurrencies have increased as …

Online purchases using Bitcoin (BTC), Visa, and some retail apps are down for the first quarter of 2020, spanning cryptocurrency and fiat currency transactions. With many around the world self-quarantining or otherwise recommended to stay inside to prevent the spread of COVID-19, one might assume there would be an increase in online purchases and deliveries. Yet with unemployment on the rise and an uncertain economic future, it seems consumers want to save their money rather than spend it. Bitcoin transactions rivaling those during crypto winter The crypto market is not exempt from this dearth of purchases. The number of daily …

Tech Mahindra, the IT subsidiary of Indian conglomerate Mahindra Group, has become the first Indian business to use R3’s blockchain-based Marco Polo Network for conducting cross-border transactions. It said the platform had resulted in faster reconciliation and ambiguity resolution, as well as the significant reduction of paperwork and time required for the entire transaction cycle. Tech Mahindra partnered with Singapore’s DBS Bank, which facilitated the transactions and acted as the company’s leading trade bank. The parties used the Marco Polo Receivables Discounting product which is designed to help companies optimise their working capital, improve liquidity and mitigate credit risk. Marco …

Major crypto wallet service and blockchain data supplier Blockchain.com has apparently experienced a system glitch, as its Bitcoin (BTC) mempool tracker dropped to zero earlier today. After indicating a significant surge of unconfirmed Bitcoin transactions on March 13, the mempool chart on Blockchain.com saw a steep drop from 32 megabytes (MB) to zero. As of press time, the chart has recovered to around 30 MB. Seven-day chart of Bitcoin mempool size in bytes. Source: Blockchain.com The crash of Bitcoin mempool was apparently a system bug exclusive to Blockchain.com, as other trackers like Satoshi.info were indicating that the size of the …

A new report on the PlusToken Ponzi scheme shows regulated exchanges are being used to dump coins, despite stringent Know Your Customer (KYC) identify verification rules. Investigative company OXT Research has released a second edition of their in-depth blockchain analysis on the PlusToken scam. The report explained PlusToken funds generally moved from unmixed allotments and locations, to mixers. After mixers, the funds saw consolidation, and then finally distribution. OXT’s report said: “Approximately 80% of coins entering mixing have been distributed while up to 33,872 BTC remain in the mixer and 3,853 BTC are in the distribution process, resulting in a …

Global cryptocurrency exchange Binance has listed USDC for deposits on its United States Branch, Binance.US. The new listing took effect on Wednesday, March 4th, at 9:00 PM EST, allowing users easily convert to BUSD, according to a statement made on their official website. BUSD allowed for trading or holding With such a measure, Binance.US will allow its users to start trading or holding BUSD. The conversion feature can be found under "Buy Crypto" on the homepage, the company said. The exchange makes it clear that the BTC / BUSD, BUSD / USD, ZIL / BUSD, XRP / BUSD, BNB / …

South Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Bithumb, has announced it will take another step towards global expansion by strengthening integration with its international arm. On Feb. 26, Bithumb launched a new digital asset transfer service between the South Korean exchange and Bithumb Global, an new international digital asset exchange released by Bithumb in October 2019. Meanwhile, South Korean authorities are considering imposing a 20% tax on income from cryptocurrency, evidently pushing the biggest local exchanges to reinforce their foreign operations. KYC tier 2 verification is required to use the new service In order to use the new asset transfer service, Bithumb …

In the country’s first legal dispute involving cryptocurrency, the Singapore Court of Appeals has ruled that virtual currency exchange Quoine must pay damages to electronic market maker B2C2. The damages are for seven transactions that were wrongfully reversed on the platform during April 2017. According to The Straits Times on Feb. 24, the court dismissed Quoine’s appeal, in which the exchange argued that it was entitled to unilaterally cancel the orders due to such comprising a mistake. The exchange argued that the parties who fulfilled B2C2’s orders to sell Ether (ETH) for Bitcoin (BTC) at the price of 10 BTC …

Bitcoin (BTC) is already processing 1% of the world’s GDP and the number is growing by “an order of magnitude” every halving cycle. According to statistician Willy Woo, who analyzed data from monitoring resource Coin Metrics, Bitcoin’s investment flow is $727 billion annually. BTC processes $727B per year The number is almost 10% of payment processor Visa’s transaction volumes each year — Visa processes $8.8 trillion in transactions. “Bitcoin's investment flow (aka annual investment velocity) is presently growing an order of magnitude (10x) every 4 years,” Woo summarized. Per the statistics, Bitcoin should “catch up” with Visa at some point …

Hot on the heels of surpassing the 500 million transaction milestone, Bitcoin (BTC)’s daily confirmed transactions (txs) are soaring too. The latest available data on Blockchain.com, for Feb. 6, indicates 315,370 daily txs on the blockchain, and 368,604 on Feb. 5. These are levels not seen since early Sept. 2019 — though they still stop short of a 2019 peak in May, which saw the network breaking above 450,000 txs daily. Daily confirmed txs on the Bitcoin blockchain, Feb. 2019-Feb. 2020. Source: blockchain.com Green across the board Meanwhile, markets are seeing a solid flush of green, with Bitcoin now tantalizingly …