Payment solutions: April headlines
- Alchemy Pay Raises $10M at $400M Valuation to Push South Korean Expansion Plans - the funding came from DWF Labs, its eighth investment of $10 million or more in the last six weeks (source)
- FedNow is set to launch in July: U.S. Federal Reserve wants to release a real-time payments and settlements service in order to boost the country’s infrastructure. Experts ask: Why not use crypto? (source)
- Stablecoin payments: Visa shares plans for ‘ambitious’ crypto product: According to a Visa job posting published on April 20, the company’s crypto division is building the “next generation of products” to facilitate the digital commerce of everyday life (source)
- NOWPayments, a Renowned Cryptocurrency Payment Provider, Integrates Shibarium for Efficient Crypto Payments - this integration allows NOWPayments to cater to the needs of various projects and tokens that operate on the Shibarium network (source)
#paymentsolutions#April2023#trends
Crypto Payment Solutions: March headlines
- Telegram's Wallet Bot @wallet Integrates Tether (USDT) Payments on Tron Network: users can now send and receive USDT directly from their chats, as well as buy, swap, and make P2P trades with the stablecoin (source)
- Silvergate suspends crypto payments network; shares fall after-hours: Silvergate on Wednesday warned in a filing that it was evaluating its ability to operate as a going concern, Coinbase Global Inc, Galaxy Digita, Paxos, Circle, Bitstamp and Gemini suspended their partnerships with Silvergate after the warning (source)
- Visa, Mastercard Halt Crypto Initiatives Pending Industry And Regulatory Recovery, previously both companies forged multiple partnerships with crypto firms and dedicated teams to explore blockchain technology (source)
- U.S. Federal Reserve’s Real-Time Payments System FedNow Coming in July, FedNow has been seen as a potential precursor to a central bank digital currency (CBDC) (source)
- Bybit Launches Debit Card for Crypto Payments: the Bybit card will operate on the Mastercard network and will initially allow fiat-based transactions by debiting cryptocurrency balances when used to pay for goods and services (source)
#paymentsolutions#March2023#trends
Payment Solutions: February headlines
- Twitter's payment system prepares for potential crypto integration, Musk's Twitter payment vision is in tune with fiat-crypto gateway Alchemy Pay (source)
- Visa Eyes High-Value USDC Settlement Payments on Ethereum, the company reportedly seeks to meet customer requests to convert digital assets into fiat payments, similar to how it converts foreign currencies (source)
- Brazil’s Oldest Bank Takes a Leap into the Future with Crypto Tax Payment Options: Banco do Brasil will allow residents to pay their taxes with crypto (source)
- UK Banks Blocking Crypto Access Given Fraud, Volatility, bank CEOs appeared more skeptical about the potential benefits of a central bank digital currency – the day after the Treasury and Bank of England said a digital pound was likely to be needed (source)
#paymentsolutions#February2023#trends
Crypto Payments: January headlines
- Coingate records a 63% increase in crypto payments in 2022, despite an ongoing bear market, its was found that college graduates and high-earners were the biggest drivers of crypto purchases (source)
- BitPay announced partnership with MoonPay, the world's leading Web3 infrastructure company, to provide BitPay users with new ways to buy crypto (source)
- Internet giant Wix adds CoinGate integration to its crypto payments service (source)
- Alchemy Pay wins Web3 Innovation Pioneer Award from Forbes - the Singapore-based payment solutions provider has a major research and development hub across Asia (source)
- Crypto payments platform Wyre secures funding - in a quick reversal, crypto checkout gateway Wyre is removing a recently-imposed withdrawal limit and announced it will continue operations as usual (source)
#January2023#paymentsolutions#trends
Crypto Payments: December headlines
- Stripe debuts fiat-to-crypto payment offering for Web3 businesses - the widget allows customers to more easily use crypto to engage with businesses and content creators across the world (source)
- Crypto.com receives license as a payment institution in Brazil, the company is the first crypto exchange to become a licensed payments institution in the South American country (source)
- Visa released a technical paper in which it explored the possibility of developing an automatic payment system for self-custodial wallets on Ethereum (source)
- South African digital-only bank launches crypto payments gateway - Be Mobile Africa has reportedly launched a crypto payment gateway that allows merchants to convert digital currency payments to fiat currency to "help small businesses preserve wealth in unfavourable economic conditions” (source)
- Crypto Refills Labs releases a report on consumer adoption on crypto payments - according to report, cryptoshoppers are less worried about transaction fees, more interested in stablecoins and spend crypto more frequently (source)
#paymentsolutions#December2022#trends
Crypto Payments: November headlines:
- Binance CEO proposes Binance Pay for Twitter payments: Binance has plunged $500 million into Elon Musk’s takeover of social media platform Twitter, with a view to giving crypto a “seat at the table” (source)
- Dogecoin jumped 22% in a week amid Twitter payments speculation (source)
- Ramp Network, a U.K.-based startup offering payment infrastructure to connect crypto and traditional finance, raised $70M: the round was co-led by UAE wealth fund Mubadala Capital and Korelya Capital (source)
- Crypto payments with USDC are now available on Apple Pay: Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, added support for Apple Pay (AAPL) to help to boost the use of the coin by allowing crypto businesses to accept the payment method (source)
-Gate.io launches its crypto payment product Gate Pay (source)
- Revolut embraces crypto: Revolut launched a feature that lets customers make purchases using crypto on their Revolut card (source)
#paymentsolutions#November2022#trends
Crypto Payment Solutions: May headlines
- Ethereum: Payment Giant Visa Deploys First Paymaster Smart Contract on ETH Testnet - on March 1, 2023, ERC-4337 was rolled out to the Ethereum mainnet, adding the ability for smart contracts to transact on behalf of the user (source)
- Tether and Strike have partnered to make USDT easily available for transactions via Strike's payment platform, the payment app is in expansion mode and has announced the move of its headquarters out of the United States (source)
- Stripe Rolls Out New Fiat-to-Crypto Onramp To Make Digital Asset Purchases More Convenient - Web3 companies can now direct their US-based customers to the link without the need for any access code (source)
- Transak Raises $20M - the startup offers on- and off-ramps that could make it easier for new users to interact with Web3 project (source)
- Argentina Bans Payment Apps From Offering Bitcoin to Customers - the central bank said Thursday that payment platforms cannot offer crypto trading services to their customers (source)
#trends#May2023#paymentsolutions
Wallets / Payment Solutions: June headlines
- PayPal invests in new crypto wallet service. PayPal has announced a substantial investment in Magic, the strategic funding round, led by PayPal Ventures, raised $52 million for Magic, with additional investments from Cherubic, Synchrony, KX, Northzone and Volt Capital (source).
- Atomic Wallet Hackers Use THORChain to Conceal Stolen $35M Funds: the hackers, believed to be North Korean hacking group Lazarus, have been using cross-chain bridges and liquidity protocols to mix stolen funds (source).
- Crypto.com joins ranks of licensed payment institutions in Singapore: with the MPI license, Crypto.com is now authorized to offer its DPT services to customers in Singapore (source).
- Crypto Payments Firm Wyre Winding Down Due to ‘Market Conditions’. Wyre is ceasing operations less than a year after it was valued at $1.5 billion in an abortive acquisition by Bolt (source).
- Binance struggles in Europe continue as it has lost its EURO payment partner - Paysafe,its Euro payment partner, will stop its bank transfers services from September 25 (source).
- Mastercard plans beta for a blockchain ‘app store’ for ‘regulated’ financial apps. Mastercard said it was planning to launch a beta in the U.K. over the summer to test what it calls the Multi Token Network, or an “app store powered by blockchain technologies for building regulated financial applications” (source)
#wallet#paymentsolutions#trends#June2023
🚀 WeChat Pay Launches AI Integration Toolbox for Seamless Payment Solutions
WeChat Pay has officially introduced an AI-native integration toolbox designed to offer merchants and developers a streamlined payment integration solution. According to ChainCatcher, this toolbox facilitates the rapid generation of payment function code through natural language commands.
The toolbox comprises Skill packages, AI-friendly documentation, and APIs, enabling one-click calls in mainstream AI development environments. Its 'verbal code generation' feature significantly reduces the development process from days to minutes, allowing quick integration of over 20 functions, including mini-program payments, H5 payments, refunds, and profit-sharing.
Additionally, the toolbox includes AI diagnostic capabilities that automatically identify code logic issues and provide suggestions for fixes, minimizing financial and system risks during integration. It also supports interface troubleshooting and legacy code upgrades for existing system developers. This upgrade further advances the standardization and AI adaptation of payment capabilities, lowering the digital business barriers for small and medium-sized enterprises.
#WeChatPay#AIintegration#PaymentSolutions#Developers#Merchants#AItoolbox#CodeGeneration#DigitalBusiness#SMEs#TechInnovation#PaymentAPI#Automation#SystemUpgrade