Kategorie: Crypto Business

Ripple, a prominent business blockchain solutions provider, has partnered with Lunu, a crypto-terminal operator and a payment provider that deals with premium retailers to enable German luxury and high-end retailers to receive payments using cryptos.

With the new partnership, the retailers will be able to exchange cryptos for fiat money where the Ripple Liquidity Hub platform will be used. The platform was created by the Ripple team to aid mass crypto adoption.

The platform can also be integrated on a turnkey basis as well as feature an intelligent order routing that will enable the retailers to receive their digital assets at the best prices. 

Additionally, companies that have integrated the platform will be able to access cryptocurrencies seamlessly across the globe including decentralized and centralized exchanges and also OTC venues.

The combined use of Lunu’s point-of-sale (POS) terminals and RippleNet will also help a great deal in providing opportunities to the luxury and high-end retailers in the United Kingdom and Europe to embrace crypto payments in their stores. 

Ripple in Europe

Ripple has continued to strongly establish its presence in the majority of the continents and after gaining traction in the Middle East, it’s now on its mission to dominate in Europe.

However, 2021 was one of the most successful years for Ripple after it managed to double its transactions on RippleNet, now, the average annual payment volume on the network is $15 billion. Besides, the company’s blockchain and other technological use, in general, have contributed to its expansive partnership networks.

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Checkout.com, a global payments processor currently handling billions in online payments for merchants, has announced a new stablecoin settlement solution that will offer 24/7 payments processing for customers.

The settlement system will be powered by crypto payments technology from blockchain security platform Fireblocks, and will see merchants enjoy seamless and flexible access to cash flow – all in real-time.

The technology, according to details shared by the UK-headquartered company, will offer merchants the benefit of automatic conversion of funds received from customers – in this case from received stablecoin into fiat.

Merchants will also benefit from faster, on-chain and borderless payments settlement.

Initial support for USD Coin (USDC)

Checkout.com will use USD Coin (USDC), a fully collateralized stablecoin pegged on the US dollar and which is currently the second-largest in the sector in terms of market capitalization.

 Checkout.com said it has processed over $300 million via USDC during the new system’s beta program.

Jess Houlgrave, Head of Crypto Strategy at Checkout.com noted that the company was “investing heavily to ensure we can fulfil our mission to enable businesses and their communities to thrive in the digital economy – which we believe includes Web3 and as we see the market reaction, we hope to see more merchants, both crypto native and non-crypto native adopt this.”

Apart from USDC, the firm plans to support other digital assets and has a pilot project involving multiple crypto exchanges and merchants. 

Crypto exchange FTX is reportedly at the forefront of its plans to expand the initiative globally, with other players including Binance and Crypto.com.

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MoneyGram, one of the world’s largest money transfer services, is preparing for a partnership with Stellar blockchain to allow its users to send and convert stablecoins into fiat currency.

MoneyGram CEO, Alex Holmes, view on the crypto industry was optimistic saying:

“Crypto industry is here to stay and it’s going to be here for a long time despite recent selloffs and volatility.”

MoneyGram to establish a bridge between crypto and fiat

During a recent interview with Bloomberg News, Holmes said that since fiat and crypto are ‘’not really compatible today’’ the company’s main goal is to establish a bridge between them.

Meanwhile, the company offers Bitcoin services to clients and with its partnership with Stellar, it will allow its users to carry out USDC remittances. Additionally, customers can also use the MoneyGram network to cash out their holdings.

Dante Disparte, Circle (the company that issues USDC) CSO, noted that de-pegging will not occur like in TerraUSD since the stablecoin will be fully backed by safe liquid assets.

Dante said:

“We’re not taking the dollar and putting it in the reserves and then lending it out. Instead, the reserves are strictly cash and US Treasuries.”

MoneyGram support for Crypto adoption

Despite the ongoing crypto market crash, Holmes said that he is optimistic about the future of crypto which he sees as a key feature of the financial network saying:

“I think adopting it, bringing it into the mainstream is important.”

Additionally, he addressed El Salvador’s move of making Bitcoin a legal tender as his company continues with the discussions with the authorities to boost the adoption pace:

“If a country like El Salvador is going to make Bitcoin seamless with US dollars in-country, I think that consumers, through MoneyGram, should be able to transfer Bitcoin to El Salvador or transfer dollars and convert them to Bitcoin. If that’s where the world is going, let’s participate in that world, and let’s see how we can help fulfill that opportunity.”

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Bank of America doesn’t have plans to dive into offering crypto to its customers, according to the bank’s Chief Executive Officer Brian Moynihan.

In an interview with Yahoo Finance at the World Economic Forum (WEF), the BofA CEO responded with a “No” when asked if the bank had any such plans.

According to him, the need to remain within the regulatory bracket that the bank operates in means they cannot engage in crypto.

“The reality is that we can’t do it. By regulations, we’re not really allowed to engage,” he said.

However, he notes that BofA can engage in crypto trading even as its main goal is to look at how to advance the benefits of blockchain technology.

“So, in the trading side we could do it. Our research team writes about it,” he noted. However, they are not looking to offer cryptocurrency accounts for customers.

BofA not missing on crypto opportunity

Moynihan also said that Bank of America does not really feel like they are missing anything so far by not offering crypto to its customers. In his view, the bank already has most of its customers, about 54 million, moving money digitally.

Also, the issues around which cryptocurrencies have pitched a selling point, like faster cross border payments, the banking industry is already working towards ensuring that.

Bank of America’s stance contrasts that of other major Wall Street banks, including JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and BNY Mellon that have all taken a dive into the crypto sector albeit in different ways. 

Another major player to look the crypto way is Fidelity Investments, which recently announced the addition of Bitcoin to its customers’ 401k accounts.

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Valverse is Vavel Games’ first foray into the world of Web3 and the metaverse.

The HBAR Foundation, the organization that seeks to accelerate the development of the Hedera ecosystem through grants to projects, has announced backing for a new gaming developer to bring next-gen MMO games to the platform.

In a blog announcement published on Thursday, the HBAR Foundation said it had added Vavel Games, a leading developer of MMO games to its list of projects to receive a grant.  

The support is the first HBAR Foundation has advanced to a gaming company and will see Vavel Games launch its metaverse project on the Hedera network.

https://mobile.twitter.com/HBAR_foundation/status/1529810185237110784

Vavelverse to integrate NFTs

Dubbed Vavelverse, the venture will provide a multiverse of cross-integrated virtual worlds, opening Vavel Games to a new realm in Web3. The project will be powered by Hedera Hashgraph, the HBAR Foundation noted in the blog.

The first MMO title in the Vavelverse will be Imperium: Galactic War 3.0 and will incorporate NFTs to bring even more benefits to users on Hedera. 

The gaming studio’s first NFT drop is planned for early June (the first week), while the Galactic War 3.0 full game launch is expected in early 2023.

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