Industry News

What does this year hold for us? Economic tensions, which, alas, have become typical. The economies of many developed countries are experiencing hard times and this is directly reflected in national currencies. For example, the inflation rate in the U.S. dollar in 2022 passed the historical maximum for 40 years and reached 7.9%. The old world is not feeling too well and very few people will bother to make optimistic forecasts about its fast recovery.

Cryptocurrency possibilities are growing each day but on October 26 they made a big step forward! That day Blockchain.com — the world’s most popular cryptocurrency financial services company — have shown to the world their new Blockchain.com Visa® Card

This summer has become a major point for the crypto services development of PayPal — one of the world’s leading payment processors.

The world's first salary in Bitcoin — who gets paid in crypto?

We have already told you that blockchain is actively developing and now even has several generations. But still, what is blockchain, why is it called decentralized, and how do new blocks appear? Let's find out!

Last time we talked about the first and second generations of the blockchain. It's time to proceed with the next and talk about the third generation.

Not many people know that blockchain is divided into generations and nowadays we live in the third one. So, let’s find out what that is and start with the first two!

Crypto industry’s life doesn’t stand still. Have you ever thought about what will happen to your cryptocurrency in 20 years? 50? People are used to passing their fortune down the line or putting it in their relatives and close ones’ names.

Great news for users of PayPal! The company is about to release its own stablecoin.

Bitcoin has been officially approved by the US Stock Exchange – on October 19, the world’s first trading of the Bitcoin Strategy ETF was successfully launched in New York. In two days of trading, Bitcoin assets managed by the exchange-traded fund exceeded $1 billion. The Bitcoin Strategy ETF thus became the first US exchange-traded fund to be officially approved for Bitcoin contracts.

Thanks to the Litecoin Visa virtual card, synchronized with Apple, Google, and Samsung Pay, users can now pay for millions of goods and services with Litecoin and other popular cryptos in a matter of minutes.

One of the world’s leading payment processors, PayPal launches its cryptocurrency services in the UK starting from late August 2021.

Bitcoin is gaining ground! BTC price is on the move again, hitting its highest level since mid-May. It peaked at $50,270, adding 3% on the day. It has recovered more than 72% since June. The crypto asset’s overall market valuation is currently at $942 billion. This could be a sign that the “capitulation period has ended and the market is back on solid ground,” Coin Metrics wrote in a Tuesday newsletter.

On July 20, the European Commission introduced a law proposing the prohibition of anonymous cryptocurrency wallets. The project offers to oblige companies involved in cryptocurrency transfers to track the personal data of senders and recipients of digital assets, including a full name, residence address, date of birth, and account number. Personal identification is said to be imperative for the security of such transfers and the facilitation of the enforcement agencies’ combat against money laundering and terrorist financing.

Very soon everyone will be able to convert cryptocurrency without losses and unnecessary hassle. One of the largest global payment systems operators, Mastercard is preparing a special program expanding cryptocurrency payment options and simplifying the process of converting crypto into fiat (traditional) currencies. This will be possible thanks to MasterCard’s partnership with a range of fintech and blockchain companies. The partnership is aimed at ensuring that users of credit cards supporting the crypto program can pay for goods and services wherever MasterCard is accepted. What are the further benefits of this program?

The partnership of cryptocurrency companies and the global payment system VISA has just reached a new level: the first-of-its-kind VISA credit card with 1.5-2% BTC cashback is now available for US customers. The card was developed and issued by the American crypto-lending platform BlockFi.

Today, we are witnessing the expansion of cryptocurrency’s global privileges. For example, a member of the Argentine House of Representatives Jose Luis Ramon announced the introduction of a bill allowing employees to be paid in cryptocurrency (either partially or in whole). According to the deputy, today cryptocurrency provides employees with a wide range of advantages and tackles several issues at once, including the “strengthening of the workers’ autonomy” along with “sustaining the purchasing power” of their assets. Thus, all employees will be free to choose between the standard salary format and the cryptocurrency one. In such an event, it is the employer who will bear all the costs related to the transfer of cryptocurrency to an employee. The impetus for the bill’s elaboration was largely due to the country's participation in the Global Forum on the Knowledge Economy several years ago.

In May 2021, a massive cryptocurrency crackdown happened in China: the government banned cryptocurrency mining in four major provinces. The clampdown led to the forced relocation of a solid number of both Chinese and international digital assets companies and brought about a drop in the bitcoin hash rate by more than 50%. The Chinese government's ultimate ban on financial institutions, including banks and online payment channels for applying cryptocurrency, then echoed around the world and hit the news reports of multiple crypto websites. According to Kevin Zhang, Vice President of Business Development at Chinese crypto company Foundry, by the end of June 2021, about 90% of Chinese miners were forced to completely stop mining digital assets.