Facebook has unveiled the Novi digital currency wallet pilot in the United States and the Central American nation of Guatemala on Oct 19. While the wallet is free of any charges (at this time), operates with KYC and primarily focused on remittances, the interesting part is that Facebook has retired its Diem cryptocurrency project in favor of the Ethereum based Paxos issued USDP stablecoin – an ERC 20 token with custody services being sourced from Coinbase. The limited rollout carries the “Move the money instantly with no fees” allows the…

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Arab Bank Switzerland announced Tuesday that it will integrate staking, trading and custody services onto the Tezos blockchain’s native token (XTZ) in a bid to provide a digital asset environment for institutions, corporations and high net-worth individuals. The 50-year old establishment partnered with Tezos in the hope of benefiting from the ecosystem’s inherent focus on energy conservation, low-gas fees and fast upgrades. Managing Director of Arab Bank Switzerland, Rani Jabban commented on the institution’s ambitions following the announcement: “Digital Assets are a cornerstone of our strategy, requiring strong agility while…

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Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele has announced that local consumers can enjoy a $0.20-per-gallon reduction in petrol prices when paying, using the government-backed Bitcoin wallet, Chivo. Describing the news as “positive news for the pockets of Salvadorans,” the president announced the subsidy via Twitter on Thursday. According to a rough translation, Bukele stated: “The state company Chivo negotiated with the largest gas station companies in our country, so that starting tomorrow, their stations will sell each gallon of fuel $ 0.20 cheaper, with Chivo wallet.” Bukele emphasized that there is no…

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The region of central, northern and western Europe, or CNWE, has emerged as the world’s most active cryptocurrency block, receiving over $1 trillion worth of digital assets over the past year, according to new research from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis. The report, which was released Tuesday, found that the CNWE region accounted for 25% of global crypto activity between July 2020 and June 2021. The region witnessed a sharp uptick in transaction volume across all crypto sub-categories, especially decentralized finance, or DeFi. Chainalysis describes crypto transactions as anything involving trade,…

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Payments giant Mastercard has signed an agreement to acquire blockchain analytics start-up CipherTrace as it looks to accelerate and expand its cryptocurrency strategy. The company says that CipherTrace’s security and fraud detection capabilities provide “additional transparency and support” for the digital asset ecosystem. Mastercard plans to integrate the start-up’s suite of crypto intelligence solutions with its own cybersecurity offerings. It says this will help businesses looking to build out their own virtual asset offerings identify and understand risks and to “help manage their digital asset regulatory and compliance obligations”. Ajay…

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SIX, Switzerland’s stock exchange, has revealed that it has received regulatory approval to launch its digital bourse. According to an announcement made on Friday, the Swiss Financial Market Supervision Authority greenlit the approval for the digital bourse, named SDX. SIX revealed that it had received two licenses from FINMA, Switzerland’s market’s watchdog, to begin operating a stock exchange and depository for blockchain-based securities. The firm released a statement stating, “This authorization enables SDX to go live with a fully regulated, integrated trading, settlement, and custody infrastructure based on distributed ledger…

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European Central Bank (ECB) Vice President Luis De Guindos has stated he wants cryptocurrencies to be subject to the same rules that other assets are. The statements were offered in a presentation given as part of the summer courses offered by the European Parliament, where De Guindos declared his opinion about cryptocurrency regulation. ECB Vice President: Crypto Should Follow Same Laws as Other Assets Luis De Guindos, current Vice President of the ECB, stated he thinks crypto-assets should be regulated as any other asset in the market. De Guindos expressed…

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