UK Payments Company Wirex Becomes Visa Global Partner, Extends Crypto Card Program Reach to Over 40 Countries

February 15, 2023 Bitcoin.com

Starkware Plans to Open Source Key Tech Linked to Starknet Prover

February 6, 2023 Bitcoin.com

Visa’s crypto strategy targets stablecoin settlements

February 5, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

At the StarkWare Sessions 2023, Visa's Cuy Sheffield shared the company's vision for digital assets.

Payment company Visa is seeking to build a "muscle memory" to settlements, aiming to allow customers to convert digital assets to fiat currencies on its platform, according to the company's head of crypto division Cuy Sheffield at the StarkWare Sessions 2023.

"We've been testing how to actually accept settlement payments from issuers in USDC starting on Ethereum and paying out in USDC (USDC) on Ethereum. So, these are large value settlement payments.", noted Sheffield in a fireside chat at the event. Cointelegraph's team is on the ground in Tel-Aviv covering the two-day Ethereum community conference.

According to the executive, global settlement with digital assets and fiat currencies is one of the avenues that Visa is investing in. He specifically stated:

"That's been one of the areas where we want to build muscle memory. The same way that we can convert between dollars in euros on a cross border transaction, we should be able to convert between digital tokenized dollars and traditional dollars."

The payment giant has been exploring how to incorporate blockchain technology into its existing network to move money faster, but settlements still take place on the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications, or SWIFT system, a not for profit cooperative society formed by European bankers with the purpose of facilitating secure and standardized transaction communication between its members.

. @cuysheffield and @visa have fell into the rabbit hole of Account Abstraction!

This is huge! pic.twitter.com/CFniLLBq5C
— Starknet-Ecosystem.com ✨ (@StarkNetEco) February 5, 2023

"We set all over Swift, so we can't move money as frequently as we'd like because there are a number of limitations that exist in those networks. And so, we've been experimenting, we publicly announced. We've been testing how to actually accept settlement payments [with stablecoins]," Sheffield explained.

Recently speaking at Visa’s annual shareholder meeting, former CEO Al Kelly briefly shared the firm’s plans for central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and private stablecoins, claiming that "stablecoins and central bank digital currencies have the potential to play a meaningful role in the payments space, and we have a number of initiatives underway.”

Sheffield confirmed the company's view for blockchain technology and digital assets. "We're thinking a lot about how to take some of the value that visa provides on existing bank rails, with existing forms of beyond in a rebuild that on top of blockchain rails, using stable boards. If we think there are huge opportunities in that area, it just kind of stays on emerging."

Huobi and Solaris crypto-to-fiat debit card launches in the EU

January 13, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

The Visa-backed debit card will allow Huobi users in the European Economic Area (EEA) to pay from their crypto accounts at point of sale stations globally.

As the crypto space continues to expand into the mainstream, bridging the gap between digital currencies and fiat currency is a priority for many legacy financial institutions.

Cryptocurrency exchange Huobi announced its partnership with Solaris, a European financial services provider, to launch a crypto-to-fiat debit card.

The program, which Visa has approved, allows Huobi users to use their digital assets at the point of sale globally. Users residing in the European Economic Area (EEA) will have access to the card beginning in the second quarter of 2023.

The EEA comprises all 27 European Union member states, as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.

Andrea Ramoino, the chief strategy officer at Solaris hinted at future developments in its partnership with Huobi in his comment.

“This is just the first step in our partnership as we look ahead to delivering more payment options to users in the EEA region and beyond."

This is not the first crypto-to-fiat card available to residents of the E.U. In 2020, Binance launched its own Visa-accredited crypto-to-fiat card, which allows Europeans to pull funds straight from their Binance accounts.

Outside of E.U. Visa has been an active proponent in bridging the crypto-fiat gap. In October 2022, Blockchain.com announced its partnership with Visa to offer a crypto debit, which is only available to residents of the United States.

Prior to the FTX scandal, it had also partnered with Visa to offer a debit card in 40 countries.

Most recently, the financial service provider worked with the fintech company ZELF, to launch an anonymous debit card with a crypto recharge. This allows users to open a checking account based in the U.S. dollar with only their name, email, and phone number.

Prior to the start of 2023, Visa also hinted at a feature that would allow users to auto-pay bills from their crypto wallet.

Crypto Biz: Contagion engulfs Bitcoin miners as bear market continues

December 23, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Bankruptcy

With the BTC price plunging more than 76% peak-to-trough, miners are struggling to keep their operations running.

Never underestimate how quickly things can deteriorate in a sector as volatile as crypto, especially in a bear market. Prices can always go lower in the depts of crypto winter and casualties can multiply overnight. 2022 has been a year of never-ending contagion; with everyone focused on Binance, high-profile Bitcoin (BTC) miners were going bust.

This week, mining company Core Scientific filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Greenridge, another miner, received a $74 million debt restructuring lifeline from New York Digital Investment Group. Bitcoin is the most valuable commodity in a bear market, but miners must keep the lights on.

The news isn’t all negative on the mining front. This week, German miner Northern Data reported that it expects to generate up to $206 million in revenue from its mining operations this year. It also has no financial debt on its books, giving it more flexibility in dealing with market conditions.

This week’s Crypto Biz dissects Core Scientific’s financial troubles, FTX’s clawback warning, Celsius’ pool of potential bidders and Visa’s latest intellectual foray into crypto.

Bitcoin miner Core Scientific reportedly filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy

Crypto contagion has spread to the Bitcoin mining industry, with miner Core Scientific reportedly filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Texas. The news came just days after a creditor offered Core Scientific $72 million to help shore up its finances amid the bear market. That deal did not go through. However, Core is said to continue its mining operations and has no plans to liquidate its remaining BTC. The company was forced to offload 9,618 BTC in April to stay operational. Other Bitcoin miners also feel the pinch and are pursuing various means to protect their operations during an extended bear market.

FTX warns it will claw back political donations and contributions

When you think you’ve heard all you needed to hear about Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX, new developments emerge. This week, the bankrupt crypto exchange warned that anyone who received political donations or contributions from SBF or other FTX executives could have those funds clawed back as part of a fund recovery process. This may have been triggered by some Democratic recipients coming forward and pledging to give back the now-tainted funds. Do you know who else received campaign donations from SBF? The Biden 2020 election campaign. So far, the president hasn’t signaled whether he would return the $5.2 million worth of donations SBF made to his campaign during the 2020 presidential election, but that could change. This is a story worth monitoring.

Sharing our press release just issued: FTX Debtors Announce Process for Voluntary Return of Avoidable Payments https://t.co/l57F7zgKPJ
— FTX (@FTX_Official) December 19, 2022

Celsius amasses 30 potential bidders for its assets, withdrawal motion approved

Bankrupt crypto lender Celsius has amassed a long list of potential buyers for its remaining assets, raising cautious optimism that it would be able to sell its retail platform and mining businesses at a competitive price. Since September, more than 125 parties have been contacted and 30 potential bidders have emerged. Celsius’ latest presentation, part of its bankruptcy proceedings, suggested that the company’s valuation stood at $2.6 billion as of Nov. 25. The company has a $1.2 billion hole in its balance sheet. In other words, there is $5.5 billion owed to users versus only $4.3 billion in assets.

Visa dreams up plans to let you auto-pay bills from your crypto wallet

For all the fear, uncertainty and doubt plaguing the cryptocurrency market, we can always rely on Visa for positive reinforcement. The crypto-friendly credit card giant recently proposed a business solution to streamline digital asset payments. While still in the thought-experiment phase, Visa imagines an auto-pay feature enabling crypto users to pull funds directly from their Ethereum-powered self-custodial wallets. They can then use these funds to make auto payments on their telephone bills, Netflix subscriptions and other recurring charges. It’s a highly technical proposal, but we dissected it in lay terms to give you the full scoop.

Before you go: Is Binance insolvent or is it just FUD?

How far will the crypto contagion spread? As centralized platforms fall by the wayside, culminating in the collapse of FTX in November, more and more people are shifting their attention to Binance. Warranted or not, Binance has been at the center of controversy over concerns about its financial health and rumors that the exchange would become the target of a U.S. money laundering lawsuit. In this week’s Market Report, I sat down with Marcel Pechman and Joe Hall to discuss any merit to the Binance FUD. You can watch the full replay below.

Crypto Biz is your weekly pulse of the business behind blockchain and crypto delivered directly to your inbox every Thursday.

Stablecoin settlements can surpass all major card networks in 2023: Data

December 22, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Circle

While on-chain stablecoins settlements are growing rapidly, many people pointed out that comparing stablecoin settlements to Visa transactions is not fair as they represent two different things.

Stablecoins play a very critical role in the crypto economy today and despite the recent run-down in the broader market, stablecoin volumes continue to dominate most exchanges.

According to Coinmetrics data, on-chain stablecoin settlements reached over $7 trillion in 2022 and are expected to end the year at around $8 trillion. While the largest card network, Visa, processes ~$12tn/yr.

Peter Johnson, co-head of the venture at Brevan Howard Digital, said that stablecoin settlements had already surpassed MasterCard and American Express. Furthermore, he predicted that in 2023 on-chain stablecoin volumes will surpass the Visa transaction volumes.

He also noted that stablecoins volume would not only surpass Visa but most likely surpass the aggregate volume of all four major card networks (Visa, Mastercard, AmEx, and Discover). Johnson added that these on-chain stablecoin volumes don't include a trading volume on centralized exchanges which has a significant chunk of its own.

3/ (Note that this is just on-chain settlement volume, and does not include trading volume on centralized exchanges)
— Peter Johnson (@TheChicagoVC) December 21, 2022

While the comparison definitely indicates a significant increase in stablecoin usage, many users pointed out that the comparison between the two entities doesn’t hold ground as they are two different things.

There is a distinction to be made between credit card volumes and stablecoin settlements. Credit card transactions are typically associated with consumer spending, whereas fiat-pegged crypto assets are primarily associated with crypto trading and decentralized finance.

Hmm kinda comparing apples and oranges. Mastercard/discover etc volumes are sourced from consumer spending. Onchain volume is sourced from investor speculation.

This $7+tn would need to come from payments for consumer goods/services using stablecoins to be a relevant comparison
— Kim ⚡️ (@0xKimberly) December 21, 2022

A key barrier for stablecoins to be actively used by consumers in their daily lives just like Visa and Mastercard is regulations. However, Republican Senator Pat Toomey, who is set to retire from U.S. Congress at the end of the term, aims to change that with his stablecoin bill. The bill proposes to permit non-state and non-bank institutions to issue stablecoins, as long as they obtain a federal license created and issued by the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), and as backed up by “high-quality liquid assets.”

In terms of market capitalization, stablecoins currently make up about 16.5% of the total. CoinGecko data indicates that the value of all of the stablecoins together is about $140 billion. Tether-issued USDT currently dominates the stablecoin market with a total supply of 66.3 billion USDT followed by Circle’s USDC with a 44.3 billion in UDSC market supply.

Payments Giant Visa Proposes Using Ethereum L2 Starknet to Bolster Auto Payments for Self-Custodial Wallets

December 21, 2022 Bitcoin.com

Ethereum bounces above $1.2K, but derivatives metrics show traders fear a collapse

December 20, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Ethereum bounces above .2K, but derivatives metrics show traders fear a collapse

Coin Telegraph

Demand for leverage buying remains absent in ETH despite the recent bounce to $1,200 as the U.S. Federal Reserve continues to hike interest rates.

Ether (ETH) gained 5.6% on Dec. 20 after testing the $1,150 support the previous day. Still, a bearish trend prevails, forming a three-week-long descending channel, a price action attributed to expectations of further U.S. Federal Reserve interest rate hikes.

*Ether/USD price index, 12-hour. Source: TradingView*

Jim Bianco, head of institutional research firm Bianco Research, said on Dec. 20 that the Fed will keep the economy tightening in 2023. Later that day, Japan’s central bank increased interest rates to fight inflation, far later than its counterparties. The unexpected move made analysts more bearish toward risk assets, including cryptocurrencies.

Ethereum might have caught some tailwind after the global payment processor Visa proposed a solution to allow automatic funding from Ethereum wallets. Auto-payments for recurring bills aren’t possible for self-custodial wallets so Visa would rely on smart contracts, known as “account abstraction.” Curiously, the concept emerged in 2015 with Vitalik Buterin.

The most pressing issue, however, is regulation. On Dec. 19, the U.S. House Financial Services Committee reintroduced legislation aimed at creating innovation offices within government agencies dealing with financial services. According to North Carolina Representative Patrick McHenry, companies could apply for an “enforceable compliance agreement” with the offices at agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Consequently, investors believe Ether could revisit sub-$1,000 prices as the DXY dollar index loses strength while the 10-year U.S. treasury yields show higher demand for protection. Trader CryptoCondom expects the next couple of months to be extremely bearish for crypto markets.

Algos see $DXY down & bid up crypto. BOJ overnight isn’t bullish…it’s a sign of things breaking.
DXY ⬇️ & 10Y ⬆️ = Recession
I will be shorting the market waiting for three digit $ETH.
Crypto IS the future of France but the next 2-3m will feel like being in the Gulag instead. pic.twitter.com/nLKqtNz3C3
— CryptoCondom (@crypto_condom) December 20, 2022

Let's look at Ether derivatives data to understand if the bearish macroeconomic movement has negatively impacted investors' sentiment.

The recent bounce above $1,200 did not instill bullishness

Retail traders usually avoid quarterly futures due to their price difference from spot markets. Meanwhile, professional traders prefer these instruments because they prevent the fluctuation of funding rates in a perpetual futures contract.

The two-month futures annualized premium should trade between +4% to +8% in healthy markets to cover costs and associated risks. When the futures trade at a discount versus regular spot markets, it shows a lack of confidence from leverage buyers, which is a bearish indicator.

*Ether 2-month futures annualized premium. Source: Laevitas.ch*

The chart above shows that derivatives traders continue to use more leverage for short (bear) positions as the Ether futures premium remains negative. Still, the absence of leverage buyers' demand does not mean traders expect further adverse price action.

For this reason, traders should analyze Ether's options markets to understand whether investors are pricing higher odds of surprise adverse price movements.

Options traders not keen on offering downside protection

The 25% delta skew is a telling sign when market makers and arbitrage desks are overcharging for upside or downside protection.

In bear markets, options investors give higher odds for a price dump, causing the skew indicator to rise above 10%. On the other hand, bullish markets tend to drive the skew indicator below -10%, meaning the bearish put options are discounted.

*Ether 60-day options 25% delta skew: Source: Laevitas.ch*

The delta skew increased after Dec. 15 from a fearful 14% against the protective put options to the current 20%. The movement signaled that options traders became even less comfortable with downside risks.

The 60-day delta skew signals whales and market makers are reluctant to offer downside protection, which seems natural considering the 3-week-long descending channel.

In a nutshell, both options and futures markets point to pro traders not trusting the recent bounce above $1,200. The present trend favors Ether bears because the odds of the Fed maintaining its balance sheet reduction program seem high, which is destructive for risk markets.

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the authors’ alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

Visa dreams up plans so you can auto-pay bills with your crypto wallet

December 20, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Account Abrsaction

Auto-payments for bills are commonplace in the traditional banking world and Visa has proposed a way to mimic the service using blockchain tech.

Crypto-users may one day be able to automatically pay their electricity and telephone bills through their self-custodial crypto wallets, according to payments giant Visa.

In a Dec. 20 blog post, Visa’s crypto thought leadership team proposed a solution that would allow providers to automaticall “pull” funds from users’ Ethereum-powered crypto wallets, without requiring the user to manually sign off on every transaction.

Auto-payments for recurring bills are commonplace in the traditional banking world, giving users the ability to permit certain service providers to draw from their chosen bank accounts to pay off bills — such as a Netflix subscription or a monthly telephone bill.

Such a mechanism isn’t possible for owners of self-custodial wallets, said Visa, noting that automated programmable payments that pull payments from a user's account at recurring intervals "requires engineering work."

This is because, in self-custodial wallets, the user is the only person in control of the private keys, meaning they need to manually sign off on transactions as “a smart contract cannot initiate transactions on its own.”

In its technical piece, Visa said automatic recurring payments via crypto would be possible through a new type of self-custodial wallet called “delegable accounts,” which is based on the “Account Abstraction” (AA) concept.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Butering put forward the concept in 2015, which essentially allows for Ethereum-based wallets and smart contracts to be combined into a single account among other use cases.

Through an AA-based self-custody wallet or delegable account, the Visa team states that user accounts would “function like smart contracts,” meaning that people can schedule transactions without signing off to initiate each transaction.

“This application could allow a user to setup a programmable payment instruction that can push funds automatically from one self-custodial wallet account to another at recurring intervals, without requiring the user's active participation each time,” the post reads.

The proposal is part of the crypto-friendly firm’s broader research into new avenues for blockchain innovation and to work around rigid requirements hardcoded into Ethereum transactions.”

AA has many potential use cases, especially on how the user experience on a digital wallet may be substantially enhanced with more flexibility embedded into user account to function more like smart contract.
— Catherine Gu (@catgu_) December 19, 2022

The team does admit that while auto-payments can be integrated relatively easily via wallets hosted by other parties such as exchanges, this of course means the user would have to trust their funds will be managed appropriately by said parties.

This was proven to be a major risk this year especially given the bankruptcies of FTX, Voyager, BlockFi and Celsius to name a few.

The post also highlights that AA has been proposed as part of multiple Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) over the years, but ultimately hasn’t gone through due to its difficulty in implementation. This is due to it requiring many protocol changes and “security guarantees to be met.”

The Visa team stated that it has already successfully tried its delegable accounts on a private chain from Layer Two scaling solution StarkNet, as the network supports AA.

As such the post concludes that auto payments are not far away given it was able to implement delegable accounts within StarkNets’ “account model.”

Auto-Payments on Ethereum? Visa Says it’s Possible

December 19, 2022 The Crypto Briefing

Visa

Bitcoin miner Core Scientific reportedly filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy

FTX warns it will claw back political donations and contributions

Celsius amasses 30 potential bidders for its assets, withdrawal motion approved

Visa dreams up plans to let you auto-pay bills from your crypto wallet

The recent bounce above $1,200 did not instill bullishness

Options traders not keen on offering downside protection

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