The Italian high-end fashion label Gucci has announced it will begin accepting cryptocurrency payments by the end of the month in five of its United States stores, with plans to extend the service to all of its 111 stores in North America. Gucci will accept 12 cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ether (ETH), Wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC), Litecoin (LTC), Shiba Inu (SHIB), Dogecoin (DOGE) and five U.S. dollar stablecoins, according to Vogue Business. Customers paying with crypto in-store at the pilot locations in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Atlanta and Las Vegas will be sent an email with a …

Samson Mow, former chief strategy officer at Blokstream and founder of JAN3, is convinced that most decentralized finance protocols can’t compete with Bitcoin when it comes to providing an effective monetary network because of their lack of decentralization. As Mow pointed out, DeFi projects are governed by entities that can modify the protocol at will. “Bitcoin, at the fundamental level, is money, and it should be immutable,” explained Mow. “If you can change it at will, then you’re no better than a fiat currency governed by the Fed.” Bitcoin’s (BTC) decentralization makes it very difficult to modify its protocol, which …

Months after Bitcoin (BTC) became legal tender in El Salvador, a study conducted by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) shows that 20% of businesses have started to accept BTC as a payment method. The study, surveying adults from 1,800 households in El Salvador, aimed to measure the adoption of BTC in the country after the Bitcoin Law was passed. The researchers found that BTC is gaining ground compared to other payment methods. According to the report, users who have downloaded the government-backed Chivo Wallet have “decreased their use of cash by 10%, while their net use of debit …

Okay Bears, a Solana (SOL)-powered nonfungible token (NFT), managed to top OpenSea’s 24-hour sales tracker for the first time earlier on Thursday, beating out all other Ethereum (ETH) projects on offer. It’s the first time a Solana NFT project has reached the top spot in thpopular NFT marketplace OpenSea’s 24-hour sales tracker. .@okaybears No.1 on the OpenSea 24h rankings A @solana project has topped OpenSea’s market-wide 24h sales tracker for the first time! Check out the latest featured Solana collections on our dedicated SOL page: https://t.co/gteXeNRocn pic.twitter.com/1duEDQyxyn — OpenSea (@opensea) April 27, 2022 The Solana-based NFT, which features a collection …

The Bitcoin meme “Wen Lambo” might be making a comeback. For JayFab, a Redditor who owns and operates a welding and fabrication company, it’s certainly the case. Working in Kansas City, Missouri, in the Midwest, JayFab told Cointelegraph that he took payment in Bitcoin (BTC) for the repairs made to a Lamborghini Aventador. JayFab told Cointelegraph that receiving Bitcoin for repairing the car was his “first legitimate transaction,” even though he first got into Bitcoin in 2016. “From there [2016], I have taken the deep dive into the industry to learn about it, understand the tech and possibly have a …

The Central African Republic (CAR) has become the center of a hot buzz in the crypto world amid various reports of it adopting Bitcoin (BTC) quite similar to El Salvador. However, contrary to popular headlines, the African nation has not adopted BTC as a legal tender; instead, it has reportedly legalized the use of cryptocurrencies in the financial markets. The cryptocurrency bill was introduced by Justin Gourna Zacko, the minister of Digital Economy, Post and Telecommunications on Thursday and was unanimously approved by the lawmakers in the parliament despite a protest from the opposition, reported RFI. The crypto law aims …

Russia's Federal Tax Service (FTS) has joined the debate around crypto regulation in Russia with an unexpectedly blunt proposition — to let Russian companies use digital currencies as a payment method when transacting internationally. On Wednesday, local newspaper Izvestia reported that the FTS left its official feedback on the draft of the crypto bill prepared by the Ministry of Finance. In its remarks, the fiscal agency proposed to let Russian companies use crypto for certain operations: “To let corporate entities pay for goods and services according to foreign trade contracts and to receive revenue from foreign entities in digital currency.” …

The average transaction fee per Bitcoin (BTC) transaction made a complete 360-degree over nearly two years to settle down at $1.039, a number which was last recorded back in June 2020. The BTC transaction fee is the cost to transfer any amount of BTC, which is also directly proportional to the time it takes to validate and complete the transaction. As evidenced by data provided by Blockchain.com, the average BTC transaction fee saw a steady decline from an all-time high of $62.788 in April 2021 before coming down to an eight-month average of $2 in July 2021. Before April 2021, …

Rappi, the most popular delivery service in Latin America, is working with Bitso and Bitpay to accept Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrency payments. As reported by Cointelegraph Brazil, Rappi is integrating with Bitso and Bitpay through a trial project in Mexico. However, it's unclear whether the pilot plan will also enable access to the service in Brazil and other Latin American countries. In Mexico, Rappi, a Colombian delivery app with operations in nine Latin American countries, has launched a crypto payments pilot program. Customers will be able to convert crypto into credits that can subsequently be used to complete purchases …

60 Minutes, the CBS news show that has been running since 1968, will feature El Salvador’s Bitcoin Beach in a new episode airing April 10. According to a Friday post from 60 Minutes’ Twitter account, the investigative news show will air a segment on the crypto-friendly area of El Zonte, a village located in El Salvador, where residents and visitors have been able to use Bitcoin (BTC) to pay for anything from utility bills to tacos. Sharyn Alfonsi, a journalist and correspondent for the show, interviewed Mike Peterson, one of the people who funded the project and encouraged crypto adoption …

Following the announced integration of the payment app Strike with e-commerce platform Shopify to accept Bitcoin (BTC) through the Lightning Network, the crypto community raised concerns over the legal implications of the move. Crypto researcher Matt Ahlborg believes that the event is a very significant development for BTC as it allows the offloading of BTC without the need to go through the know-your-customer (KYC) process. What Jack Mallers is really saying is that you will be soon be able to offload your Bitcoins in the real world without KYC'ing through an exchange first. If this is true, it is actually …

Chicago-based payment app Strike has integrated with global e-commerce giant Shopify so merchants can accept Bitcoin payments via the Bitcoin Lightning Network. The Lightning Network (LN) is a Layer-2 scaling solution for Bitcoin designed to facilitate faster and cheaper transactions. Strike CEO Jack Mallers revealed the new integration on stage at Miami's Bitcoin 2022 conference today. The move could allow Shopify’s almost two million global merchants to accept Bitcoin payments denominated in USD. However the only merchant partner cited in Strike's official release was Warren Lotas, an LA based streetwear brand — and that site was down at the time …