The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) continues taking measures to prevent capital outflows amid martial law by enforcing major restrictions on cryptocurrency purchases. The Ukrainian central bank officially announced Thursday a set of restrictions on cross-border operations, prohibiting individuals from buying cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) with the national fiat currency, the hryvnia (UAH). Ukrainians are now allowed to buy Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies only with foreign currency, with total monthly purchases limited to 100,000 UAH ($3,300). The relevant limit also applies to international peer-to-peer transactions. According to the announcement, the NBU has deemed crypto purchases as “quasi cash transactions” alongside …

On Tuesday, Silvergate Bank, a crypto-fiat gateway network designed for financial institutions, announced its results for the first quarter of 2022. During this period, its revenue and net income grew by 93% and 94% year-over-year, respectively, to $59.9 million and $24.7 million. The company is most notable for its Silvergate Exchange Network, or SEN, which facilitates U.S. dollar and euro transfers between cryptocurrency exchanges and institutional investors. Despite its growth, however, institutional interest in crypto took a significant hit in Q1 due to the ongoing bear market. As told by Silvergate, the amount of SEN transfers it facilitated decreased from …

On March 11, United States President Joe Biden issued an executive order in which he encouraged the Federal Reserve to continue research on a prospective U.S. central bank digital currency, or CBDC. The order emphasized that the market capitalization of digital assets had surpassed $3 trillion in November — with Bitcoin (BTC) representing more than half of the total value of all cryptocurrency and peaking at over $60,000 — up from just $14 billion five years prior. For comparison’s sake, the U.S. money supply (M1) in the same month was $20.345 trillion. Stephen Lynch, a member of Congress who chairs …

Major cryptocurrency loan company Nexo has officially launched a crypto-backed Mastercard card enabling users to pay for services with cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) without selling their crypto. Nexo has partnered with Mastercard and the peer-to-peer payment startup DiPocket to launch the Nexo Card, a crypto card allowing cardholders to use their crypto as collateral rather than selling it, the firm announced to Cointelegraph on Wednesday. The card is linked to a Nexo-provided, crypto-backed credit line allowing to use of multiple assets as collateral, including but not limited to Bitcoin, Ether (ETH) and the Tether (USDT) stablecoin. "The Nexo Card functions …

The U.S. dollar's ability to continue its rally in Q2 could prove fatal for Bitcoin (BTC), which has demonstrated inverse correlation with the dollar since January 2022. Dollar paints "bull flag" The U.S. dollar index (DXY), which measures the greenback's strength against a basket of foreign currencies, reached its 21-month trading high of 99.82 on April 7, the highest level since May 2020. The index now looks poised to continue its upside move further as it breaks out of a classic bullish continuation pattern — called a "bull flag." In detail, bull flags appear when the price consolidates lower inside …

The first 100,000 Jamaican citizens to use the country’s new central bank digital currency (CBDC) known as Jam-Dex, will be given a free $16 payment in the hopes of promoting widespread adoption. Jamaican prime minister Andrew Holness first announced the news in a Facebook post on Thursday. The post received a mixed response as some Facebook users praised Holness for “embracing a digital future”, while others expressed concern about the motivations of the Jamaican government, accusing Holness of trying to “bribe” citizens into the federal banking system. According to the Jamaica Observer, approximately 17% of the Jamaican population is currently …

U.S.-based fintech giant Stripe has significantly ramped up its crypto initiatives after it launched a service that enables payments for NFTs and digital assets via fiat currency. Businesses can use Stripe’s new application programming interfaces (APIs) to accept fiat payments for crypto, provide digital wallets, payout users in fiat, leverage identity and know-your-customer (KYC) solutions, and utilize data to detect and block fraudulent transactions. Stripe co-founder John Collinson shared an announcement via Twitter on March 11, and the firm also partnered with FTX, FTX US, Blockchain.com, Nifty Gateway, and Just Mining to launch the crypto business suite. Stripe now supports …

Several Russian banks that were sanctioned over Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine will no longer support major payment services like Apple Pay and Google Pay. Russia’s second-largest bank, VTB, as well as other banks like Sovcombank, Otkritie, Novikombank and Promsvyazbank, are on the list of companies sanctioned by the United States, the Bank of Russia confirmed on Friday. Users of debit and credit cards issued by these banks will no longer be able to use Apple Pay and Google Pay, the central bank said in the announcement, adding that contact or contactless payment will still be available in full …

In the event of harsh Western sanctions, Russians’ savings could be confiscated, according to Nikolai Arefiev, a member of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and vice-chairman of the Duma’s committee on economic policy. The Russian government can potentially seize about 60 trillion rubles ($750 billion) worth of people’s deposits should Western nations decide to block all of Russia’s foreign funds, Arefiev said in an interview with the local news agency NEWS.ru on Monday. “If all the foreign funds are blocked, the government will have no other choice but to seize all the deposits of the population, or 60 …

Czechia, a country of 10.7 million people in Central Europe, is known for its beautiful capital (Prague), rich history, and good beer. Within the last decade, however, one can now add cryptocurrency adoption to that list. In fact, the Trezor wallet, the first cryptocurrency hardware wallet in the world, was invented here in 2014, and is still going strong. Its parent company, SatoshiLabs, has expanded into creating secure chips for electronic hardware via Tropic Square and advancing cryptocurrency education via Invity. What's more, the country also gave birth to the world's first Bitcoin (BTC) mining pool — Braiins (Slush Pool), …

The cryptocurrency ecosystem has come a long way since the launch of Bitcoin (BTC) and in the last few years smart contracts have revolutionized the industry. With that said, there is still plenty of progress to be made when it comes to integrating blockchain technology to peer-to-peer, business to business and business to consumer payment systems. Alchemy Pay aims to further the adoption of cryptocurrencies through its hybrid payments system and in the last week its ACH token gained 77% to trade at $0.0625 on Feb. 9. Three reasons for the uptick in ACH price include the cross-chain launch of …

Fidelity, the multinational brokerage giant, released a paper on Bitcoin (BTC) titled Bitcoin First. The financial services provider calls for BTC to be treated separately from the rest of the digital assets. The paper argued that BTC is fundamentally different from the hundreds of other digital assets trading in the market and no other digital asset is likely to overtake the top cryptocurrency “as a monetary good.” Fidelity’s paper called Bitcoin a superior form of money rather than just a tech. It is the most ”secure, decentralized form of asset and any "improvement" will necessarily face tradeoffs.” The paper read: …