Jo Johnson, the brother of former United Kingdom prime minister Boris Johnson, has reportedly stepped down from his role as an adviser to Binance, according to a report by the U.K.’s Telegraph. According to the report, Jo Johnson had been advising Binance during the exchange's efforts to expand into the United Kingdom. The former British prime minister’s brother, also known as Lord Johnson of Marylebone, reportedly took up a role on the U.K. advisory board of one of Binance's subsidiaries, Bitfinity, in September. The Telegraph reports that he resigned last week after Binance's proof of reserves raised red flags for …

The Russian central bank is ready to consider allowing cryptocurrency use within the country but only as part of a legal experiment, governor Elvira Nabiullina said. “It’s possible to consider transactions through an authorized organization in the country as part of an experimental legal regime, but that would require a relevant law,” Nabiullina stated during a press conference of Bank of Russia on Dec. 16. The Bank of Russia’s only objection has always been that crypto cannot be used as a payment instrument, Nabiullina emphasized. She added that the central bank is also concerned about investor protection because the crypto …

PayPal's former leadership, also known as the "PayPal Mafia," have slammed the payments giant for its debanking policies of late, with one co-founder calling the freezing of funds “totalitarian,” while another compared it to an episode of Black Mirror. Despite becoming crypto-friendly in recent years, the payments tech giant has caught a lot of headlines and pushback over its de-platforming practices, which reportedly involve a rather abrupt process of freezing funds, fines, and frosty negotiations to unlock the accounts of its users for varying reasons. Peter Thiel, who co-founded PayPal in 1998 and served as its CEO until 2002 suggested …

The parallel development of payment processors for digital currencies is taking place along with the implementation of blockchain technology in various industries like healthcare, academics, supply chain and among others. Businesses willing to accept cryptocurrencies as a payment method rather than fiat currencies rely upon crypto payment gateways to operate. Without the trouble of needing to keep a cryptocurrency wallet and convert digital currency into fiat money, a crypto payment gateway can offer a straightforward solution for a merchant to adopt crypto. This facilitates the broader acceptance of digital currencies and makes it simpler for a vendor to provide cryptocurrency …

Social media users are swirling around rumors that Twitter is looking at introducing its own native asset called “Twitter Coin” to be used for payments and tipping on the platform. Some are citing the initial reports from sources such as Nima Owji, who runs an app-focused information leak account on Twitter. On Dec. 4, he posted a screenshot of what appears to be a prototype Twitter interface showing a “Coins” option for tipping, along with a vector image showing a coin bearing Twitter’s logo. #Twitter is working on Coins! pic.twitter.com/67upjUn37D — Nima Owji (@nima_owji) December 3, 2022 Others have pointed …

What are the pros and cons of accepting Bitcoin payments? Accepting Bitcoin payments is advantageous due to lower fees than credit and debit cards, expansion of customer base and real-time bank balances. However, risks like volatility and cybercrime may undermine these benefits. Cryptocurrency payments help save excessive credit and debit card processing fees as they are decentralized and do not need intermediaries to verify the transaction. Moreover, merchants do not incur overseas currency exchange changes if payments are made in BTC or other cryptocurrencies. High transaction speed is another benefit of accepting Bitcoin payments, allowing businesses to receive payments in …

The most talked about crypto lawsuit involving the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Ripple is approaching its conclusion after a two-year-long battle. On Dec. 2 the SEC and Ripple both filed redacted replies to each other’s opposition to motions for summary judgment. Ripple argued in its motion document that the SEC has failed to prove that its offering of XRP between 2013 and 2020 was an offer or sale of an “investment contract” and therefore a security under federal security laws. Ripple concluded the document by stating that “the court should grant Defendant’s Motion and should deny …

While Brazil has not made Bitcoin (BTC) legal tender as El Salvador did last year, the South-American nation has passed a law that legalizes crypto payments throughout the country. The Chamber of Deputies of Brazil, a federal legislative body, has passed a regulatory framework that legalizes the use of cryptocurrencies as a payment method within the country. While this makes significant progress for crypto within Brazil, the law still requires the signature of the president of Brazil for it to be enacted. The passing of the bill does not make any cryptocurrencies legal tender within the country. However, the bill …

A handful of government-backed financial institutions have been exploring tokenization use cases to revolutionize traditional financial systems. For instance, El Salvador’s Bitcoin Volcanic bond project has been in the works for over a year and aims to raise $1 billion from investors with tokenized bonds to build a Bitcoin city. The Central Bank of Russia has also expressed interest in tokenized off-chain assets. In addition, the Israeli Ministry of Finance, together with the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE), recently announced the testing of a blockchain-backed platform for digital bond trading. Cointelegraph Research’s 2021 Security Token Report found that most securities …

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has confirmed that he intends on integrating payments into what he describes as Twitter 2.0 — “The Everything App” — fuelling a short-lived 19.4% price surge for meme-inspired cryptocurrency Dogecoin (DOGE). The new Twitter CEO revealed his plans in a Nov. 27 tweet to his 119.2 million followers, in which he shared several slides from a recent “Twitter company talk.” Slides from my Twitter company talk pic.twitter.com/8LLXrwylta — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 27, 2022 While Musk made no mention of DOGE in the tweet or in the attached slides, this didn’t appear to stop some investors …

Starling — a digital bank based in the United Kingdom — is the latest financial institution to ban crypto-related transfers and activities for its cardholders. Starling customers will no longer be able to purchase cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) or receive incoming transfers from crypto exchanges or merchants. The online bank announced the news in a statement to customers as well as on Twitter, citing the perceived high risks of crypto trading. Hi there We always review our position in relation to financial crime. We consider crypto activity to be high risk. We’ve taken the decision to prevent all card payments …

The environment is now a global priority, evidenced by the threat of increasing carbon dioxide emissions reaching 414.72 parts per million, a new record high in 2021, as reported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate in the United States. With the impact of these emissions on climate change in mind, many countries have publicized their mission to lower their carbon emissions. For example, the United States has openly communicated its plan for environmental commodity measurement through the Bureau of Economic Analysis. However, for many sectors, achieving absolute-zero carbon emissions is impossible; carbon offsetting becomes crucial to counteracting residual …