As the price of Bitcoin continues to reach new all-time highs, major corporations with existing crypto offerings in place are beginning to discuss grand plans for the future. Most recently, Dan Schulman, CEO of PayPal, hinted at future developments for PayPal’s crypto offering during Forbes’ “2021 Blockchain 50 Symposium: Crypto Goes Corporate,” an online event that took place on April 13. During a fireside chat with Michael del Castillo, associate editor at Forbes, Schulman mentioned that the financial system will undergo more changes over the next five years compared to the progress that has been made in the previous 30 …

The co-founder and CEO of Circle, Jeremy Allaire, has made a bold prediction that the company-issued stablecoin is on track to surpass payments giant PayPal in terms of transacted dollar value. The comments came in a tweet on Tuesday, in which Allaire alluded to the on-chain transaction volume for USD Coin (USDC) over the past year, which he reported as over half a trillion dollars. He added that this was already about half of the total payment volume for PayPal in 2020, hinting that a “flippening” could be coming soon. In the last year, there has been over half a …

A blockchain marketplace app is taking on the likes of eBay, Amazon and Depop — and is vowing to give back to buyers and sellers alike. Curate is designed to deliver an all-in-one experience for online shopping. As well as supporting credit and debit cards and transactions via PayPal, purchases can also be made using Bitcoin, Ether and Curate tokens. One of the project’s main goals is to deliver a fairer deal to merchants who are dealing with razor-thin profit margins. Through Curate, a flat 4% commission will be charged on sales — far less than the fees charged by …

Online payments giant PayPal will start to accept cryptocurrency as a medium of exchange at its millions of global merchants, the firm’s president and CEO revealed on Tuesday ahead of a formal announcement. News broke regarding PayPal’s rumored decision to accept cryptocurrencies early on March 30. Later in the day, the firm’s CEO, Dan Schulman, confirmed to Reuters that the rumors were true and that an official statement would be released imminently. The new system is expected to feature a crypto checkout service where users can pay for goods and services at approved vendors using their stored coins. The system …

Bitcoin (BTC) neared $60,000 on March 30 after PayPal confirmed that it had formally launched cryptocurrency payments. PayPal: Crypto is now "legitimate funding source" Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and Tradingview showed BTC/USD hitting a ten-day high on Tuesday as details appeared in the mainstream press. According an exclusive report from Reuters, PayPal is set to release a formal announcement later on the day in which it will unveil its long-awaited cryptocurrency payment feature for U.S. customers. The company caused a stir last year when it confirmed its venture into crypto, with the rollout ultimately set to extend to all …

E-commerce merchants can now transact in nearly 40 cryptocurrencies through global payment platform Nuvei. According to the announcement, merchants partnered with the payment provider can use an array of cryptocurrencies to send and receive payments across 200 countries, including top assets Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), lesser known cryptos such as Reddcoin and Bitcoin Gold, and even hyper-volatile coins like Dogecoin (DOGE). Nuvei’s customers can even use Ripple (XRP), despite the asset’s recent legal woes and subsequent delistings from major exchanges. Commenting on the launch, Nuvei’s CEO and chairman, Philip Fayer, described the firm’s support for crypto assets as “empower[ing] …

Austria-based cryptocurrency firm Bitpanda has closed a $170 million funding round to further the firm's international growth. The latest Series B funding round was led by Valar Ventures — a venture capital firm backed by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel — Bitpanda announced on Tuesday, and featured partners from Yuri Milner’s investment firm DST Global, which is known as a major investor in United States-based crypto-friendly stock trading app Robinhood. While DST is a new investor in Bitpanda, Valar previously led a $52 million Series A round in September 2020. According to Bitpanda, the new funding round has made the firm …

Allocating capital to Bitcoin risks a backlash from environmentally conscious investors, according to author and co-anchor of CNBC's Squawk Box, Andrew Ross Sorkin. In a piece for the International New York Times, syndicated worldwide, Sorkin pointed to statements by Lawrence Fink, CEO of Black Rock — the largest asset managers in the world — indicating his company would make all future investment decisions based on “how they plan to meet the climate challenge.” Tesla’s $TSLA recent bet on bitcoin sullies its green credentials. Mining and transacting the cryptocurrency requires huge amounts of computing power and electricity, much of it from …

Payments giant PayPal has acquired Israel-based digital asset security firm Curv for an undisclosed amount. According to PayPal, the firm purchased Curv as part of its initiative to support cryptocurrencies and digital assets. The platform said it plans to complete the acquisition before the third quarter of 2021, but did not disclose the purchase amount. Israel-based media outlet Calcalist said last week that Curv may have sold for between $200 million and $300 million, with CNBC reporting on Monday that “The deal is worth less than $200 million.” "The acquisition of Curv is part of our effort to invest in …

Major cryptocurrency tax compliance startup TaxBit has raised $100 million as it expands into Europe. According to a March 3 blog post, TaxBit has secured the funds in Series A round led by Paradigm and Tiger Capital. Additional investors included PayPal’s venture arm, major industry firms like Coinbase and Winklevoss Capital, as well as individual investors like Bill Ackman, Ryan Smith, Anthony Pompliano and others. According to the announcement, the new investment round comes in response to the increasing global demand for crypto services amid the crypto industry’s parabolic surge to hit a $1.5 trillion market capitalization. “The importance of …

Excitable speculators mistakenly rushed to invest in the native token of decentralized finance protocol Curve Finance (CRV) after reports emerged that payments giant PayPal has acquired the unrelated Israel-based crypto custody firm, Curv. News of PayPal’s Curv acquisition was reported on March 2, with the publications citing anonymous sources “familiar with the matter.” Israel-based media has reported the company may have been sold for between $200 million and $300 million. Within an hour of the news breaking, Curve’s CRV token had rallied by more than 10% as opportunistic traders raced each other to enter the markets — pushing prices up …

Non-collateralized borrowing and larger loans could start to be offered by the DeFi sector if decentralized digital identities are rolled out, a blockchain project says. Metaverse claims digital identities are an essential piece of infrastructure that’s currently missing from this thriving industry — despite the fact that they would allow protocols to offer personalized services, and achieve regulatory compliance. Digital identities normally consist of data including an online user’s search history, social media activity, usernames, national ID number, date of birth, and current location. The team behind Metaverse claims that this information can be put to good use without compromising …