The Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) has announced that it will facilitate a new remittance channel between Europe and Africa using the USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin. On Oct. 25, the SDF announced that global payments technology company Flutterwave will use the USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin on the Stellar network to simplify remittances between Africa and Europe. Flutterwave will work alongside Stellar’s principal EU payments partner, Paris-based money transfer operator, Tempo Payments. Olugbenga Agboola, CEO at Flutterwave, commented that it is more expensive to send money to sub-Saharan Africa than to any other region in the world. He added that the new …

Cryptocurrency adoption has been growing for a number of reasons. In emerging markets, research suggests crypto remittances are a factor, although some argue that the idea of using cryptocurrencies for these transactions is nothing more than a purist’s dream. The CEO of cryptocurrency derivatives trading platform BitMEX, Alexander Höptner, predicted earlier this month that by the end of next year, at least five countries will have accepted Bitcoin (BTC) as a legal tender, as crypto assets can be faster and cheaper for remittances. He believes that all five will be developing countries and that they would adopt cryptocurrencies because of …

Crypto-related companies and figures have provided evidence about being de-banked by Australian financial institutions to a Senate inquiry. Crypto investment firm Aus Merchant, global remittance provider Nium and small peer-to-peer crypto brokerage platform Bitcoin Babe were speaking on a panel as part of the Senate inquiry into “Australia as a Technology and Financial Centre” on Wednesday. All three are registered with financial intelligence regulator AUSTRAC and are subject to reporting requirements; however, they all echoed similar sentiments of being de-banked without a concrete explanation as to why. Michaela Juric, the founder of the peer-to-peer trading business dubbed after her nickname …

The Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) has identified remittances as an important aspect of El Salvador’s Bitcoin (BTC) adoption policy. According to Reuters on Tuesday, the regional development bank expects other Central American nations to pay close attention to Bitcoin’s impact on remittance costs in El Salvador. Speaking to Reuters, Dante Mossi, executive president of CABEI, stated that neighboring countries will be incentivized to follow El Salvador’s example if Bitcoin offers significant cost reduction in the remittance market. The CABEI executive described El Salvador’s Bitcoin adoption policy as an “out of this world experiment” that could foster greater …

Cross-border remittance currently stands as one of crypto’s best use cases that will thrust it into mainstream finance. Running parallel to this trend, a new partnership between Velo Labs and two financial institutions has now resulted in a $17-billion remittance corridor between Europe and Thailand. Using Velo Labs’ blockchain-based financial protocol, local financial institutions Tempo Payments and Bitazza will host the cross-border remittance service, connecting Thailand and 27 European countries. The corridor will be hosted on the Stellar blockchain and will make use of Velo tokens and Velo digital credits for the on-chain transactions. The new corridor will be serviceable …

Last month, Bitcoin was adopted as legal tender in El Salvador, joining the U.S. dollar. The country's new Bitcoin Law, which will be enforced starting Sept. 7, will allow Salvadorans to use Bitcoin (BTC) as a currency to purchase goods and services, as well as to pay taxes and debt. El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, has stated that Bitcoin adoption will hugely benefit the 70% of the local population that lacks access to banking services. He also believes that it will attract investments and create new jobs. However, the Bitcoin Law has raised multiple concerns. Skeptics say the cryptocurrency's high …

Steve Hanke, a professor of applied economics at Johns Hopkins University, has warned that El Salvador’s recent adoption of Bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender has the potential to “completely collapse the economy.” Steve Hanke served as a senior economist under President Ronald Reagan’s administration from 1981 to 1982. Hanke has previously described BTC as a speculative asset “with a fundamental value of zero,” and in April, the 78-year-old tweeted, “Cryptocurrencies are the future of money. Bitcoin is not.” Speaking with streaming financial news provider Kitco News on Tuesday, the university professor noted that BTC hodlers from regions such as Russia …

Despite El Salvador’s recently passed law mandating Bitcoin as legal tender, local remittance firms are reportedly hesitant to adopt Bitcoin (BTC). Speaking to Reuters, Autonomous Research fintech analyst Kenneth Suchoski argued that remittance firms are unlikely to launch support for Bitcoin and other crypto assets until prompted to do so by customer demand, likely creating a stalemate for the local payments industry. “For Western Union and some of the other remittance providers, keep in mind that most of the volume in the remittance industry is going from developed markets to emerging markets primarily to people — families and friends — …

An all-in-one DeFi platform says it delivers everything that crypto enthusiasts need — including lending services, staking, a fiat on-ramp, remittances and seamless payments. BitCashPay is registered with the Philippines Securities and Exchange Commission, and also intends to acquire a license from the country’s central bank. Whereas some decentralized finance projects offer little in the way of support for newcomers into the space, BitCashPay says it is determined to serve as an educational resource that makes digital assets easier to understand. The platform has launched an academy that provides straightforward guides on a plethora of topics spanning cryptocurrencies and blockchain. …

A crypto platform that aims to provide the best rates for overseas remittances has announced it is making big changes to its ecosystem. Atom Solutions says that The Transfer Token (TTT), which is at the beating heart of its Eternal Wallet product, is going to be migrated to a DeFi token protocol. The change is set to deliver greater levels of transparency and security — and the migration was triggered by feedback gathered by users following a beta test. It’s also hoped that a concerted shift to DeFi will help prevent misconduct and data manipulation by malicious actors such as …

The ability to send money to anyone, anywhere, at any time was one of the original motivations behind Bitcoin (BTC) that helped give rise to the expanding cryptocurrency ecosystem that exists today. Blockchain-based global remittance platforms are one sector of crypto projects that have evolved over time to help meet the needs of peer-to-peer money transactions, and Telcoin (TEL) is one such project that has made significant gains in 2021. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that the price of Telcoin has surged more than 4,100% since Feb. 1, rallying from a low of $0.00066 to a new …

Decentralized finance (DeFi) is often characterized as a movement that could unseat traditional banks once and for all — eliminating intermediaries and giving consumers levels of freedom and choice that they’re probably unaccustomed to. But there’s an alternative narrative, one that doesn’t pit DeFi against the banks. What if these innovative protocols could help provide desperately needed modernization to old-fashioned financial institutions… enabling them to deliver better levels of service in a much more cost-efficient way? Even before digital assets burst onto the scene, many banks were struggling to adapt to the sudden, large-scale shift to online and mobile banking. …