As technology titans in the United States capture a larger part of their industries and beyond, regulators and governments have become increasingly concerned about their extensive power and influence. Indeed, Facebook, Twitter and Google’s parent company Alphabet all appeared before a Congressional antitrust in July. The primary concern of the government is that these companies use their authority to stifle competition and manipulate users to maintain their leading position in the marketplace. The latest in a series of ongoing antitrust charges and investigations on corporate giants is the one being considered by the U.S. . The DOJ said in a …

The U.S. Department of Justice, or DoJ, recently publicized an investigation into Visa's ongoing acquisition of fintech company Plaid. "Today, the Department of Justice filed a petition in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts to enforce Bain & Company’s compliance with the department’s Civil Investigative Demand (CID)," the DoJ said in a public statement on Tuesday. Essentially, U.S. authorities have taken legal action to obtain information from Boston-based consulting giant Bain & Company on Visa's acquisition of Plaid. "On June 11, 2020, the division issued Bain a CID requiring the company to answer interrogatories and produce documentary …

The cryptocurrency industry welcomes another high-profile executive from traditional finance. Filomena Ruffa, a former vice president of innovation and strategic partnerships at Visa’s Latin America division, has joined Crypto.com to expand the company’s Latin American market. According to an Oct. 28 blog post, Ruffa will now be responsible for managing all operations and driving strategic business partnerships for Crypto.com in Latin America. The former Visa executive brings extensive work experience in the region as well as expertise from her top positions at payment firms like CardinalCommerce and SafetyPay. Crypto.com’s hire comes as the company records major new milestones. As reported …

A fintech company says it is determined to offer decentralized finance services that are “regulated, responsible, trustworthy and innovative.” Nexxo’s focus is to offer commercial banking services and to support under-serviced small businesses that are not big enough to secure finance from traditional banks. Research cited by the company also suggests that more than 260 million small businesses are struggling to access commercial banking services and financial support that can help their ventures flourish and grow. According to the network, 44% of small businesses are denied credit because they don’t have any collateral assets. A further 19% are turned down …

On Wednesday, the Chamber of Digital Commerce announced the addition of Visa, Goldman Sachs and Six Digital Exchange (SDX) to its executive committee. Mick Mulvaney, a former White House Chief of Staff and a co-founder of the Congressional Blockchain Caucus will also be joining the chamber’s board of advisors. Mulvaney left the White House in March. On the board, he will be joining a number of figures familiar to Cointelegraph’s readers, including Don Tapscott of the Blockchain Research Institute and former CFTC Chairman Chris Giancarlo, who is now with the Digital Dollar Project. Regarding the lineup of the advisory board, …

The world’s largest exchange, Binance, has officially announced that its cryptocurrency debit card is now available in Europe. According to a Tuesday blog post, the Binance Visa Card is now available to everyone in European Economic Area, or EEA, countries. To celebrate the launch in Europe, Binance is offering up to 7% cashback from purchases with the card. According to the firm, this is the highest cashback rate available in the market to date. Binance noted that Binance Visa Card converts the user's crypto funds into a local currency automatically, allowing them to spend crypto like Bitcoin (BTC) at 60 …

The decentralized finance platform Cred will now use Visa’s extensive reach to further push the adoption of lending and borrowing of digital assets. On Sept. 8, Cred announced that it has joined the international payment behemoth Visa’s Fintech Fast Track program — a program that helps payment startups use Visa’s network, toolkits and expertise to build payment solutions. Cred will use the payment giant’s reach and security to popularize decentralized lending and borrowing of cryptocurrencies, or crypto loans. Cryptocurrency lending and borrowing shot to popularity recently with the launch of the Ethereum-based lending platform Compound. At the time of writing, …

Financial services giants Visa and Mastercard have shown an increased interest in the trillion-dollar digital payment sector through their recent acquisitions of innovative fintechs. In January this year, Visa acquired fintech firm Plaid for $5.3 billion. The San Francisco-based firm enables data sharing of financial information between different fintech apps like Venmo and Chime, supporting over 2,000 financial institutions. As such, the acquisition could strengthen Plaid’s global wire transfer capabilities. Mastercard has also made some major fintech acquisitions. In June this year, the payment giant announced plans to acquire financial data aggregation startup Finicity for $825 million. Mastercard’s announcement states …

Bitcoin (BTC) is inches away from getting the same boost that helped it hit $12,500 earlier this month, data shows. On Aug. 28, the U.S. dollar currency index (DXY), fresh from losses caused by a speech from the Federal Reserve, returned to crucial low levels. Bitcoin’s $12,000 trigger reappears At press time on Friday, DXY measured 92.28 — its lowest since Aug. 19. At that time, the index had seen years of decline, with 92.17 marking the floor which challenged precious lows from April 2018. Safe havens, including Bitcoin, appeared to benefit throughout the summer as DXY fell — gold …

The United Kingdom Competition and Markets Authority, has given the go-ahead to Visa’s acquisition of fintech startup Plaid following a Phase 1 review. According to an Aug. 24 announcement, the CMA investigated several ways in which the deal could potentially harm competition, but ultimately found no evidence that this outcome was likely. Plaid offers a platform enabling apps to connect to a user's bank accounts. In the U.K. it offers payment initiation services (PIS), which allow direct real-time payments to be made via merchant websites, without use of credit or debit cards. The CMA focused on whether this deal could …

Chiliz.net and Socios.com, a major industry tandem specializing in blockchain-based fan tokens, are rolling out their Visa debit card. As officially announced on Aug. 14, the Socios.com Visa debit card allows global fans to “be more than a fan” — earn fan tokens-powered financial rewards and club-related benefits from making purchases through the card. Alexandre Dreyfus, CEO at Chiliz and Socios, told Cointelegraph that the new debit card is now being tested by a limited pool of users. According to the executive, the Socios.com visa debit Card will roll out for mainstream users in early Q3 2020. According to the …

The first Litecoin (LTC) native Visa debit card is being launched by BlockCard. Charlie Lee told Cointelegraph this is their second attempt at the endeavour as the previous one failed: “We previously worked with LitePay on a debit card but that failed when LitePay went out of business.” Lee also drew a distinction between this Litecoin-native debit card and other crypto cards that support the currency: “There are other crypto debit cards available today that support Litecoin, but they only support funding with LTC. This card is natively LTC, so funds are kept in LTC until you swipe the card.” …