Crypto Exchanges Not Immune to Bitcoin’s Freefall

A full audit of cryptocurrency giant Binance could be a long time coming. That’s according to Leon Foong, head of the world’s largest crypto exchange’s Asia-Pacific operations. He told Bloomberg News that while the company wants to hire an auditor, big accountants are still getting a handle on the crypto sector.

It’s a renaissance for non-institutional market participation, and Robinhood wants to capitalize on that environment. The commission-free trading app told investors during its fourth quarter 2022 earnings call Wednesday (Feb. 8) that by targeting customers affected by macroeconomic headwinds with strategic value-add solutions, as well as through broader platform evolutions, it has been able to improve retail audience engagements.

Regulated decentralized systems will be key to an improved outlook for the cryptocurrency industry, Airswift CEO Dr. Yan Zhang writes in the new PYMNTS eBook, “2023 Payments New Year’s Resolutions.”. The cryptocurrency industry, which is resilient and undergoing a self-healing process, will enjoy a much better outlook in...

Visa is reportedly exploring plans to let customers convert crypto assets into fiat currencies. Speaking at the StarkWare Sessions 2023 conference in Tel Aviv, Cuy Sheffield, head of Visa’s crypto operations, said the company has “been testing how to actually accept settlement payments from issuers in USDC starting on Ethereum and paying out in USDC on Ethereum,” per a report by Cointelegraph.

Crypto ATM operator Cash Cloud has filed for bankruptcy with at least 5,000 creditors. The firm, which does business as Coin Cloud, has assets between $50 million and $100 million, liabilities between $100 million and $500 million, and creditors numbering between 5,000 and 10,000, according to the Tuesday (Feb. 7) filing.

The United Nations says North Korea stole a record amount of cryptocurrency assets last year. As Reuters reported Tuesday (Feb. 7), a confidential UN report says that North Korea targeted the networks of foreign aerospace and defense companies. The report claims North Korea used “increasingly sophisticated cyber techniques both to...

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance will temporarily suspend U.S. dollar bank transfers beginning Wednesday (Feb. 8). The company announced the move in a Monday (Feb. 6) post on Twitter, adding that only a small proportion of its users will be affected by this, that the firm is working to restart the service “as soon as possible” and that all other methods of buying and selling crypto on the exchange are unaffected.

Pinterest may tout itself as the positive, politics-free visual discovery platform, but that upbeat vibe was lost on analysts Monday who felt its turn-around wasn't happening fast enough. This, as the San Francisco-based social media company said its Q4 earnings reflected gains in monthly active users, mobile users, Gen Z...

A British regulator is promising “robust action” against cryptocurrency companies violating its advertising rules. That action, the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced Monday (Feb. 6), could include up to two years in prison for firms that breach its restrictions on financial promotions. “All cryptoasset firms marketing to...

Adyen is betting on unified commerce and sustainable returns to drive growth in 2023. In a second half (H2) 2022 earnings call with investors on Wednesday (Feb. 8), the co-founder and CEO of the Amsterdam-based FinTech firm, Pieter van der Does, and newly appointed Co-CEO Ingo Uytdehaage highlighted moves the company had made in the last year to execute its long-term ambitions.

With a spinoff ahead, NCR seeks to “run the store, run the restaurant and run self-directed banking.”. Those words, from CEO Michael Hayford during the company’s earnings call Tuesday (Feb. 7), crystalize a strategy where hardware and software meet and there’s ample opportunity to cross-sell and upsell additional services to its clients.

Figure Technologies has reportedly cut its funding goal and may spin off some product lines. Bloomberg reported Monday (Feb. 6) that the startup building blockchain-based financial products aims to raise $100 million — one-third of the amount it had planned earlier and seemed to be near achieving— but that it may wait until the venture capital market picks up.

In an area once dominated by banks, EMEA FinTechs are now major SMB lenders. Across Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region, a generation of FinTech lenders are shaking up the way small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) access finance. And if recent events are anything to go by, demand for their services has surged.

Open banking can help small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in more ways than one. In fact, from payment gateways to automatic invoicing software, a variety of Europe-based startups are using the technology to better cater to the needs of the SMB market. Payments Automation. Managing and tracking payments can be...

The pandemic disrupted the reign of brick-and-mortar grocery stores as the go-to channel for most grocery shoppers. PYMNTS’ latest consumer research reveals that, on average, just 44% of consumers primarily purchase common grocery items at a brick-and-mortar grocery store, a significant decrease of 29% from what consumers said in the early, pre-pandemic days of 2020 — and this is just the beginning.

Accounts payable automation company AvidXchange has debuted a business intelligence tool it says will bring fresh data and insights to finance teams that manual processes can’t. Announced in a news release Tuesday (Feb. 7), the tool offers “intelligent analytics, immersive dashboards and embedded data visualizations” to give customers added...

Enigma and Alloy have partnered to help financial institutions (FIs) better understand small businesses. The collaboration adds Enigma’s intelligence about the financial health and identity of U.S. businesses to Alloy’s onboarding and transaction monitoring platform for banks and FinTechs, the companies said in a Tuesday (Feb. 7) press release.

Bill payment in the U.S. needs an overhaul as PYMNTS research shows the majority of bill-paying consumers are encountering friction in the process. More than half experienced at least one key pain point in the past 90 days, such as a lack of payment options or security concerns. These and...

Tomorrow’s connected ecosystem will leverage machine-native wallets, enabling authenticated machine-to-machine transactions across various commercial settings. That’s the vision of Sterling Pratz, CEO at leading payment solution for vehicles and fleets Car IQ, who tells PYMNTS’ CEO Karen Webster that he and his investors see machine payments, and vehicles in particular, as the future.

Microsoft will launch a new cloud data center region in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). In a statement published on Monday (Feb. 7), Microsoft said it is investing in infrastructure in the country “in response to growing customer demand for cloud services and data residency in Saudi Arabia from global enterprises, local businesses, and civilian public sector organizations.”