“Payments giant Mastercard has filed 15 nonfungible token (NFT) and metaverse trademark applications with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, or USPTO. Highlights of the filings include plans for a virtual community for interacting with digital assets, the processing of payment cards in the Metaverse, an online marketplace for buyers and sellers of downloadable digital goods, virtual reality events and more.”

“Public blockchain Terra, which captured the attention of the cryptocurrency world by pledging to buy $10 billion in Bitcoin to build a reserve for its UST stablecoin, is diversifying that strategy. Luna Foundation Guard, a Singapore-based nonprofit organization built to support Terra, will acquire Avalanche tokens worth $100 million from the Avalanche Foundation to boost the stablecoin reserve. The native token of the Avalanche blockchain has a total market capitalization of $22.1 billion as of Thursday, according to data aggregator CoinGecko. The over-the-counter purchase will make the token the second asset in the UST reserve after Bitcoin.”

“Introduced by Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., on Wednesday as a discussion draft , the Stablecoin Transparency of Reserves and Uniform Safe Transactions (TRUST) Act would allow stablecoin issuers to choose from one of three regulatory regimes, including one novel approach that would authorize the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to charter a “national limited payment stablecoin issuer.””

“Some Miami developers have enabled buyers to purchase homes in cryptocurrency since at least 2021. Now a pair of Miami lenders is going one step further by offering home mortgages in digital currencies. Milo, a fintech company in the lending business, made the first crypto home loan in March, when it provided a 30-year mortgage in bitcoin for a Miami duplex.”

“Financial technology leader FIS ® (NYSE: FIS) announces that its Worldpay from FIS business will be the first global merchant acquirer to offer merchants the ability to receive settlement directly in USD Coin (USDC), a fully reserved dollar digital currency. Stablecoins are a type of cryptocurrency pegged to a ‘stable’ reserve asset (such as the U.S. dollar) and can be redeemed one-to-one. USDC is one of the fastest growing, regulated dollar digital currencies with more than $51 billion in circulation as of April 2022.1″

“Britain set out a detailed plan on Monday to exploit the potential of cryptoassets and their underlying blockchain technology to help consumers make payments more efficiently. As part of creating a global cryptoasset hub, financial services minister John Glen said Britain will legislate to bring some stablecoins under the regulatory net such as complying with existing payment rules.”

“Sudan’s central bank has issued a public warning against the use of digital currencies, claiming residents face legal risks. The Central Bank of Sudan (CBOS) recently issued the warning, stating that digital currencies entail high risks. These include “financial crimes, electronic piracy and the risk of losing their value.””

“Visa has launched a program to help content creators grow their businesses through NFTs. The payment company is looking to select entrepreneurs working in art, music, fashion and film who currently, or plan to, incorporate NFTs (non-fungible tokens) into their business models.”

“Terra’s purchases are partly in response to criticism around UST. The stablecoin is not backed by a fiat currency like centralized stablecoins such as Tether. It has been able to maintain its peg to the dollar by issuing and destroying Luna tokens, Terra’s native cryptocurrency. For every new UST created, $1 worth of Luna is burned on the Terra blockchain.”

“A group of U.S. lawmakers says the U.S. Treasury Department may be the right government entity to create a digital dollar – not the Federal Reserve. A new bill introduced Monday would authorize just that…The electronic dollar, as defined in the bill, would be a bearer instrument that people could hold on their phone or a card. The system would be token-based, not account-based, meaning if someone were to lose their phone or card, they would lose the funds. In other words, it would be like losing a wallet with dollar bills in it.”

“A top U.S. Treasury official said the Biden administration and members of Congress are making progress toward crafting guardrails for fast-growing stablecoins, which U.S. officials have warned could pose systemic dangers.”

“Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ.AX) said on Thursday it carried out an Australian dollar stablecoin payment, in a landmark transaction to become the first Australian lender to mint a digital asset linked to the country’s currency. A stablecoin is a kind of digital asset that is devised to keep its value stable in relation to another asset, and are frequently used as a portal to other cryptocurrencies or to generate income in decentralised financial systems.”

“Payments giant American Express (AXP) could be readying a metaverse entry, recent trademark applications show. The company filed trademark applications for its logos and items including the Centurion black card and “Shop Small” program. Amex is also seeking to engage in virtual payments and electronic business transactions for digital media and non-fungible tokens (NFT).”

“President Biden’s executive order on cryptocurrencies directs his administration to consider the potential implications of a U.S. digital dollar , which would be backed by the Federal Reserve.  The Fed is already evaluating the possibility of a digital currency, which some other countries, including China, have already adopted .”

“Ukraine plans to become the first developed country to issue its own collection of non-fungible tokens, as it looks to capitalise on a flood of crypto donations to back its war against Russia. Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s vice-prime minister, announced the plan in a tweet on Thursday and said Kyiv would reveal details of its NFTs soon.”

“Stablecoins are expanding quickly, but to hear it from John Wu, president of the blockchain company Ava Labs, there’s still miles to go before this category of cryptocurrency — which ties its value to that of a government-issued currency — offshoot is widely used in the market. Avalanche, an Ava Labs blockchain platform that powers cryptocurrency transactions, is a new partner for Circle, the Boston-based cryptocurrency exchange and issuer of the USDC stablecoin. The two firms are attempting to make stablecoin payments accessible to a broader audience by making the underlying technology regulated, easier to understand and use, and applicable to a broader range of use cases.”

“The hottest spot in crypto right now is coins with prices that don’t move. Stablecoins, cryptocurrencies which peg their value to assets such as the U.S. dollar, have ballooned in size over the past few months as Bitcoin and other coins whipsaw. The total market capitalization of stablecoins currently stands around $180 billion , up from roughly $38 billion a year ago, Coin Metrics data compiled by The Block show. By comparison, the total crypto universe is largely stagnant over the past year.”

“Circle Internet Financial, LLC, a global internet finance firm that provides internet-based payments and financial infrastructure to businesses of all sizes, and the sole issuer of USD Coin (USDC), today announced the launch of the new Circle Account. Through the comprehensive portal, Circle Account allows business customers to deposit, withdraw, send, receive, store and allocate funds to invest in digital currency to implement their operations in the digital economy.”

“The financial system is undergoing fast-moving changes associated with digitalization and decentralization. Some of these innovations hold considerable promise to reduce transaction costs and frictions, increase competition, and improve financial inclusion, but there are also potential risks. With technology driving profound change, it is important we prepare for the financial system of the future and not limit our thinking to the financial system of today.”

“Payment processor PayPal has now excluded NFT transactions exceeding $10,000 from its seller protection program as the nascent industry becomes riffed with scams and frauds. Under the Seller Protection program, PayPal protects sellers’ transactions from chargebacks, reversals, and associated fees. The service, which is currently available for residents of the United States, covers mostly physical products. However, NFT transactions above $10,000 will be excluded from the protection program starting March 21, according to the company’s latest policy update.”

“Silvergate Capital (SI) is still planning on a full 2022 launch of its stablecoin but will first focus on regulatory clearance, and then a pilot program, said Chief Strategy Officer Ben Reynolds, speaking at the Canaccord Genuity Digital Assets Symposium. The company last month purchased technology and other assets from Diem, the ill-fated stablecoin project from Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook).Silvergate will seek to launch and grow its stablecoin project in similar fashion to its Silvergate Exchange Network (SEN), Reynolds said. The SEN allows the bank’s digital currency and institutional investor clients to send U.S. dollars and euros 24/7 between their Silvergate accounts and the accounts of other Silvergate depositors.”

“Ahead of its launch in October, Fnality , the blockchain payment system owned by 15 financial institutions, executed a trial payment to settle a security issuance. Natwest acted as dealer and issuer for the pilot transaction, and Santander invested in the digital asset.  This proof of concept involved two separate blockchain networks, the Fnality Ecosystem Testnet for payments and the public Ethereum blockchain on which the digital security was issued. Both networks are Ethereum based.”

“Stablecoins, which we define as digital assets used as a medium of exchange that are purported to be backed by assets held specifically for that purpose, have grown considerably in the last two years. They rose from a market capitalization of $5.7 billion on December 1, 2019, to $155.6 billion on January 21, 2022.”

“The U.S. Treasury Department on Friday issued a set of recommendations to combat illicit finance in the high-value art market and warned that the emerging digital art market, such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs), may present new risks. In a study published on Friday, the Treasury found that there is some evidence of money laundering risk in the high-value art market, but limited evidence of terrorist financing risk, the Treasury said in a statement.”

“Solana Labs has launched a payments protocol called Solana Pay to let merchants accept crypto payments directly from consumers. With Solana Pay, merchants can accept the USDC stablecoin, Solana’s native token SOL, and other Solana-based tokens on the Solana blockchain. Transactions will be instant, said Solana Labs, adding that merchants will receive “real-time” payments.”

“Blockchain, cryptocurrency and decentralized technology are all fascinating topics that have been heating up for almost a decade. Nowadays, everyone wants to be part of cutting-edge innovations. A Thursday announcement by Yolande Piazza, Google Cloud’s vice president of Financial Services, said the firm has established a Google Cloud Digital Assets Team that will assist clients in creating, trading, storing value and launching new products on blockchain-based platforms.”

“With a circulation greater than $49B as of January 2022, USDC is one of the world’s fastest-growing dollar digital currencies. USDC on Flow promotes the growth of Flow’s vibrant blockchain community by further enhancing consumer experience and enabling the growth of the DeFi ecosystem. Supporting USDC on Flow also gives creators and consumers the ability to send and receive payments directly with USDC. Developers can also take advantage of Circle’s suite of developer APIs which have been updated to support USDC on Flow.”