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Stripe will start accepting again payments in cryptocurrencies
The international payment system Stripe announced its return to the crypto market. For the first time since 2018, the company will begin to support transfers in cryptocurrencies.
Stripe customers will be able to accept payments in USDC stablecoins on networks such as Solana, Ethereum and Polygon. In the future, the company plans to add support for other digital assets and blockchains.
“Settlements can no longer be compared to Christopher Nolan films in terms of duration and transaction costs. We refund cryptocurrency payments. This time with stablecoins, which is much more convenient,” said John Collison, co-founder and president of Stripe.
Stripe stopped working with 2018 cryptocurrencies, citing the instability of the asset class. Four years later, she tried to return to the crypto market by announcing support for payments in Connect. The main and only client of this service was the social network X (formerly Twitter).
SEC postponed a decision on options for spot Bitcoin ETFs
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) postponed decision regarding applications to begin trading options on shares of spot Bitcoin ETFs. The regulator also requested public comments on this issue.
During this stage, the Commission expects to clarify a number of points specified in the resolution. Among other things, this is the question of whether options on spot Bitcoin ETFs are subject to the same rules as stocks.
The SEC has set aside 21 days for public comment and 35 days as an interim deadline. This means that the Commission has until May 29, 2024 to make a decision.
The number of Bitcoin wallets with a balance over $1,000 has grown to a record 10.6 million
By mid-March, the number of wallets containing more than $1,000 worth of Bitcoin had risen to a record 10.6 million, an increase of 100% since 2023. This is stated in the Fidelity Digital Assets report.
The short-term prospects for the first cryptocurrency are “quite positive,” analysts say. Of the 16 coin metrics tracked, a quarter are considered “negative” or “neutral,” and half are considered “positive.”
Fidelity also noted the continuation of a long-term trend towards a decrease in Bitcoin balances on crypto exchanges. The figure in the first quarter fell by 4.2% to 2.3 million BTC, which is 30% below the 2020 high of 3 million BTC.
Experts emphasized that the withdrawal of an asset from trading platforms “does not necessarily indicate the popularity of self-storage.”
Among the “negative” indicators, the report highlighted the unrealized profits of Bitcoin owners. According to the study, by the end of the first quarter, more than 99% of addresses were in the black.
“As the number of profitable addresses grows, a sell-off becomes more likely as traders and new investors seek to lock in positions,” experts noted.
BlackRock has denied information about its partnership with Hedera
The American international investment company BlackRock is not directly involved in the decision of Archax and Ownera to tokenize shares of the ICS US Treasury money market fund (MMF) from Hedera. This was stated by a representative of the company, Cointelegraph reports.
On April 23, the HBAR Foundation, the Hedera blockchain developer company, published a corresponding message, attaching pictures and videos with company logos.
The market interpreted the news as partnership with BlackRock, which led to a jump in the price of the HBAR token by 110%.
Even the day before, the HBAR Foundation was criticized for misleading language. The next day, an official response was received from the management company.
“BlackRock does not have a commercial relationship with Hedera, BlackRock has not selected Hedera for tokenization of any funds,” said its representative.
The denial led to a negative reaction at HBAR. The price collapsed from a peak of $0.182 after the news was published to $0.113.