The 2014 collapse of Mt. Gox served as one of the first, big crypto scandals.
Over 100,000 creditors of the digital asset exchange lost over $9.4 billion worth of bitcoin — and now, nearly 10 years later, the exchange announced that it is (finally) set to start repaying its creditors in bitcoin (BTC) and bitcoin cash (BCH) as soon as July.
The real story is what went down during the intervening decade. After all, a lot has happened — while, at the same time, much has remained the same in the Web3 space.
For one, the adoption of crypto as a mainstream payment mechanism is top of mind for businesses and merchants across verticals, but its benefits have yet to be fully realized.
That’s why each week PYMNTS rounds up the most pressing crypto and Web3 news, updates and announcements for our readers.
Making Crypto More Usable Makes Crypto More Scalable
Usability and utility need to go hand-in-hand if cryptocurrencies and tokenized assets are going to make any meaningful and sustainable headway across the global financial sector.
That, ultimately, is one motivation for Block’s half-a-billion-dollar investment in bitcoin: to learn about the technology and how to use it, the company said Thursday (June 27).
And PYMNTS unpacked how, with the news last week (June 13) that Helio updated its Solana Pay plugin for Shopify to broaden the scope of accepted cryptocurrencies and introduce new merchant-centric features, the benefits and opportunities presented by cryptocurrencies in the eCommerce sector are waiting to be harnessed.
Still, we found that crypto payments in eCommerce are a trickle — not yet a flood. And a number of challenges must still be addressed for widespread adoption.
To that end, Stripe and Coinbase have partnered to expand the global adoption of cryptocurrency and provide faster, cheaper financial infrastructure. This collaboration aims to serve businesses and people around the world, Coinbase said Thursday.
Read more: This Week in Web3: Growing Crypto Acceptance and Cross-Border Payments
Stripe said in April that it would bring back crypto payments this summer after stopping them in 2018.
With this partnership, Stripe will add USDC on Base to its crypto payouts product, according to the post. This will enable Stripe platforms to make “faster, cheaper” money transfers to more than 150 countries.
In addition, Stripe will add USDC on Base to its fiat-to-crypto onramp, allowing customers in the U.S. to make faster fiat-to-crypto conversions. In a third key integration that’s part of this collaboration, Coinbase will add Stripe’s fiat-to-crypto onramp to Coinbase Wallet. This integration will enable instant purchase of crypto with credit cards and Apple Pay.
Meanwhile, cryptocurrency exchange BitoGroup and Far Eastern International Bank Bankee on Friday (June 21) partnered to launch a dedicated “crypto-friendly bank account.”
In another recently announced partnership in the digital asset space, Ripple and Archax said on June 13 that they have extended their existing collaboration to bring tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) onto the XRP Ledger (XRPL).
This collaboration brings together Ripple’s enterprise blockchain and crypto solutions and Archax’s capabilities as a U.K. Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)-regulated digital exchange, broker and custodian.
Regulatory Oversight and Crypto’s Future
Mt. Gox isn’t the only scandal-ridden crypto exchange to start paying back its creditors.
As reported Tuesday (June 25), bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX is set to ask permission to repay customers in cash. The failed company will ask a judge to allow its customers to vote on a liquidation plan that would allow the cash repayments, despite protests from some customers who feel shortchanged. Since its bankruptcy filing in 2022, FTX’s new management has been able to recover $16 billion to pay back customers, and has said it plans to repay them in full.
Elsewhere on the regulatory front, the Financial Stability Board (FSB) is taking a closer look at stablecoin use in emerging markets. Reporting on stablecoin regulation efforts, PYMNTS wrote earlier that the digital assets “sit at the center of the crypto sector’s goals for a return to form.”
This, while cryptocurrency firm Abra and its CEO and largest equity owner Bill Barhydt have reached a settlement with 25 state regulators. The settlement follows the states’ finding that Abra and Barhydt operated a mobile app for buying, selling, trading and investing in crypto without receiving the required state licenses, the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) said Wednesday (June 26).
Miscellaneous Marketplace Movements
The crypto marketplace is rarely boring, and rarely stands still.
On Wednesday, Blockchain builder Algorand debuted a tool for decentralized authentication and communication called LiquidAuth. LiquidAuth is an open-source solution for “authenticated peer-to-peer communication between wallets and apps/dApps,” designed to end the “overreliance” on centralized wallet communication provider WalletConnect.
As reported Friday (June 28), Six Flags has launched its own metaverse on Roblox’s platform, while financial institution HSBC Holdings Plc is also testing new metaverse experiences with the aim of winning a larger share of business from India’s affluent diaspora.
And major asset management firms in the U.S. like BlackRock, VanEck, Franklin Templeton, Grayscale Investments, Invesco Galaxy and 21Shares have moved one step closer to launching Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) as talks with regulators enter the final stage. Reuters reported Wednesday that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) could approve spot Ether ETFs by as soon as July 4.
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