December has witnessed a number of Bitfinex’s developments, with the exchange and crypto store Bitrefill partnered to allow the trading platform’s clients to shop with Bitcoin over the Lightning Network.
The collaboration will allow customers to buy over 2,000 different prepaid vouchers with BTC. The vouchers can cover the costs of services and products relevant to gaming, dining, entertainment, travel and more.
Hong Kong-headquartered cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex now enables its users to purchase cryptocurrencies with both credit and debit cards.
The exchange made the announcement on Dec. 20, saying:
“Buy cryptocurrencies with your debit or credit cards on Bitfinex. Whether it’s Bitcoin, USDt, Ethereum, or any other ERC20 tokens, pick your favorite and purchase with your credit or debit cards directly.”
Bitfinex’s recent developments
New York-based blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis is set to provide Bitfinex with it Anti-Money Laundering compliance solution to use the real-time monitoring capabilities of Chainalysis’ technology to identify high-risk outliers amid a high volume of transactions
Bitfinex also revealed the first of two major upgrades it says will completely change user payments and spending habits, confirming that it would support BTC transactions on the Lightning Network.
Crypto with credit/debit cards
Also this month, Tokyo-based cryptocurrency exchange bitFlyer announced the launch of “Instant Buy” on its European exchange platform. The exchange will thus provide its European users with the ability to buy cryptocurrency using a credit card, debit card and local instant transfer methods like Sofort, iDeal and GiroPay.
Coinbase Card, a crypto-powered Visa debit card from major crypto exchange Coinbase, began supporting Dai (DAI), a stablecoin pegged to the United States dollar, alongside major cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Litecoin (LTC).
Bitcoin News Summary – November 11, 2019
In Canada, the British Columbia Securities Commission has taken control over the troubled Einstein Exchange, which owes over $12 million to users. At the end of October, Einstein announced that it would suspend services in the coming months, but the government agency seized the company before those plans could be implemented.
According to a published study which looked at job postings on the site, Indeed.com, the number of crypto job offers increased by 1,457% in the period from September of 2015 through September 2019. Searches for crypto-related work by jobseekers increased by 469% over the same period. According to the survey, the top 5 in-demand positions in the crypto economy are all for coders. Deloitte, IBM, and Accenture were the top 3 recruiters in the study.
The payments company founded by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, released its earnings results, reporting revenues of $1.27 billion in the third quarter of 2019. Square processed $148 million in bitcoin sales and the number of first-time bitcoin buyers has approximately doubled according to its third quarter investor letter.
The North African nation of Tunisia announced that it will soon release a fiatcoin tied to its currency, the Dinar. The Central Bank of Tunisia tested the currency by sending one dinar in value to an IMF representative. Citizens will soon be able to use the E-dinar to save or make payments. The Tunisian central bank wants to use it for international transfer in lieu of the US Dollar or SWIFT system.
