Digital Currency

International Business Machines Corp. on Monday announced a new service for financial institutions that uses blockchain technology to reduce settlement times and lower transaction costs. IBM is offering the service with Stellar.org., a Silicon Valley-based non-profit that runs the open-source Stellar blockchain network to bring low-cost financial services to low-income …

The Supreme Court agreed to hear a controversial antitrust case in which American Express Co. is defending its anti-steering rules for merchants against challenges from 11 states led by Ohio, Reuters reported. Payments provider TransCard Payments LLC announced a partnership with ExpenseAnywhere, an accounts-payable software developer. Travel Centers of America …

The Federal Reserve released the names of 27 payments-industry executives who will serve on a work group focused on developing a governance framework for faster payments in the United States. Fifty-five percent of U.S. credit and debit card spend is now on chip cards and 96% of the top 200 …

Bitcoin’s remarkable ride continued early Thursday as the world’s most valuable digital currency broke through the $5,000 level and reached an all-time high price just over $5,200, according to Coinmarketcap.com. Bitcoin had been flirting with the $5,000 barrier for weeks, and indeed briefly broke through it early in September on some …

With Bitcoin trading at $4,300 and Ethereum at $300, most of the attention in the payments world has been on the cryptocurrencies’ value as an investment rather than as a payment method. Now, a year-old Toronto-based startup hopes to change that by enabling contactless point-of-sale transactions using Ether, the Ethereum …

A new unit formed by the enforcement division of the Securities and Exchange Commission will have among its responsibilities “violations involving distributed-ledger technology and initial coin offerings,” according to an announcement from the SEClate Monday. What the agency calls its Cyber Unit will also focus on market manipulation via social …

Years ago, when banks wanted to sign up more merchants for credit card acceptance, they turned to non-bank third parties to sell the service. Now, these same third parties are starting to sell Bitcoin acceptance along with credit and debit cards. Aliant Payment Systems Inc., a Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based independent …

Showing resilience after recent actions that pummeled its value, Bitcoin shot up from the depths early Monday and was trading above $4,000 again. As of 10:30 Eastern Time, its price stood at $4,056, after plunging as low as $2,981 in recent days on some exchanges, according to Coindesk, which tracks …

Payments provider Aliant Payment Systems now offers Bitcoin acceptance for merchants through a deal with BitPay Inc., a Bitcoin processor, Aliant announced Monday. Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Aliant says the relationship makes it one of the first payment-processing companies to offer merchants Bitcoin acceptance. It is doing this, in part, because …

Bitcoin has taken a beating in recent days, but investors who bought earlier this year are still enjoying handsome returns. Now, some merchants of high-end goods are signing up to accept the virtual currency, hoping to cash in on that wealth effect. Bitcoin was trading at $3,498 early Thursday morning, …