Digital Currency

U.S. retail sales, excluding automotive products, grew 3.1% year-over-year in the Nov. 1 through Dec. 24 period, according to Mastercard Inc.’s SpendingPulse. The result is not adjusted for inflation. Standouts were e-commerce sales, up 6.3%, and restaurants, at 7.8%. The worst performer was jewelry, at negative 2%. Blockchain operator Paxos said it will …

LawFi, a payments platform for law firms, announced a $1.5-million pre-seed funding round from Capital Q Ventures. Digital-banking provider Ibanera announced Portl, a set of blockchain-based payments technologies for online gaming. NordVPN, a vendor of cybersecurity technology, launched an insurance program offering victims of identity theft reimbursement up to $1 million for …

The payouts platform Onbe said it will enable instant payment on virtual Mastercard cards to consumers who want to sell unused gift cards on the CardCash secondary gift card market. Buy now, pay later platform Affirm Inc. said it is expanding to self-checkout kiosks in more than 4,500 U.S. Walmart stores. U.S. households spend …

Presto Automation Inc. forecast its new, artificial-intelligence-based Presto Voice ordering system for drive-through restaurants will have been adopted by 1,270 locations by the end of 2024, up from the current count of 404. River, a provider of technology and financial services related to Bitcoin, launched River Link, a service that lets users send …

Tolling-technology provider Quarterhill Inc. said its Electronic Transaction Consultants unit has launched an E-ZPass interoperability hub to enable readily available electronic toll payments across regions of the United States. The move is considered a step toward nationwide toll-payment interoperability. Equipifi, a provider of buy now, pay later services for debit card issuers, …

Exceleron, a payments service for utility companies, said it is working with payments platform KyckGlobal to allow persons to pay a utility bill with cash at certain ATMs. Dash Solutions acquired KyckGlobal in August. Payments and loyalty platform Givex announced an integration with Uber Direct to enable merchants to add on-demand delivery service to …

Navy Federal Credit Union reported it took in more than $2.7 million in real-time deposits on its first full day of real-time payments service on The Clearing House Payments Co.’s Real Time Payments (RTP) network. Shift4 Payments said it will process ticket and in-venue concession sales for the Baltimore Ravens National Football League …

Priority Technology Holdings Inc. said its MX Merchant Suite software will integrate a platform from payments-technology provider Datacap. Mastercard Inc.’s Dynamic Yield technology unit launched a generative AI (artificial intelligence) tool that is aimed at helping consumers search for products in a merchant’s digital catalog. Authvia, a provider of tokenized pay-by-text technology, …

Payments provider Bluefin announced it is working with ID Tech, a payments-technology firm, to provide Bluefin clients with Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) technology validated by Payment Card Industry data-security rules. Mobile apps have accounted for 11% of e-commerce holiday-season sales volume so far, up from 9.6% last year, according to data from Signifyd, …

The U.S.-based card-issuing platform Marqeta Inc. announced it is working with Credi2, a Europe-focused provider of embedded-finance technology, to offer a buy now, pay later service tailored for bank cards. Topper, a fiat-to-crypto utility that is part of the Uphold financial platform, has added Apple Pay and Google Pay as payment options …