Digital Currency

Bitcoin entered 2020 on a high note but remains a volatile cryptocurrency, both in value and in transaction cost. That volatility can reward savvy users but continues to hinder the leading cryptocoin’s usefulness as a payment method. The coin exited 2019 with a value exceeding $7,000, roughly double what it …

MoneyGram International Inc. announced online transactions grew more than 70% year-over-year between Dec. 1 and Dec. 25, a record growth rate for that period. The money-transfer provider, which did not report the actual transaction volume, said 80% of the transactions were initiated on a mobile device.PayPal Holdings Inc. has closed on its …

PayPal Holdings Inc. announced it has signed a commercial agreement with MercadoLibre, a major e-commerce marketplace in Latin America. As part of the deal, PayPal will become a payment choice in the Mercado Pago online checkout for customers in Brazil and Mexico, a move PayPal says could lead to PayPal users getting …

Everi Holdings Inc., a provider of payment processing, slot machines, and various services to the gaming industry, said its Everi Payments subsidiary bought $25 million in “strategic assets” from Micro Gaming Technologies Inc., a privately held provider of loyalty and marketing products and promotional tools and apps for casinos. Under …

E-commerce leader Amazon.com Inc. said the 2019 holiday shopping season was a record-breaker for the company, with “billions of items ordered,” including “tens of millions” of Amazon devices. The company didn’t disclose payment volumes.Following a 79% collapse last year, the cryptocurrency market rebounded in 2019 to a total value of $192.3 billion, up 58%, …

Citcon USA LLC said it prevailed in a lawsuit against Canada-based RiverPay Inc. over allegations of misappropriation of source code trade secrets. Citcon, which helps North American merchants integrate Chinese mobile wallet acceptance, sued RiverPay in 2018 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California because it said RiverPay …

Fleetcor Technologies Inc., a payments processor for fleet-fueling cards and other products, issued a statement contesting a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit filed against the company Dec. 20 and asserting it will “vigorously” defend itself against the agency’s complaint in court. The FTC alleges Fleetcor charged customers “at least hundreds of millions of …

As 2019 draws to a close, the year’s super mergers in the payments-processing business may be creating super opportunities for startup service providers. That, at any rate, has been the experience so far of acquiring-industry veteran Trent Voigt and his new company, Paynetwork LLC, which does business as Paynetworx. The …

Facebook Inc.’s Libra cryptocurrency may be struggling with regulators globally, but that doesn’t mean blockchain processors aren’t moving forward with other stablecoins. Atlanta-based BitPay Inc. on Tuesday introduced payment acceptance and settlement services in a trio of stablecoins whose value is tied to the U.S. dollar: Circle Internet Financial Ltd.’s …

Jewelry retailer Pandora said it is standing by its 2019 sales guidance despite an eight-hour point-of-sale issue at U.S. and Canadian stores on Black Friday.American Express Co. said its Small Business Saturday promotion, which occurred Nov. 30, achieved a record with an estimated $19.6 billion in spending.With fewer people carrying cash, the Salvation …