Tuesday , January 20, 2026

Mobile Commerce

How Steak ‘n Shake Slashed Costs With Crypto; MEXC Launches a Crypto Credit Card

Restaurant chain Steak ’n Shake says it has reduced its transaction fees by nearly 50% compared to credit card acceptance costs, while at the same time increasing sales by 15%, since it began accepting bitcoin last May. Steak ‘n Shake has nearly 400 locations in the United States. Steak ‘n …

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COMMENTARY: Trump’s Revival of the CCCA Is Bad News for the Big Networks—And for Market Rates

The Credit Card Competition Act (CCCA) was dead in the water. Most of Congress would have preferred to leave it that way, avoiding a vote in which they would have to take sides between two powerful interests: banks and merchants. But President Trump, with a single Truth Social post on …

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Helcim Launches a Processing Extension for Merchants’ Business Software

The Calgary, Alberta-based processor Helcim Inc. has grown increasingly active in launching new services in recent years as more intense competition wears on midsize payments players. The company’s latest gambit: an extension that lets merchants access Helcim’s processing platform within the business software they already use, bypassing alternatives integrated within …

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Benji Payments Taps Adyen and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 1/16/26

Benji Pays Solutions Inc., a payments platform for managed-service providers and small businesses, has launched Benji Payments, which it says offers payment processing directly within the company’s platform. Adyen NV’s Adyen for Platforms is serving as payment service provider. Paysafe Ltd. will become a recommended acquirer for card transactions on Pay.com’s payment-orchestration platform under a …

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An ETA Report Calculates How Digital Payments Drive the U.S. Economy

Digital payments last year generated $354 billion in economic output and supported more than 2 million jobs in the United States, says a report from the Electronic Transactions Association. In addition, each job directly related to digital payments supported an additional 2.6 jobs in the economy outside the digital- payments …

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The CCCA Gets New Life Thanks to a Presidential Endorsement

The proposed Credit Card Competition Act staged a comeback Tuesday with a huge boost from President Trump, who endorsed the bill on the Truth Social platform the previous day. The President’s backing breathes new life into the bill, which has been bandied about Capitol Hill for years. The last major …

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Eye on BNPL: Affirm’s Underwriting Open Banking Reliance; Klarna Delves into P2P Payments

With more than 100 million U.S. consumers expected to choose a buy now, pay later payment option by 2027, according to eMarketer Inc., BNPL providers are preparing better underwriting and new services as the payment option is further cemented in the U.S. payments economy. Affirm Holdings Inc. says its underwriting …

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Blackhawk’s EV and Grocery Cards and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 1/14/26

Payments and rewards platform Blackhawk Network said it will issue two Mastercard-branded products: the Drive Prepaid Card, aimed at EV adoption programs, test drive incentives, and other programs related to automobiles; and the Grocery Prepaid Card, meant for cost relief. Polygon Labs, a blockchain-based payments company, announced agreements to acquire Coinme, a …

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Surcharges Come With Acute Abandonment Risk, J.D. Power Research Finds

Merchant surcharges are proving problematic for card-accepting merchants, as nearly one-third of small businesses say customers walk away from a potential transaction when faced with the extra charge, according to a study released early Tuesday by J.D. Power. Some 35% of merchants are now surcharging when customers use credit cards, …

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Digital Transactions