Klarna Black Friday Volume up 45% and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 12/1/25

Klarna AB said its U.S. processing volume across all product categories was up a record 45% for November through Black Friday. Absolute figures were not immediately available.
Black Friday sales data from Accertify Inc. indicate consumers spent $115.46 per transaction on average, down 17% from last year, while initiating 52.5 million transactions, up fully 24%.
In somewhat more sanguine Black Friday news, data from Mastercard Spending Pulse indicate U.S. retail sales excluding autos increased 4.1% year-over-year, not adjusted for inflation, led by e-commerce volume, up 10.4%.
Antom, the payments unit of Ant International, released upgrades to its Antom Copilot AI agent, embracing what it says are new understandings derived from actual transactions, including agent-based support for payments from onboarding through the completion of transactions.
Payments-security firm Bolt Financial Inc. unveiled Bolt ID, an identity platform aimed at combating synthetic identity fraud and account takeovers.
Bitget Wallet said it has worked with Line Next Inc. to launch the Line Next x Bitget Wallet Card, which enables spending in the stablecoins USDT and USDC on the Visa and Mastercard networks.
The cryptocurrency exchange Bybit said its Bybit Pay service now includes a bill-splitting capability activated via a QR code, allowing users to share expenses.

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