Digital Currency

One year after the hard fork that created it, Bitcoin Cash is in some ways mimicking the digital currency it was spawned from. Bitcoin Cash’s price at $693 Monday morning has slid by about $1,000 in the past three months, according to CoinMarketCap.com. And it’s well under the $4,091 peak …

USA Technologies Inc. said Pepsi Bottling Ventures (PBV) has signed a multiyear contract for USAT’s ePort Connect contactless-payment technology covering 13,000 vending machines. PBV is said to be the largest privately held bottler for Pepsi products in North America. NuData Security, a unit of Mastercard Inc., released a service to …

Joe Kaplan, the chief executive of merchant processor Paya and former president of the Electronic Transactions Association’s board of directors, died unexpectedly last week, the ETA announced. Kaplan was the former CEO of Total Merchant Services and founded Innovative Merchant Solutions, which he sold to Intuit Inc. in 2003 and …

When it comes to the potential for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to be a real-world payment method, users, investors, and blockchain executives have a somewhat mixed view on the matter. Asked whether they think more merchants will start accepting crypto this year, 49% agree and 23% strongly agree that they …

Issues like price volatility, pokey transaction times, and sheer reputational risk have left many processors and independent sales organizations on the sidelines when it comes to cryptocurrency acceptance. Many, but not all. The latest entrant, and the largest so far, in this nascent market is Payroc LLC, which later this …

With hopes of providing merchants with a lower-cost network to make and accept electronic payments, startup MakeCents announced Friday a test of its blockchain-based platform. New York City-based MakeCents says its decentralized platform is designed to “disrupt the $420 trillion global payments infrastructure by leveraging its blockchain technology to connect …

Washlava, a mobile-payments provider for laundromats, opened its second app-enabled laundromat, in New York City’s Queens borough. Washlava’s first such location opened in 2017 in Tampa, Fla. Payments provider Century Business Solutions announced an integration with Limo Anywhere, a point-of-sale software developer for the livery and limousine industry. Users of …

Global investment in blockchain technology will double this year compared to 2017, reaching $1.5 billion, according to a new report from International Data Corp. Investment will increase over the next five years at an annual rate of 73.2%, Framingham, Mass.-based IDC forecasts, reaching $11.7 billion in 2022. “Enthusiasm for blockchain …

Sundance Payment Solutions launched this month, said president Eric Barth. The company works with independent sales agents to sell a suite of payment-processing services. Payments provider Fattmerchant announced it has closed on a $10.5 million Series C funding round led by Fulcrum Equity Partners. The funding will help launch new …

After weeks of listless trading, Bitcoin has rallied over the past 24 hours, shooting up from the high-$6,000s to the mid-$7,000s in a move that has brought new energy to other leading cryptocurrencies. Coincidentally, Mastercard Inc. on Tuesday was awarded a patent for a system that could allow users of …