• Wirex has signed a long-term global partnership with Visa for crypto debit and prepaid cards in over 40 countries.
• Bank of Brazil is allowing citizens to pay taxes with crypto using Bitfy.
• MetaMask is warning users about phishing attempts from scammers.
Wirex Signs Long-term Global Partnership with Visa
Crypto payments platform Wirex has signed a long-term strategic global partnership with payments company network Visa, which includes becoming a member of Visa in APAC and the UK that will allow Wirex to directly issue crypto-enabled debit and prepaid cards themselves to over 40 countries. This agreement will support further collaboration in major markets, including APAC, UK, Europe, and the USA.
Bank of Brazil Allows Citizens to Pay Taxes with Crypto
Bank of Brazil (Banco do Brasil) announced that citizens could pay their taxes with crypto. This is enabled through a partnership with blockchain solutions company Bitfy. The service allows partners (financial institutions, fintechs, among others) to offer the payment solution for tax bills, fees and obligations to their customers using agreements signed by Bank of Brazil with entities and concessionaires of public services.
MetaMask Warns Users About Phishing Attempts
Major crypto wallet provider MetaMask warned about phishing attempts by scammers who are trying to contact users through web hosting company Namecheap’s third-party upstream system for emails. MetaMask said that it does not collect KYC info and will never email users about their account – advising them not to enter their Secret Recovery Phrase on any website or click links sent via emails from themselves or other sources such as Namecheap.
Bakkt Ends Consumer App
Digital asset platform Bakkt announced that it would be ending its consumer-facing app and would focus on scalable business-to-business-to-consumer solutions instead. Bakkt will continue its core focus of providing businesses with crypto and loyalty experiences for their customers through SaaS and API solutions on a secure and compliant platform according to the press release..
Central Bank of United Arab Emirates Developing CBDC
The Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) revealed plans for developing its own central bank digital currency (CBDC). According to the announcement made at last week’s GITEX Technology Week event, this project aims at completing its development phase by 2021 following several experiments conducted earlier this year which focused on exploring blockchain technology use cases in financial settlements between banks in UAE as well as international payments.