Australian exchange BTC Markets announced that it had accidentally exposed the full name and email addresses of all of its customers on December 1st. There are concerns this will lead to an increase in phishing attacks.

Visa and Circle Internet Financial (“Circle”), which developed dollar-backed stablecoin USDC Coin (USDC), announced that from today Circle will help Visa card issuers to enable sending/receiving USDC payments.

A new U.S. Congressional bill would require stablecoin issuers to secure bank charters and secure regulatory approval prior to circulating any stablecoins.

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• BTC Markets Exchange Exposes Personal Data of 270k Users 
• Visa Connecting Its Payment Network to Circle’s Ethereum-Powered USD Coin ($USDC)
• US Lawmakers Introduce Bill That Would Require Stablecoin Issuers to Obtain Bank Charters

BTC Markets Exchange Exposes Personal Data of 270k Users

Australian exchange BTC Markets announced that it had accidentally exposed the full name and email addresses of all of its customers on December 1st. A routine marketing email accidentally included the names and addresses in the “to” section rather than individually addressing each recipient.

The emails were sent in batches of 1,000 so each user can see the names and addresses of 999 other users. This has somewhat limited the risk of a bad actor using this data but nonetheless it represents a significant data breach that is likely to lead to an increase in phishing attacks.

BTC Markets is in the process of reporting the incident to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, with Bowler noting the exchange will be “taking guidance from the OAIC” on how to respond to the breach moving forward.

Visa Connecting Its Payment Network to Circle’s Ethereum-Powered USD Coin ($USDC)

Visa and Circle Internet Financial (“Circle”), which developed dollar-backed stablecoin USDC Coin (USDC), announced that from today Circle will help Visa card issuers to enable sending/receiving USDC payments.

The Forbes report says that “businesses will eventually be able to send international USDC payments to any business supported by Visa, and after those funds are converted to the national currency, spend them anywhere that accepts Visa.”

Once Circle has gone through Visa’s Fast Track program (sometime next year), Visa will create a card that allows any businesses to send/receive USDC to/from other businesses via the card. After the USDC funds are converted to the local currency, businesses can spend the money anywhere that takes Visa.

Visa’s Head of Crypto Cuy Sheffield had this to say:

“This will be the first, corporate card that will allow businesses to be able to spend a balance of USDC. And so we think that this will significantly increase the utility that USDC can have for Circle’s business clients”

US Lawmakers Introduce Bill That Would Require Stablecoin Issuers to Obtain Bank Charters

A new U.S. Congressional bill would require stablecoin issuers to secure bank charters and secure regulatory approval prior to circulating any stablecoins. Several U.S. Representatives introduced the Stablecoin Tethering and Bank Licensing Enforcement (STABLE) Act on Wednesday, with the goal of regulating stablecoins. The announcement cited Facebook's Libra stablecoin project, since remained Diem. The announcement said:

“Digital currencies, whose value is permanently pegged to or stabilized against a conventional currency like the dollar, pose new regulatory challenges while also represent a growing source of the market, liquidity, and credit risk.”

Jeremy Allaire, CEO of Circle Internet Financial, which developed the dollar-backed stablecoin USDC Coin (USDC) had this to say in a tweet thread:

"The STABLE Act would represent a huge step backwards for digital currency innovation in the United States, limiting the accelerating progress of both the blockchain and fintech industry."

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