Payments giant Visa has announced it is now settling payments in the USDC stablecoin on the Ethereum blockchain, making it the first major payments network to use a stablecoin as a settlement currency.

Cosmos has launched a feature called the Inter-Blockchain Communication standard, or IBC, enabling cryptoassets to easily be transferred between blockchains.

Nasdaq-listed mortgage brokerage firm Mogo has extended its bitcoin cashback program to allow customers who get a new mortgage or refinance an existing one to receive up to $3,100 in BTC.

Sponsored: BTCS Inc. announced a new business model to stakeholders. Thanks to a successful registered direct offering, the company obtained $9.5 million in gross proceeds and is now expanding its validator node network to 240 nodes to generate revenue growth.

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• Visa Starts Settling USDC Stablecoin Payments on the Ethereum Blockchain
• Cosmos Launches Feature Enabling Cross-Chain DeFi
• Publicly-Traded Mortgage Brokerage Mogo Starts Rewarding Customers in Bitcoin
• Sponsored: BTCS Becomes the First U.S. Public Company to Run Validator Nodes on Ethereum 2.0.

Visa Starts Settling USDC Stablecoin Payments on the Ethereum Blockchain

Payments giant Visa has announced it is now settling payments in the USDC stablecoin on the Ethereum blockchain, becoming the first major payments network to use a stablecoin as a settlement currency.

Visa piloted the USDC payment option via cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com, which will now be able to manage its crypto debit card business entirely in digital assets. Visa’s standard settlement process required the firm to settle in fiat currency, adding costs and complexity to its operation.

Now Crypto.com will be able to settle transactions using USDC directly and as such, it won’t have to convert to fiat currency. Visa’s move to directly accept digital currencies is now allowing it to maximize the benefits of these currencies. The settlement agent for the USDC transactions is crypto bank Anchorage, which means Crypto.com sends USDC to Visa’s Ethereum address at Anchorage.

In the future, Visa is also planning to settle payments in central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).

Cosmos Launches Feature Enabling Cross-Chain DeFi

Cosmos has launched a feature called the Inter-Blockchain Communication standard, or IBC, enabling cryptoassets to easily be transferred between different, independent blockchains.

The IBC feature is now live allowing for transfer between Cosmos and other IBC-compatible blockchains. It had been in development for five years and was voted in via community governance, with 112 million votes supporting its activation and 75 million opposing it.

IBC, according to Cosmos, facilitates new applications by facilitating both fungible and non-fungible tokens between chains, paving the way for cross-chain exchanges and NFT marketplaces. The Cosmos network is already working on a decentralized exchange with cross-chain functionality, the Gravity DEX.

The feature reportedly also allows for scaling through sharding by utilizing sidechains for different applications.

Publicly-Traded Mortgage Brokerage Mogo Starts Rewarding Customers in Bitcoin

Nasdaq-listed mortgage brokerage firm Mogo has extended its bitcoin cashback program to allow customers who get a new mortgage with the firm or that refinance an existing one to receive up to $3,100 in BTC.

The firm has already been letting users buy and sell bitcoin via its MogoCrypto service, and last month it announced it was set to acquire a nearly 20% stake in Canadian cryptocurrency exchange Coinsquare for around $56.4 million. It also plans to buy BTC for its balance sheet.

The bitcoin rewards customers may receive will be deposited to their bitcoin and rewards accounts. David Feller, founder and CEO at Mogo, was quoted saying:

“Unlike traditional reward programs, bitcoin rewards have the unique characteristic of being an asset class that can rise in value over time — $3,100 invested in bitcoin 5 years ago would be worth over $350,000 today.”

Mogo is hoping that the mortgage reward program will draw in new crypto-weary customers.

Daily Movers – DENT, OMG, ALGO

Several tokens are leading the charge in the last 24-hour period. Some of these are well-known cryptocurrencies with more liquid trading pairs, so we’ll be focusing on these over low-cap cryptos that may have higher percentage changes.

Dent (DENT) - Dent is a decentralized exchange for mobile data. It's based on the Ethereum blockchain, allowing mobile data to be sold, bought or donated through an automated bidding process much like currencies or goods. The data packages are smart contracts in Ethereum. The DENT token is required to purchase mobile data within the Dent platform.

OMG Network (OMG) – OMG Network is building a decentralized exchange, liquidity provider mechanism, clearinghouse messaging network, and asset-backed blockchain gateway. OMG Network is not owned by any single one party. Instead, it is an open distributed network of validators that enforce the behavior of all participants.

Algorand (ALGO) - The Algorand platform is the first public, permissionless pure proof-of-stake blockchain protocol that solves the “blockchain trilemma” of achieving scalability, security, and true decentralization all at once. Performance on the Algorand platform exceeds 1000 transactions per second (TPS) with a latency of fewer than 5 seconds

BTCS Becomes the First U.S. Public Company to Run Validator Nodes on Ethereum 2.0

Known as a digital asset and blockchain technology-focused company, BTCS Inc. announced a new business model to stakeholders. Thanks to a successfully registered direct offering, the company obtained $9.5 million in gross proceeds and is now expanding its validator node network to 200 nodes to generate revenue growth.

The recently expanded transaction verification service operation runs on Ethereum 2.0 on 100 nodes. The remaining 100 are expected to be fully operational by the end of the first quarter of 2021.

BTCS became the first U.S. public company to mine bitcoin and is now the first U.S. public company to run validator nodes on Ethereum 2.0. The company believes this strategy can drive strong near-term revenue growth and generate financial returns superior to the traditional bitcoin mining, while opening the door to additional future revenue-generating operations such as staking as a service.

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