Wert, a payment solution provider facilitating fiat payments in the Web3 space, has broadened its card acceptance capabilities in collaboration with payment processor Worldpay, encompassing the inclusion of JCB, American Express, and Discover cards within its integrated payment system. 

By accessing the extensive Worldpay network, Wert now supports JCB, Discover and American Express (Amex) cards for holders across 198 countries worldwide. By expanding its acceptance capabilities, Wert is continuing to promote greater levels of engagement from non-crypto native users.

Worldpay is an electronic funds transfer (EFT) system that enables customers to wire money around the globe. This provides seamless access into web3 for the estimated 121.7 million Amex cardholders, the more than 140 million JCB cardholders and the roughly 57 million cardholders Discover has.

Wert checkout solutions utilise a unique merchant category code that results in an approval rate of around 95 per cent for fiat payments. Meanwhile, the industry average indicates that 50 per cent of fiat-crypto transactions fail, according to Cointelegraph.

In fact, the firm also found that difficulties with fiat-crypto transactions led to a cart abandonment rate of up to 90 per cent, in a 2023 report.

George Basiladze, founder and CEO of Wert, explained the need for the collaboration: “This partnership with Worldpay marks a transformative milestone for the Web3 landscape.

“By facilitating near-universal card acceptance, we are advancing towards an inclusive ecosystem where digital assets can be accessed without barriers. This signifies a significant leap in accessibility and inclusivity within the Web3 realm. It’s a pivotal step forward in empowering users globally to engage seamlessly with the evolving digital economy.”

Ultimately, Wert aims to accept payments from virtually all major card brands to minimise purchase drop-offs due to declined transactions.

Enhancing the NFT checkout experience

Wert’s solutions cater to a more diverse and larger user base and hope to foster smoother, more efficient checkout experiences that contribute to an increase in on-ramp adoption into web3.

Expanding reach to JCB, Amex and Discover enables Wert to tap into niche markets as Amex’s popularity for high-value purchases, JCB’s dominance in Japan and Southeast Asia and Discover’s strong presence in the US enables Wert to tap into markets that were previously inaccessible.

By removing the barrier of unsupported cards, Wert also expects to see a significant boost in conversion rates, translating to increased sales and market penetration.

With its expanded payment options and unparalleled global reach, Wert is poised to elevate the NFT checkout experience. Creators can now confidently offer their works to a broader audience, while collectors can embrace the world of NFTs with greater ease and flexibility.

PayU, the India-based payment solutions provider, has successfully migrated its credit service, ‘LazyPay’, to core banking service provider Thought Machine’s cloud-native core banking platform, ‘Vault Core’, and is now live.

The new partnership with Thought Machine has enabled LazyPay to build new lending and credit products, deliver a secure, and efficient user experience, and set a new standard for credit financing in India.

LazyPay migrated all of its existing customers to Vault Core within just one year. In addition, Vault Core has streamlined PayU’s real-time financial statement generation and simplified multi-account management, providing a unified view of products. Vault Core’s real-time Ledger has also improved PayU’s reporting and regulatory requirements.

Deepak Mendiratta, CEO of PayU Finance, commented on the news: “Our collaboration with Thought Machine signifies our commitment to offering the best-in-class financial services to our customers.

“Vault Core’s scalability and flexibility align perfectly with our growth ambitions, and we are excited to offer a wide array of services to our customers. We are committed to expanding our footprint in the Indian market, and this partnership will also position us well for the future of credit.”

Opportunities in the Indian market

Nick Wilde, managing director, Asia Pacific at Thought Machine, also added: “We are delighted to partner with PayU to bring our cloud-native technology to the Indian market. With a successful migration now complete, we look forward to working together to deliver efficient, secure and innovative credit and lending solutions in India.”

The Indian market offers significant opportunities for PayU’s credit products as alternative lending services expand. PayU’s India credit revenue grew by 31 per cent, totalling $43million, and loan book size grew by 66 per cent to $338million by the end of September 2023. A total of $362million in credit was issued during the first half of 2024.

With Vault Core, PayU can create differentiated and personalised financial products at scale. Following the successful initial migration project, PayU plans to continue migrating more products and using Vault Core to build, test and deploy new lending and credit products.

Payhawk, a spend management platform specialising in serving scale-up businesses, has sponsored Astrid & Miyu‘s latest podcast series, UNBOXED, extending their year-long partnership.

The official launch event for UNBOXED is scheduled for Monday 15 January, with Payhawk’s sponsorship underscoring its commitment to supporting startup and scale-up growth.

UNBOXED, hosted by Connie Nam, the CEO and founder of Astrid & Miyu, offers listeners insights into the journeys of successful founders, featuring executives from various companies as guests. Past guests have included executives from Neom and Stripe. Episodes feature the biggest mistakes, greatest lessons, as well as most valuable insights direct from the source.

Prior to their collaboration with Payhawk, Astrid & Miyu – known for its contemporary jewellery brand – faced challenges managing company expenses with disparate systems. However, since implementing Payhawk’s unified cards, expense management, accounts payable, and accounting solution in 2023, Astrid & Miyu’s processes have reportedly undergone a significant transformation.

“Simply put, Payhawk has changed the lives of people at Astrid & Miyu,” says Nam. “When it came to the podcast, we wanted to collaborate with strategic partners that we feel genuinely aligned with and can authentically promote to an entrepreneurial audience. Given the value we’ve gained from Payhawk, they were an obvious choice when looking for a sponsor for our podcast.”

While Payhawk CEO Hristo Borisov also added: “Growing a business from a startup to a global company comes with many challenges that can be solved by introducing effective systems at the right time. We’re thrilled that our platform has transformed business processes for Astrid & Miyu since they implemented it last year.”

With offices in London, Berlin, Barcelona, Paris, Amsterdam, Vilnius, Sofia, and New York, Payhawk’s other customers include GDS Group, Babbel, Vinted, Astrid & Miyu and Wagestream.

Sylvera, a carbon data provider, is extending its operations into the Asia Pacific region and collaborating with the Singapore Government to enable the utilisation of carbon credits to support its objectives within the framework of the Paris Agreement.

Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement creates the basis for countries to trade carbon credits between one another through a market mechanism to help achieve their climate goals, after they’ve reduced as much of their emissions as possible.

The partnership supports Singapore’s mission to become an international carbon markets hub and set a global precedent on environmental integrity.

Benedict Chia, director general for climate change at the National Climate Change Secretariat in the Prime Minister’s Office – Strategy Group said: “Singapore is committed to facilitating the development of a high integrity carbon market. To achieve this, we need to leverage data and innovative technologies to monitor emissions reductions and removals in carbon credit projects. We welcome the launch of Sylvera’s regional office in Singapore to provide solutions on this front.”

Sylvera will help Singapore identify high-quality carbon credits, referred to as ITMOs in the Article 6.2 context, to purchase from other countries and to also drive rapid climate finance to the areas having real climate impact and use the credits towards its Paris Agreement goals.

Combining technology with leading carbon measurement methodologies, Sylvera provides ratings and data assessing climate action investments, including carbon credits, which allow organisations and pioneering countries like Singapore to confidently deliver their climate strategies and work towards societal net zero.

“Singapore has seen the benefits that carbon markets can provide in the transition to net zero with its ambitious goals,” Samuel Gill, co-founder and president of Sylvera, also commented.

“It’s vital that more international leaders seize the benefits that high-quality carbon credits provide to make real progress on their Paris Agreement goals. We increasingly hear from governments the critical role for independent assurance to play to ensure their credits purchased are driving real climate action and societal net zero progress.”

New office

This news comes as Sylvera announces its expansion to the region with a local presence and office in Singapore, with the support of Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB). The local presence will also help the company serve clients in Singapore and the wider APAC region.

Sylvera CEO and co-founder Allister Furey, also added: “The opening of our new office is the latest step in our ambition to incentivise investment in real climate action and work with even more organisations around the world, from governments to private companies, to help them deliver their net zero strategies.”

In an announcement sent to Cointelegraph, Binance said it worked alongside law enforcement agencies, providing intelligence to disrupt the criminal group. The operation, which had the code “Trust No One,” led to the arrest of five alleged key syndicate members and the seizure of various assets worth $277 million. Over 3,200 victims have already contacted the authorities to file for compensation.

The Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau (CCIB) of the Royal Thai Police collaborated with crypto exchange Binance and United States Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) to take down a crime ring responsible for conducting a pig butchering crypto scam in Thailand. 

#Binance Aids Royal Thai Police in Crackdown on Criminal Networks | @Binance Blog https://t.co/GzMGjTlzmI

— CZ Binance (@cz_binance) October 3, 2023

Police Lieutenant Colonel Thanatus Kangruambutr, an inspector at the CCIB, expressed appreciation for the crypto exchange’s contributions to the investigation. According to the inspector, the rise of crypto scams led to financial damage for residents in Thailand. The inspector explained: 

“Through prompt information exchange with key partners, including the Binance investigations team, this successful operation resulted in arrests of the criminals. Binance remains an essential ally in our combat against scams and cybercrimes.”

Binance’s head of financial crime compliance, Tigran Gambaryan, said the company will continue its partnership with various authorities worldwide as they do their part in “restoring the trust in the digital-asset ecosystem.“

Related: Q3 2023 crowned most ‘damaging’ quarter for crypto amid $700M losses: Report

Crypto exchange Binance has collaborated with various industry actors to combat crypto-related crime. In 2022, the crypto exchange recovered and froze $450,000 of stolen assets related to the Curve Finance hack.

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