Wirex Partner with Visa, Bank of Brazil Allows Tax Payments with Crypto

• Wirex signs long-term global partnership with Visa, allowing them to directly issue crypto-enabled debit and prepaid cards
• Bank of Brazil allows citizens to pay taxes with crypto through a partnership with Bitfy
• MetaMask warns users about phishing attempts on Namecheap’s third-party email system

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. This 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. The 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 a blockchain solutions company Bitfy. Through this arrangement, partners (financial institutions, fintechs, among others) can offer the payment solution for tax bills, fees and obligations to their customers using the 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. Users should not enter their Secret Recovery Phrase on any website or click links from emails claiming to be from MetaMask or Namecheap. Namechap detected the issue and informed its users.

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. 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.

Central Bank Of UAE Explores CBDC For Cross Border PaymentsThe Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates (CBUAE) is exploring creating central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) as part of its „Regulations Sandbox“ program which seeks out innovative technologies such as blockchain in order to improve cross border payments between UAE banks and other financial institutions around the world. The CBUAE also said they are working on creating an operational framework for testing CBDCs within specific environments which could help banks assess risks associated with these new technologies before launching them into production systems