Did crypto winter scare off Visa and Mastercard?

Crypto cycles are not for the faint of heart. As the industry continues to evolve from cypherpunks to the mainstream, we can expect a lot of pain. The burning of waste in 2022 may scare many companies interested in exploring the sector. Case in point: Visa and Mastercard’s embrace of crypto may be affected by bear markets and unclear regulations.

According to a recent report by Reuters, the credit card giant is holding off on launching certain crypto products until market conditions and the regulatory environment improve. Cuy Sheffield, who heads Visa’s crypto division, was not happy with the report, assuring the market that Visa is fully committed to seeing its crypto ambitions.

This week’s Crypto Biz explores the latest reports on Visa and Mastercard, Jack Dorsey’s decentralized Twitter alternative, and Goldman Sachs’ need for more digital asset professionals.

Breaking: Visa and Mastercard end new crypto partnership – Report

Credit card giants Visa and Mastercard will delay the launch of a new crypto partnership due to a bear market and a murky regulatory situation, according to a February 28 report by Reuters. Companies are hesitant to start new crypto partnerships after the high landings in the sector, such as FTX, BlockFi, Celsius, Voyager, Genesis and others. to move before crypto becomes part of mainstream payments and financial services,” said a Visa spokesperson. However, Visa’s crypto chief later clarified that the company continues to “partner with crypto companies to add fiat on and off-ramp.”

Jack Dorsey’s decentralized Twitter rival enters the app store

Jack Dorsey embraces decentralized social networking with the private beta launch of Bluesky – a so-called decentralized Twitter alternative. Bluesky hit the Apple app store as an invite-only app, allowing key people to try out the new platform. An initial look at Bluesky reveals an interface that resembles Twitter. The main difference between the two is that Bluesky claims to be “decentralized,” which means it operates servers independently rather than centralized servers controlled by one entity. It is not entirely clear that Bluesky will have Bitcoin (BTC) integration, something Dorsey feels strongly about. In June 2022, Cointelegraph reported that Dorsey was building “Web5” powered by Bitcoin.

Goldman Sachs is still open for crypto employees amid 3,200 staff cuts

Watch what they do, not what they say. Amid continued layoffs in the digital asset sector, multinational investment bank Goldman Sachs has not closed the door on hiring more crypto professionals. According to Goldman’s head of digital assets, Matthew McDermott, the bank remains “very positive” about exploring blockchain applications, which would require more employees. Goldman Sachs’ digital assets unit currently employs 70 people and is unlikely to be affected by the bank’s job cuts. It seems like only yesterday that Goldman Sachs was so critical of crypto. Now, it has completed the sector and its innovative potential.

Coinbase CEO states that ‘staking’ products are not securities

Last week, Crypto Biz reported that Coinbase had a lot of bets. This week, CEO Brian Armstrong stated that Coinbase’s staking products are not securities and should not be subject to US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) enforcement actions. “[We] it really only provides a service that passes these coins to help them participate in staking, which is a decentralized protocol,” he said, referring to the exchange’s staking product. The SEC has thrown the book at crypto exchange Kraken for staking services. Will the regulator buy Coinbase’s argument ?Only time will tell.

Before you go: Is Binance in trouble?

It’s hard to get mainstream crypto coverage these days. This week, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao responded to a scathing article about the exchange’s business practices. Meanwhile, Solana’s network suffered another outage. This week’s Market Report dispels the FUD surrounding Binance, and discusses what could be in store for Solana. You can watch the full replay below:

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