Circle has launched a new account service aimed at helping businesses transact in crypto — potentially opening the door to wider mainstream adoption of digital assets. The new business-centric Circle Account allows enterprise clients to deposit, withdraw, receive, and store cryptocurrencies and have all payments settled in the USDC stablecoin on up to eight different blockchains.
Avalanche (AVAX) saw its Total Value Locked (TVL) beat out other major competitors in January. The AVAX blockchain managed to end January with $8.53 billion in TVL to surpass Binance Smart Chain, according to BeInCrypto Research.
Streaming service provider Sling TV now accepts crypto payments through an integration with BitPay, a global cryptocurrency payment service provider.
South Korea’s largest bank by net profit, KB Kookmin Bank, wants to explore and launch crypto ETFs “as quickly as possible”. The bank said it was preparing for the preemptive launch of related products through domestic and overseas digital asset market research.
Stocks fell sharply Wednesday with the Dow Jones closing the trading session at the lowest level so far in 2022, notching its fifth straight session of losses.
The S&P 500 ended 1.8% lower, a day after closing down more than 10% from the top recorded on January 3. Ten of the S&P 500’s eleven sectors ended down for the day, with only the energy group rising 1.1%.
U.S. Treasuries tumbled as the prospect of aggressive interest-rate hikes to cool inflation rippled through markets spooked by rising energy costs. Odds for a 50-basis-point March Fed hike have risen to almost 40%, while two-year notes lead losses.
Total mortgage applications decreased 13.1% last week to the lowest level since December 2019. Applications to refinance dropped 15% weekly and were 56% lower than one year ago.
The number of people working as brokers for mortgages has surged more than 50% to around 130,000 since late 2019, the highest level seen since 2006. As mortgage applications decrease, some lenders have already begun cutting back. Mortgage lender Homepoint Capital recently laid off nearly 10% of its workforce.