PYMNTS-MonitorEdge-May-2024

Bitcoin Daily: Cuba Considers Using Crypto To Boost Economy; France Sees Spike In Complaints From Crypto Investors

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel has announced a plan to use cryptocurrencies to boost his country’s ailing economy.

The proposal is part of a series of measures that aims to improve Cuba’s ongoing financial crisis, which has gotten worse due to sanctions imposed by the United States.

“We are planning to explore the potential application of cryptocurrency […] In fact, we’ve gone further and decided to study the potential use of cryptocurrency in national and international commercial relations,” said Alejandro Gil Fernandez, the country’s Minister of Economy and Planning, according to Hard Fork.

In other news, the Financial Markets Authority’s (AMF) 2019 Risk Map revealed that there has been an increase in complaints filed by French investors regarding cryptocurrencies this year.

Despite the complaints, the report also showed that investors are still interested in products like binary options, foreign exchange, contracts for difference and crypto. And this year has actually seen a decline in the number of complaints received by the AMF’s consumer contact center related to digital currency.

And Canadian crypto trading platform Coinsquare has announced that it has taken a controlling investment position in Just Cash, a FinTech software provider.

Just Cash’s software enables customers to purchase cryptocurrency through the traditional ATM process without disrupting the ATM network. In fact, the transaction is accomplished by a routine software update to the ATM.

“Right now, there is a lack of mainstream cryptocurrency adoption because most people are intimidated by the process to acquire it,” Cole Diamond, CEO of Coinsquare, said in a press release. “By using the millions of existing ATMs around the world, we can now bridge the gap and give new users the easiest and most familiar experience to purchase cryptocurrency. Bitcoin is new and unfamiliar to many, but ATMs are not. By tapping into the existing global ATM network, cryptocurrency can finally reach the masses. We are bringing that familiar and trusted process into the cryptocurrency world, and vice versa, for the first time.”

PYMNTS-MonitorEdge-May-2024