Weekly crypto roundup: Payments company Square rebrands to ‘Block Inc’

As the year winds down, a million things are unfolding in the global crypto landscape.  In today’s recap of Bitmama weekly crypto news, we’re sharing news about  Square (Payment Company) and its recent rebrand to Block Inc., Meta relaxing Facebook’s Cryptocurrency Ad Policy, the crypto market plummeting  alongside other interesting stories. First, Square to Block. 

Payments company Square rebrands to ‘Block Inc.,’ unveils  ‘Spiral’ as spin-off

Following Jack Dorsey’s resignation from Twitter on Monday, November 29th, 2021,  two days later Dorsey’s payments company, Square Inc., disclosed that it was rebranding and changing its name to Block Inc. The company said the name Block has “many associated meanings” including the term “blockchain.”

Jack Dorsey, co-founder and CEO of Block said during the announcement on Wednesday: 

‘’Block is a new name, but our purpose of economic empowerment remains the same. No matter how we grow or change, we will continue to build tools to help increase access to the economy.’’

Adding to the new development, Square reveals that its subsidiary Square Crypto, a separate initiative of the company dedicated to advancing Bitcoin, will change its name to Spiral.

Meta relaxes Facebook’s cryptocurrency Ad policy

Meta, (formerly  Facebook) announced Wednesday new rules for cryptocurrency advertising. Instead of “using a variety of signals to confirm eligibility” for advertising on its platform, the company has increased the number of regulatory licenses it accepts from three to 27. Now, businesses only need to have one of 27 licenses to be eligible to advertise on Facebook.

“We’re making it easier to run ads about cryptocurrency on our platform. 

We’re doing this because the cryptocurrency landscape has continued to mature and stabilize in recent years and has seen more government regulations that are setting clearer rules for their industry.”

The 27 licenses include those issued by regulators in the U.S., Australia, Austria, Canada, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Netherlands, Norway, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sweden, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, and the U.K.

In some jurisdictions, more than one license type is accepted. For example, in the U.S., businesses only need to be registered with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) as a money service business or have obtained a Bitlicense issued by the New York Department of Financial Services.

Crypto tokens plunge in fresh Sign of global market nerves

Bitcoin plunged along with other cryptocurrencies on Saturday, in another indication of the risk aversion sweeping across financial markets.

The largest digital token fell as low as $42,296 before paring some of the tumble. It was trading at about $48,300 as of 10:31 a.m. in New York on Saturday, a drop of about 10%. The token has now declined more than 20% from the all-time high of more than $69,000 seen on November 10.

Ether, the second-largest token, fell as much as 17.4% before trimming the retreat to about 4%. The overall crypto sector has shed around a fifth of its value, sliding to $2.2 trillion, according to tracker CoinGecko.

It’s not unheard of for cryptocurrencies, which trade 24/7, to swing wildly on weekends. That’s owing to a few factors, including thinner trading volumes and a market structure that consists of hundreds of disconnected exchanges that in effect are their own islands of liquidity.

Hope you enjoyed our briefing this week. Don’t forget to subscribe to our notifications and download the Bitmama App on iOS and Android for a better crypto trading experience. See you next week. 

Also read : Bitmama announces “Credits Programme” to help digital natives transition into the blockchain ecosystem