Google Announces Deal with Coinbase to Enable Cloud Services Payments Using Cryptocurrency

Google announced a deal with major crypto exchange Coinbase to enable select customers to pay for its Cloud services using cryptoassets such as bitcoin (BTC) in early 2023, according to CNBC. The deal was announced at Google’s Cloud Next conference, it said. Over time, Google will allow many more customers to make payments with cryptocurrency, Amit Zavery, vice president and general manager and head of platform at Google Cloud, reportedly told CNBC. Coinbase will move some of its applications to Google’s cloud.
Payments platform Wirex announced the launch of USD coin (USDC) on the Stellar (XLM) blockchain within the Wirex app. It added that this announcement is an important milestone in an ongoing collaboration between Wirex and the development of the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF), the non-profit organisation that supports the growth and development of the Stellar network.
California-based start-up Ripple announced its first On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) customer in France as it partners with Lemonway, a Paris-based payment provider for online marketplaces. It also announced a second new ODL customer, its first in Sweden – Swedish money transfer provider Xbaht, which enables money movement between Sweden and Thailand.

Web3 news

Cable news network CNN has ended its Web3 experiment. Per an announcement, it has “decided that it’s time to say goodbye” to Vault by CNN. It added that it learned a lot from its “first foray into Web3” and that the Vault non-fungible token (NFT) collection “will live on.”
Decentralized communication protocol for Web3 Push Protocol announced the launch of its native Web3 messaging app and a wallet-to-wallet communication protocol, Push Chat. Per the announcement, the team launched the Push Chat alpha and opened up access to select users across the Push community. Polygon Wallet is a launch partner for Push Chat, setting the stage for the intra-wallet chat, they said.

Coinbase announced on Monday that it received a license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) as it plans to expand in Asia. “Gaining this in-principle approval from MAS is an important step, as we plan to launch our full suite of retail, institutional and ecosystem products,” it said.

Layer 1 blockchain QANplatform has become the target of a bridge hack that resulted in the theft of some QANX 1.43 billion, worth over $1 million. Blockchain security company Peckshield sounded the alarm first, with QANplatform confirming that “the bridge smart contract that is offline was hacked and the attacker managed to withdraw tokens.”
Blockchain security company Supremacy Inc. said today that decentralized finance (DeFi) aggregator ParaSwap may have been compromised, possibly as a result of a profanity vulnerability, and that funds may have been stolen on multiple chains. ParaSwap denied any vulnerability, saying that it will release an analysis and an explanation later.

Anubi Digital unveiled DUO, a service that allows its customers to deploy digital assets in pairs to Uniswap (UNI)’s liquidity pools and earn a stream of crypto rewards over time, said the press release.

Bahamas-based digital asset investment firm GEM Digital Limited has provided MinePlex, a new-generation digital ecosystem, “with up to $100 million in funding,” said a press release. “The funding will be used to advance global penetration of the MinePlex ecosystem and the development of new banking technologies,” it said.

Bitcoin miner Greenidge Generation expects a GAAP net loss of between $20 million and $22 million for the third quarter, it said in its preliminary financial and operating results. Greenidge reported expected revenue of $29 million.
As it celebrates its five-year anniversary Bitcoin mining operation Bitfarms said that, as of September 2022, it achieved operating capacity of 176MW, a hashrate of 4.2 exahash/second (EH/s), and approximately 2% market share of the Bitcoin network.