LIGHTNING COMMERCE: Lightning Labs has raised $10 million in Series A financing as it gears up to launch its first paid service for merchants looking to accept bitcoin payments. The aim? To be the Visa of bitcoin. Full story
RIPPLE'S RETURNS: XRP, the third-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, will have another lackluster year in 2020, Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz recently told a roomful of financial advisers. What's more, he blamed Ripple – one of his firm's largest investments – for what he sees as XRP's underwhelming prospects. Full story
BOND AMBITION: ConsenSys has purchased a U.S.-based broker-dealer in an attempt to overhaul the multi-trillion-dollar municipal bond market. The acquisition of Heritage Financial Systems may enable ConsenSys to offer tokenized municipal bonds through its ethereum-based operating system, Codefi. Full story
GEARING UP: Intercontinental Exchange, parent firm of the bitcoin warehouse Bakkt, has agreed to acquire Bridge2, a loyalty solution provider for merchants and consumers. Full story
COIN CORRIDOR: Ripple's technology will form the basis of a new XRP-based remittance service from International Money Express (Intermex) for cross-border payments between the U.S. and Mexico. Full story
BACK ON TOP: Bitcoin rebounded above $9,400 earlier today, invalidating Monday's bearish candlestick pattern. With the bulls making their presence felt, the doors have opened for another attempt at recent highs above $9,600. A violation there could yield a quick move into five figures. Full story
LOVE LOST? In a chat on the Davos Promenade during last month’s World Economic Forum, Dante A. Disparte, vice chair of the Libra Association, told CoinDesk's Michael Casey "there's zero love lost" between the companies that left the consortium after intense regulatory pushback. "The firms that have left, I think, have left with a door wide open for future opportunities to engage in collaboration," Disparte said. Watch now
Lightning strikes $10M