The Monday Roundup: what we are watching this week | June 13th

By Gaia Lamperti

The Monday Roundup sets the scene for the week’s biggest news stories, industry deals, and upcoming events. For Prime subscribers only.

Crypto crashes

The crypto space saw another sudden crash over the weekend as Bitcoin and Ethereum witnessed significant losses, eroding future price outlooks. Bitcoin was below $28,000 on Sunday, down 6% during the last week, while Ethereum touched a low of $1,433, the lowest level in about a year and a half. The key macro driver hurting the crypto space, which has largely been trading like a risk-on asset, was another hot inflation release.

As one of the crypto-economy’s lergest lenders, Celsius Network, suspended Bitcoin withdrawals on Sunday, the cryptocurrency crashed to its lowest level since December 2020. Blaming “extreme market conditions”, Celsius has moved to suspend all withdrawals and transfers between accounts. “We are taking this necessary action for the benefit of our entire community in order to stabilise liquidity and operations while we take steps to preserve and protect assets,” the company wrote in a memo to users. “There is a lot of work ahead as we consider various options, this process will take time, and there may be delays.”

Cross-border payments boost

Brazilian fintech Remessa Online has joined forces with payments platform Modulr and crypto solution provider Ripple to drive its cross-border payments from Brazil into the UK and Europe. Remessa Online can now provide its customers with access to Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) Instant payments and the UK’s Faster Payments; enabling them to make payments 24/7, 365 days a year to the UK and Europe. It is the first Brazilian business to establish a partnership with Modulr.

Global business payments company FLEETCOR Technologies announced last week that it has signed an agreement to acquire UK-based cross-border pay provider Global Reach Group. The partnership will help FLEETCOR amp up its cross-border payments ability, and the deal will likely close in the fourth quarter this year. In March, the company also acquired airline software company Levarti, giving FLEETCOR access to the latter company’s suite of things like passenger notifications, flight rebookings and other ways to automate passenger disruptions.

Where is the buzz

Railsbank, the fintech that allows brands to embed financial experiences into any part of their existing customer journey, has announced a change of name. The company has become Railsr, as it seeks to “set the pace of the embedded finance space”. The rebrand was announced for the first time at Money 20/20 in Amsterdam. Railsr’s CEO, Nigel Verdon, explained: “In our fast-moving world of amazing customer experiences, the finance industry has failed to evolve. We’re ‘experience natives’ thinking differently to deliver positive disruption.”