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The digital euro gets a lunch test A central bank employee buying lunch could be among the first people to try the digital euro. ECB board member Piero Cipollone told European lawmakers this week that the pilot is due to start in the second half of next year. Canteens at participating central banks are one example of where staff could spend it. The ECB has picked 36 payment providers, including banks and non-bank firms. It also wants merchants to test what happens when a shopper pays online or on a phone. It expects to name the selected merchants early next year. For a shop deciding when to change its checkout, two dates matter. The pilot will use a beta version with no legal tender status. The ECB says it can set a date for a possible public launch only after lawmakers adopt the regula

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Still using a Paybis address on invoices? If a client has saved your Paybis address for USDT payments, check the invoice before Sunday. Paybis says it will remove USDT deposit addresses for customers in the European Economic Area that day. Buying, selling and swapping USDT on Paybis will also stop for those customers. USDT already in a Paybis wallet will stay in USDT. Customers who want to swap it on the platform have until the change. Afterward they can still withdraw to an external wallet. Network fees and minimum withdrawal amounts apply. Paybis says withdrawals will remain available after January 8 as well. The immediate deadline matters for incoming payments. Give clients updated payment instructions before they transfer. If someone has already sent USDT to the old address after it

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Nakamoto gets another year on part of its Kraken loan Nakamoto owed Kraken 60 million USDT next month. In a filing on Thursday, the bitcoin company said Kraken had agreed to give its subsidiary another year to repay that portion. The full 165 million USDT is still outstanding. The larger payment now comes first. Under the revised schedule, 105 million USDT falls due next June and the remaining 60 million the following December. Kraken will also count the net value of certain bitcoin derivatives in Nakamoto’s pledged trading account toward the collateral backing the loan. Kraken values those positions daily. If their combined value falls below zero, they contribute nothing toward the collateral requirement. That leaves Nakamoto with two clocks to watch. Its next scheduled principal paym

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The world in 24 hours Thailand’s securities regulator wants crypto firms to check whose wallet is on the other side of a stablecoin transfer. Under its draft, customers could generally deposit from or withdraw to their own verified wallets. Each operator would apply separate daily limits of five million baht in each direction, with exceptions. The regulator is still taking comments. SoFi’s dollar stablecoin now runs on Polygon alongside Ethereum and Solana. Polygon says SoFi members can buy, sell and hold the token inside the app without setting up a separate wallet. SoFi Bank issues the token, but federal deposit insurance does not cover a balance held in SoFiUSD. Britain’s economy grew an estimated 0.7% in the third quarter as services expanded. Builders saw a different quarter. The O

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What happens to Gemini’s old UK accounts? CoinDesk reports that stablecoin payments firm KAST bought Gemini’s UK and European operations for less than $10 million, citing a person familiar with the deal. Neither company confirmed the terms to CoinDesk. A clue to what KAST wants is in its Dublin job listing. The incoming manager would bring Gemini’s UK and EU staff into KAST, work with regulators on the change of control and help launch KAST’s own payment products in Europe. For former UK customers, the distinction matters. Britain’s financial regulator said Gemini would restrict accounts to withdrawals in March and begin closing them in April. The job listing describes where employees will go. It gives former customers no instructions for moving a balance or reopening an account.

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Griffin plans debit cards that carry its customers’ brands A UK finance app that already uses Griffin for bank accounts could eventually offer its own branded debit card through the same bank. Griffin says it raised $20 million in a funding round led by Octagon Partners to help build card issuing and stablecoin services. The bank already supplies accounts and payments behind the scenes for more than 80 companies, according to Griffin. Under its plan, a client could issue cards for individual or business customers. Credit cards would follow the debit offering. The stablecoin work has two parts. Griffin wants to help businesses manage reserves and to connect its banking platform to cross-border payments on blockchain networks. The funding announcement gives an app developer a sense of wha

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Nvidia’s finance chief takes the top job Nvidia’s board accepted Jensen Huang’s resignation as chief executive, president and director. Colette Kress, who has run the chipmaker’s finances since 2013, will keep the CFO job while she serves as interim CEO. The board named longtime director Harvey Jones its first chair and will consider candidates from inside and outside the company for the permanent CEO role. Kress already knows the other side of a chip order. The Associated Press reports that she helped structure financing deals with major AI customers, including Anthropic and CoreWeave. For companies buying Nvidia hardware, the question is whether the leadership change will affect what arrives and when. Jones said the board expects Nvidia to keep its customer commitments and product pla

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When can you trade a token linked to Siemens? Payward has expanded its xStocks range to cover more than 200 UK and EU listings, including all 40 companies in Germany’s DAX index. For someone who follows Siemens, that adds a way to get exposure to its share price through Kraken. The launch terms say trading in this batch follows local market hours. What happens if news breaks after the German market closes? You can still see the token in your wallet. If you want to sell it on Kraken, you need to know when trading in that listing reopens. The distinction shows up on a dividend payment, too. Payward says each token is backed by shares held in custody. Holders get the economic value of dividends through an adjustment to their token balance. A holder who expects cash to land in a brokerage a