Today In Payments: Crypto Takes $260B Dive

In today’s top news, bitcoin fell below $50,000 for the first time in weeks, and Square launched new inventory management tools for retailers. Plus, Vivid Seats, the online ticket reseller, is going public via SPAC.

Bitcoin Drops Under $50,000 As Crypto Takes $260 Billion Dive

The cryptocurrency market took a $260 billion dive on Friday (April 23), with bitcoin trading below $50,000 for the first time in weeks — a 10 percent drop in value. Other coins tumbled to new lows as well.

Square Unveils New Inventory Management Features For Retailers

Square has unveiled new inventory management features for its retail sellers, designed to improve the efficiency of creating, counting and reordering inventory. The tools include quick inventory counting and alerts for when an item is almost out of stock.

Ticket Reseller Vivid Seats Books Deal To Go Public Via SPAC

Chicago-based Vivid Seats is set to go public by combining with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC), Horizon. The companies estimated that the combined company will have a valuation of $1.95 billion.

Deluxe Buys First American Payments For $960 Million

Deluxe is acquiring First American Payments Systems in a $960 million all-cash deal in a move intended to help the company accelerate its digital growth in the payments space. With the purchase of First American, Deluxe is anticipating it will double the annual revenue of its payments unit.

BNP Paribas: Open Banking APIs Deliver An ‘Invisible’ Payment Experience

Are account-to-account payments the next invisible payments frontier? In the inaugural U.S. Open Banking Tracker®, Carlo Bovero, global head of payments at BNP Paribas, explains how tapping open banking application programming interfaces (APIs) can help merchants offer direct payment options to consumers.

ConnectedEconomy™ 2021: PhonePe Addresses Massive Scale Of India’s Digitization

PhonePe got its start as the only mobile payments app available when India dealt with its massive demonetization change in 2016. As PhonePe CEO Sameer Nigam told PYMNTS’ Karen Webster in a recent conversation, further efforts to advance the connected economy in India will depend on infrastructure and financial cooperation.

Supreme Court’s Ruling Curtails FTC Reach On Monetary Awards

Injunctions, yes — but not monetary relief. A Supreme Court decision on Thursday may effectively hobble the Federal Trade Commission’s ability to claw back monies from bad actors to give consumers restitution. But there are other avenues for the FTC to go down as it seeks that power — including in the halls of Congress.

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NEW PYMNTS STUDY: SUBSCRIPTION COMMERCE CONVERSION INDEX – APRIL 2021

About The Study: One third of consumers who signed up for subscription services within the past year were just in it for the free trial. In the 2021 Subscription Commerce Conversion Index, PYMNTS surveys 2,022 U.S. consumers and analyzes more than 200 subscription commerce providers to zero in on the key features that turn the “subscription curious” into sticky, long term subscribers.