Benefits of Using Crypto to Pay for Porn Site Memberships: 2026 Privacy, Security & Cost Savings In-Depth Guide

The post Western Union Unveils USD-Pegged Stablecoin Card for Countries Facing Severe Inflation appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com. Western Union plans prepaid Visa cards holding dollar stablecoins to shield remittances from hyperinflation. Card connects to USDPT on Solana, promising faster cross-border transfers, lower fees globally. Western Union has outlined a prepaid card project built around dollar-pegged stablecoins, aimed at people whose local money loses value at a rapid pace. Chief financial officer Matthew Cagwin described the initiative at the UBS Global Technology and AI Conference, framing it as a response to extreme inflation pressure. For example, Argentina featured in the presentation as a clear warning sign. Consumer prices there surged beyond 200% last year, with some estimates stretching from 250% to 300%. Under such conditions, money arriving from abroad can erode before families manage to spend it on everyday needs. Cagwin drew on a simple case to explain the impact. A relative in the United States sends $500 home, and within one month, inflation can cut practical buying power down to about $300. A prepaid card funded in dollar-denominated stablecoins is designed to hold the value of that transfer intact. Card Design Links Stablecoins With Cash Use The planned product builds on Western Union’s existing prepaid card line but redirects focus from domestic U.S. users to households in highly volatile economies. Card balances will sit in stablecoins tied to the U.S. dollar rather than in local currency bank or card accounts vulnerable to rapid price swings. Western Union is working with Rain, an issuer of Visa cards backed by stablecoins. Under that arrangement, cardholders will be able to spend stablecoin balances directly where Visa is accepted or exchange part of the balance into local notes at participating Western Union locations, depending on day-to-day needs. Many residents in inflation-hit regions still rely heavily on cash for food, rent, and transport. The company sees digital stablecoin storage combined with branch…

The post McGlone: Bitcoin Likely Below $84K by Year-End appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com. Will Bitcoin lead the next recession?  Is $10,000 in the cards?  Mike McGlone, Bloomberg Intelligence’s senior commodity strategist with over 25 years in futures trading, argues Bitcoin’s year-end 2025 price below $84,000 could signal risk-off sentiment across stocks and commodities.  He believes that the leading cryptocurrency is more likely to end 2025 below the aforementioned level than above $94,000. Will Bitcoin lead the next recession?  McGlone’s bearish outlook on Bitcoin and broader risk assets emerges as a consistent thread across his commentary over the past month.  It is rooted in a confluence of mean-reversion pressures and historical parallels to past downturns.  So far, McGlone’s anti-Bitcoin bet has been playing out nicely, with the flagship coin vastly underperforming gold.  The Bloomberg analyst views Bitcoin as harbingers of post-inflation deflation.  He repeatedly frames the crypto king as a high-beta leader poised to drag the S&P 500 and other speculative assets lower.  The Federal Reserve’s easing cycle has failed to stem its slide, which echoes the 2007 stock market peak. Back then, the initial rate cuts preceded a 50% plunge.  As reported by U.Today, McGlone recently predicted that BTC could actually lead the next recession.  Is $10,000 in the cards?  He has recently predicted that Bitcoin (BTC) could fall back to $10,000 under a severe “bear‑case” scenario.  Such an extremely bearish scenario will be possible if macroeconomic stress and structural weakness in crypto continue.  Of course, it should be noted that this is just the “worst- case” scenario.  However, McGlone does see BTC plunging to $50,000 amid weakening sentiment as a realistic scenario. Source: https://u.today/mcglone-bitcoin-likely-below-84k-by-year-end-2025

The x402 protocol, as a major narrative in AI Agent payments, has become a highly sought-after commodity. While everyone is still researching AI Agents that can automatically swipe cards to purchase API services, OpenMind has already planned to enable embodied robots equipped with NVIDIA Jetson Thor chips to complete real-time payments via the x402 protocol while navigating autonomously in the real world. Why is this matter worth paying attention to? OpenMind, a leading project in the robotics field, has secured over $20 million in investment from Pantera Capital, Coinbase Venture, Amber Group, and others. It focuses on building decentralized intelligent infrastructure for robots. It should be noted that its BrainPack system is powered by an NVIDIA Jetson Thor chip, providing humanoid and quadruped robots with next-generation autonomy, enabling them to navigate, recognize scenes, and handle complex tasks in real urban environments. This in-depth collaboration between OpenMind and Circle aims to... The goal is simple: to enable robots to complete hundreds or thousands of instant, reliable, cross-chain payments per second while performing physical tasks. Looking at their GitHub design, they have indeed made some improvements and adjustments to the x402 protocol: for example, they have strengthened the payment security mechanism to prevent the robot from encountering payment fraud when performing tasks and ensure that fund confirmation is completed within 2 seconds; at the same time, they have launched a batch processing solution, which uses Gateway off-chain technology to enable the robot to perform millions of micro-payments without waiting for blockchain confirmation each time, and finally settle them in a unified manner. Of course, before the virtual AI agent application x402 becomes widely available, imagine that robots in the real world already possess such convenient payment capabilities: A delivery robot performs tasks on the street, purchasing map navigation APIs, weather data, and traffic information services in real time; an inspection robot autonomously pays for cloud computing power to process visual recognition; multiple robots automatically settle collaborative service fees via the x402 protocol... Compared to the technical difficulty of virtual AI agent payments, this undoubtedly adds another level of challenge. While payments between virtual agents can tolerate some delays, robots performing physical tasks must be "instant, reliable, and high-frequency". The key point is: OpenMind's exploration of the x402 payment protocol was publicly mentioned by Circle's CEO. This also carries a degree of support from Nvidia, and their partner, Unitree Robotics, is preparing for its IPO at the end of the year. We'll then have a clearer understanding of the value the x402 payment protocol will bring to the robotics field.