merchant

On August 21, China Merchants Yonglong Bank issued a notice to customers, stating that it is cooperating with the latest risk management and account compliance guidelines from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the Securities and Futures Commission to conduct a comprehensive optimization and review of investment accounts for mainland investors. Upon verification, all investment accounts held by relevant customers (including wealth management, securities, and/or paper gold passbook accounts) as of May 22, 2026, have no asset balance, and there have been no investment transaction records in the past 12 months, which have been classified as "zero balance non-active investment accounts."To maintain normal account operations, the bank requires customers to submit the "Non-Active Investment Account Declaration" as soon as possible. Customers can complete the submission through the pop-up in the personal account section of the China Merchants Yonglong Bank mobile app; joint account holders or those who have not registered for the mobile app can call the customer service hotline for guidance, and each joint account holder must submit separately. The main content of the declaration includes confirming the accuracy of personal information, the legality of the source of funds, that the account has not been closed or suspended due to suspicious documents, and timely notification of any changes in information.The bank reminds that if customers fail to complete the submission in a timely manner, new investment transactions (including buying stocks, subscribing to wealth management products, etc.) will be suspended accordingly; if the submission continues to be delayed, it is expected that starting from November 2026, relevant "non-active investment accounts" may be closed. Once an account is suspended or closed, no new securities or wealth management product investment transactions can be conducted.

According to The Block, Rain CEO Farooq Malik stated that through partnerships with networks like Visa, the stablecoin payments facilitated by Rain have reached over 100,000 merchants, most of whom are unaware. Currently, transactions settled through the Visa network take about 3 days, but if merchants choose to settle directly using stablecoins, they can achieve same-day settlement.Rain completed a $250 million Series C funding round in January, with a post-money valuation of $1.95 billion, an annual transaction volume exceeding $3 billion, and has partnered with Visa and Mastercard to launch stablecoin cards and wallets, planning to explore the use of regulated stablecoins for on-chain settlements in certain business processes.

According to official news, Bitget C2C has officially launched the merchant ecosystem recruitment. This recruitment adopts a selective and invitation-based model, with dedicated business managers providing one-on-one access. The platform requires that applying merchants must be certified merchants from other platforms and have more than 180 days of industry experience; for senior high-level merchants, a "certificate direct upgrade channel" is open, allowing for direct upgrades to bulk merchants based on relevant certifications and transaction records, enjoying expedited review, 1V1 exclusive connection, and platform traffic exposure support.To accelerate ecosystem construction, Bitget has launched a dual incentive program. New merchants can receive a 100 USDT onboarding reward after completing specified tasks; existing merchants can receive up to 200 USDT referral rewards for each new merchant they successfully refer, with no limit on the number of referrals. The event will last until September 30 at 23:59 (UTC+8). For more details, please refer to the Bitget official platform.

Stablecoin card issuance and payment platform Rain announced the acquisition of the branded stored value and closed-loop payment platform Ansa. The Ansa team will join Rain, and its founder and CEO Sophia Goldberg will serve as the head of payments at Rain.Ansa provides merchants with branded prepaid wallets and incentive tools, supporting the use of stored value balances through Mastercard rails at existing POS terminals. Rain plans to combine its own Visa and Mastercard issuance capabilities to expand stored value balances to more merchant scenarios and integrate with wallets, rewards, and stablecoin functionalities. Ansa previously raised approximately $19.4 million.

According to Jinshi reports, on August 3 local time, the U.S. Central Command stated that the U.S. military continues to strictly enforce the maritime blockade against Iran. As of that day, the U.S. military has altered the navigation routes of 44 commercial vessels, rendered 2 vessels incapacitated, and boarded and inspected 2 vessels.

According to Cointelegraph, South Korean fintech giant KSNET will integrate Solana Pay into its network of over 330,000 merchants, with a monthly payment processing volume exceeding $4 billion.

According to Jinshi reports, the U.S. Central Command stated that the U.S. military has redirected 20 merchant ships, rendered 2 merchant ships incapacitated, and conducted boarding inspections on 2 merchant ships during the blockade operations against Iran.

According to Fortune, global payment giant Visa is accelerating its layout of stablecoin infrastructure by launching the Visa Stablecoin Platform, which helps banks and fintech companies integrate stablecoin payment capabilities into existing payment and fund management systems.It is reported that the platform aims to provide stablecoin service support for approximately 15,000 financial institutions and over 200 million merchants globally, allowing businesses to use USD stablecoins for settlement, fund circulation, and financial management within traditional payment networks.Visa currently processes about $150 trillion in payment transactions annually and has handled stablecoin settlement business worth billions of dollars. The company hopes to further expand the application of stablecoins through the new platform. The Visa Stablecoin Platform will initially support the new stablecoin OUSD launched by the Open Standard Alliance, while continuing to be compatible with existing stablecoins supported by Visa, including USDC issued by Circle and USDG issued by Paxos.Visa believes that stablecoins are becoming an important component of future financial infrastructure, with advantages including: instant settlement, transactions that do not rely on traditional bank clearing cycles; low-cost transfers, reducing payment costs based on blockchain networks; and transparency and traceability, with on-chain transaction records providing higher verifiability. Visa has been continuously laying out its strategy in the stablecoin field. In 2020, Visa became the first global payment network to support USDC settlements; in 2025, the company launched a stablecoin settlement program to further promote stablecoins into the mainstream payment system.Meanwhile, Visa's competitors are also accelerating their entry into the stablecoin market. Mastercard recently launched a stablecoin settlement solution and collaborated with companies such as MoonPay and Paxos; American Express is also participating in the ecosystem development related to Open Standard. As traditional payment giants increasingly adopt stablecoins, stablecoins are gradually transforming from payment tools in the crypto industry to an important component of global financial infrastructure.

According to CoinPost, JCB has reached a partnership with a Circle affiliate, planning to test USDC payments at a store in Tokyo that attracts many foreign tourists within the year and evaluate the promotion to more franchise merchants.The pilot aims to reduce the currency exchange process for tourists and lower payment transaction fees. JCB has previously tested USDC and JPYC offline payments with Digital Garage, Resona Holdings, and others; Japan has also accelerated stablecoin merchant payment trials recently, including Lawson's plan to test JPYC in-store settlements in August.

According to official news, the application channel for Gate Card is currently open, and global user participation continues to rise. Currently, Gate Card supports over 100 countries and regions worldwide, covering approximately 130 million merchants that accept Visa, and is compatible with Apple Pay and Google Pay, usable for various consumption scenarios such as online shopping, offline retail, and dining travel.At the same time, Gate Card has launched a brand video that showcases scenarios around global consumption, mobile payments, and the everyday application of crypto assets, further conveying the product concept of "integrating crypto payments into real life."It is reported that Gate Card offers up to 5% cashback on spending, supports cashback in multiple currencies including BTC, ETH, USDT, GT, and provides benefits such as free card application, no annual fee, and no monthly fee. Industry insiders believe that as the mobile payment ecosystem and crypto assets become further integrated, crypto payment products are gradually extending from transaction scenarios to high-frequency consumption scenarios. In addition, Gate Card has recently launched a limited-time referral reward activity. Users who invite friends to complete card opening and spending can both receive up to 165 USDT in rewards.

According to Bitcoin Magazine, members of the Block team revealed that the company's Square has automatically enabled Bitcoin payment functionality for approximately 1 million U.S. merchants, allowing customers to pay with Bitcoin via the Lightning Network, while merchants settle in USD, with real-time conversion handled in the backend.This feature has been available by default to eligible U.S. sellers since March 30, with a new merchant being activated every 8 seconds at peak times. Miles Suter, Block's Bitcoin product lead, stated that Bitcoin must circulate rather than sit idle, or it will lose its transformative value as peer-to-peer cash.

According to Forbes, the Bitcoin mining company GoMining plans to launch its Bitcoin native payment protocol GoBTC, based on its own block production, at the Consensus conference.The protocol offers users instant authorization and settlement on the Bitcoin mainnet within a few hours, charging merchants a fee rate of 0.2%, which is an order of magnitude lower than the 1.5% to 3.5% rates of Visa and Mastercard.

WeChat Pay officially launched the AI native access toolbox, providing low-threshold payment integration solutions for merchants and developers, supporting the rapid generation of payment function code through natural language commands.The toolbox consists of Skill packages, AI-friendly documentation, and APIs, supporting one-click calls in mainstream AI development environments. Among them, the "verbal code generation" feature can compress a development process that originally took days into minutes, enabling quick access to more than 20 functions such as mini-program payments, H5 payments, refunds, and revenue sharing.At the same time, the toolbox has built-in AI diagnostic capabilities that can automatically identify code logic issues and provide repair suggestions, reducing financial and system risks during the integration process. For developers with existing systems, it also supports interface debugging and old code upgrades. This upgrade further promotes the standardization and AI integration of payment capabilities, lowering the digital operation threshold for small and medium-sized merchants.

According to CoinDesk, Square, led by Jack Dorsey, has begun automatically enabling Bitcoin payment features for millions of U.S. merchants, with transactions instantly converted to dollars at checkout. Merchants can receive Bitcoin without additional setup and do not bear the risks of price volatility and custody.This feature includes near-instant settlement and waives processing fees until 2026. Square stated that this is an important step in integrating Bitcoin into everyday business, with merchants defaulting to receive dollars without needing to change their accounting practices or hold crypto assets. It is reported that 78% of Square's users are from the U.S., while 22% are from international markets. Previously, PayPal launched the dollar-pegged stablecoin PYUSD to tens of thousands of users across its 70 global markets, promoting digital payment applications.

Gate Pay announced the launch of the Merchant MCP (Merchant MCP) service, promoting the application of AI Agent in payment operation scenarios. This service encapsulates high-frequency operations such as balance inquiries, order inquiries, and refunds into Tools that comply with the MCP protocol, allowing merchants to complete inquiries and operations through natural language commands in customer service, finance, and operations scenarios, improving efficiency and optimizing process collaboration.Gate Pay introduces Restricted Access Keys (RAK), supporting on-demand configuration of calling permissions, and combines idempotency checks, frequency limits, and risk control mechanisms to ensure operations are controllable and traceable. The current MVP version supports three core capabilities: balance inquiries, order inquiries, and refunds, and will continue to expand to more scenarios in the future.Gate has built a unified interface architecture covering six major capabilities: CEX, DEX, wallets, payments, data, and information, supporting AI Agent to complete the entire process from information acquisition to execution on the same platform. The launch of the Merchant MCP further strengthens the capability boundaries of AI Agent at the execution level, providing more direct infrastructure support for the implementation of AI in real business scenarios.

Binance Co-CEO Richard Teng posted on the X platform that over 21 million merchants now accept Binance Pay, and cryptocurrency is becoming a global business standard.