Bitcoin Daily: Uphold Acquires Optimus Cards To Launch Crypto Debit Card; California Man Charged For Defrauding Victims Of $11.4 Million In Crypto Investor Schemes

Digital money platform Uphold has acquired Optimus Cards UK, which works in debit and credit card issuing in the U.K. and Europe, according to a press release.

Optimus is an electric money institution and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). It serves customers in the FinTech and credit union (CU) sectors, the release stated.

Uphold works to democratize investments via opening up access to traditionally inaccessible modes of finance like crypto, precious metals, U.S. equities or carbon credits, according to the release.

JP Thieriot, CEO of Uphold, said in the release that the goal is “to issue multi-asset, crypto-enabled debit cards across the U.K. and Europe.”

In other news, John DeMarr, a 55-year-old California resident, has been charged by the Department of Justice for allegedly participating in a coordinated cryptocurrency fraud scheme that prosecutors say just made him money, according to a press release.

He made promises to investors with the opportunity of large returns in the cryptocurrency market, the release stated. He coaxed them to lend him a total of $11.4 million for what was supposed to be business opportunities to trade coins and provide digital wallet staking, among other things. Instead, he reportedly used the money for himself.

Meanwhile, Binance has launched Binance Pay, a new payment system, which its CEO, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, said is a way to get people using crypto rather than just holding it, CoinDesk reported.

Binance Pay is currently in beta, and it will allow users to make “contactless, borderless and secure” payments around the world, the report stated.

The program will allow merchants to accept fiat-backed stablecoins, so the volatility isn’t a factor, according to the report.

Lastly, a U.S. Navy couple has been charged with using their status to gain access to personal information for over 9,000 people that they then sold to be used in identity thefts in exchange for bitcoin, NBC Los Angeles reported.

Marquis Asaad Hooper, 30, was a chief petty officer in Japan with the Navy’s Seventh Fleet until October 2018, and his wife, Natasha Renee Chalk, 37, was a naval reservist stationed at California’s Naval Air Station Lemoore, according to the report.

In August 2018, Hooper allegedly contacted a company storing private information for millions of people, saying falsely that his fleet needed access to the database to conduct background checks, the report stated. The scam ended up netting the couple $160,000 in bitcoin payments for the data they sold.