Today In Payments: Circle Rolls Out NFT Platform; Pilot’s Valuation Surges To $1.2 Billion; Ternary Signs Onto Stripe Partner Program

In today’s top news, Circle has rolled out a NFT program, while Pilot has extended its Series C funding round to take in a total of $100 million. Plus, Ternary has become a part of the Stripe partner platform.

Circle Launches NFT Platform; Will Accept Credit Card And Crypto Payments

Circle, the financial technology firm, has released a full payments offering meant to allow non-fungible token (NFT) marketplaces and storefronts take credit card and digital currency payments in the hope of garnering a broader audience.

Pilot’s Valuation Soars To $1.2 Billion In Extended Series C Round

Pilot has extended its Series C funding round to take in an overall $100 million with additional funding from Bezos Expeditions and Whale Rock Capital, evolving into a unicorn with a $1.2 billion valuation. Pilot is geared toward bookkeeping, chief financial officer (CFO) and tax services for tech startups.

Ternary Joins Stripe Partner Program To Manage Discord Memberships

Ternary Developments, which offers a service that lets those who run digital communities harnessing the Discord chat platform simply provide paid membership plans, said in an announcement that it is collaborating with Stripe to let members of those plans simply engage in transactions like renewals.

Airbnb Sees Inventory Boost Amid Post-Pandemic Travel Expectations

More than a year of escalating cabin fever has U.S. consumers ready to hit the road and take to the skies. “We’ve had a phenomenal recovery,” Vrbo President Jeff Hurst reportedly told CNN Business. “We could be looking at a real boom period for leisure travel.”

We’ve Seen The Future of Retail — And It’s At The Grocery Store

The United States is home to 40,460 grocery stores. If you want to see how brick-and-mortar retail might look two decades from now, you might want to watch the grocery store space over the three or five years to come.

Visa Network Will Settle Transactions In Crypto, First Use Case USD Stablecoin

Visa announced Monday (March 29) that it is the first major payments network to settle transactions in dollar denominated stablecoins, which the firm said is an important step into bringing digital currencies into the payments and commerce mainstream.

Will WeWork Work In SPAC Land?

Among the signatures of the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) go-to-market strategy is that small, fast-expanding firms — the ones that require capital but not the tradeoff of giving off too much independence — can come to market. But what happens when the firm going public is, in effect, big, money-losing and has not been successful in previous attempts to go to market?