Bitcoin Daily: Venezuela Pizza Huts Now Take Bitcoin; $4.2 Billion In Cryptos Seized By China In PlusToken Investigation

Pizza Hut will now accept cryptocurrency as a form of payment at its stores in Venezuela, Cointelegraph reported.

Crypto merchant gateway firm Cryptobuyer announced in a tweet on Nov. 27 that it was partnering with the pizza chain to process cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Litecoin, Binance Coin, Binance USD, Tether, Dash, Ether, Dai and XPT, Cryptobuyer’s native coin.

“Pizza Hut nowadays cannot be detached from these technological advances and all those incorporating new approaches for daily necessities,” said Richard ElKhouri, Pizza Hut’s general director for Venezuelan operations, in an interview with local news outlet ElAxioma, according to Cointelegraph.

Pizza Hut has restaurants in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital, and Maracay, Maracaibo and Barquisimeto, the report stated.

Panama’s Cryptobuyer, which also runs Bitcoin ATMs in Central and South America, recently teamed up with payments processor Mega Soft to accelerate the adoption of cryptocurrency payments in Venezuela, Cointelegraph reported.

Cryptobuyer has already partnered with companies such as Venezuelan retail chain Traki, Tamanaco Intercontinental Hotel in Caracas, and U.S.-based Burger King, according to the report.

In other news, China’s Jiangsu Yancheng Intermediate People’s court released the details of the crypto assets seized by police related to the PlusToken Ponzi scheme crackdown, The Block reported.

The courts said that the assets are worth more than $4.2 billion, according to The Block, citing the court’s judgment, which came out on Nov. 19.

The appeals court upheld Yancheng’s lower-level district court’s ruling, which was announced on Sept. 22, noting that “the seized digital currencies will be processed pursuant to laws and the proceeds and gains will be forfeited to the national treasury,” reported The Block, citing the ruling.

The courts have so far convicted 15 people involved in the scam, which stole more than 50 billion yuan ($7.6 billion) from more than 2.6 million people, The Block reported. They were sentenced to between two to 11 years and fined between $100,000 to $1 million.

Chinese law enforcement seized 194,775 Bitcoin, 833,083 Ethereum, 487 million XRP, 6 billion Dogecoin, 27.6 million EOS, 213,724 Tether, 1.4 million Litecoin, 79,581 BCH, and 74,167 Dash, from seven of the convicts, the report stated.

Law enforcement have been able to follow the trail of $19 million of the laundered cryptocurrency, spent by the convicts or their families on real estate in China, luxury cars and insurance policies in Hong Kong, according to The Block.