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As the central bank printing presses roll on, the U.S. dollar is getting decimated. It suffered its worst week in a decade. In contrast, gold (and its +1 silver) continue to be on a tear as a hedge against uncertainty and dollar depreciation.

Transactions on digital payment platforms continued to grow during the month of July with several platforms hitting record highs as adoption continues to grow.

The next step for India's fintech industry should be to apply innovation similar to UPI Autopay to lending, Infosys Chairman Nandan Nilekani says.

Talk about cutting off the nose to spite the face: For a second time, India wants to ban cryptocurrencies. Harnessing the power of tokens residing on distributed ledgers can save the worlds biggest recipient of money transfers billions of dollars annually.

While all digital payment platforms saw a rise in transactions in May, their total value is still below historical highs.

Transactions across digital payment platforms fell significantly in the month of April in response to a nationwide lockdown imposed in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak.

This week on Startup Street, a look at the trends from private equity and venture capital ecosystem in the country in 2019. A Hero MotoCorp-backed startup expands to four more cities. And an analysis suggests India is now the worlds third-biggest fintech market. Heres what went on...

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- So is China readying its own Bitcoin? Banish the thought. Its far bigger than that. Yes, just like any other cryptocurrency orfor that matter,cigarettes in prisoners-of-war camps the upcoming digital yuan will be tokenized money. But the similarity ends there. (BTC )

Chit Funds: Alongside a legislative overhaul, fintech is playing a critical role in modernising the chit fund industry. Fintech startups, including ChitMonks, CredRight and KyePot, are using technology such as blockchain to bring chit funds up to date.

This week on Startup Street, we have Think Analytics Algo360 harnessing non-traditional data - the kind they get from your phone, purchases and social media - to make credit more accessible to Indians. The Neotia Group in Kolkata and Microsoft Inc. in Kochi are looking to play a bigger role as startup mentors. And fintech major Razorpay has acquired payroll and HR management software company, Opfin.

Heres a surprising sentence: the Politburo of the Communist Party of China held a special meeting to learn more about blockchain. The first reason thats surprising is who.

Cashbacks on your online shopping, utility bills and even on money transfers havent come cheap for the countrys top digital payment firms, who are battling it out to gain share of the countrys financial transactions.

(Bloomberg) -- Mark Zuckerberg is preparing to defend Facebook Inc.s cryptocurrency project, which has continued to face steady scrutiny from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

The government has promised to give non-banking finance companies and fintech firms access to the Aadhaar database for bringing new customers on-board once again. Tighter regulations surrounding the KYC regime, however, could mean higher compliance costs on NBFCs and fintechs rather than ease the burden on these firms.

The playing field in Indias rapidly expanding market for digital payments is poised to get more crowded as the country races to catch up with China in squeezing out the use of cash, according to the head of the South Asian nations payments network.

Bitcoin is quickly loosing the refuge designation bestowed by some advocates in recent weeks as the largest cryptocurrency joins the global slide in riskier assets. Smaller rivals tumbled even further. (BTC )

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- With worries about a currency war growing and bond yields collapsing, investors have reached for their usual haven of gold. Only this time it has a friend (as my colleague Tim Culpan wrote this week): Bitcoin. (BTC )

Five Indian startups raised this week nearly Rs 1,300 crore in angel, seed and venture capital funding across sectors such as fintech, co-working spaces and home services. They are GoWork, Awfis, Indifi, UrbanClap and Aye Finance. Heres the latest in startup funding news.

Indias fintech firms have seen funding and M&A deals dry up in recent months due to a global slowdown in deal activity, says KPMG fintech report. Changing regulations and uncertainty across the financial services industry are taking their toll on fintech investment activity.

The council's statement said compulsory digital payment options by all merchants with a turnover above Rs 50 crore turnover and a penalty mechanism is a is a positive step. But the zero MDR policy, with the RBI and banks bearing the costs, came as a surprise. The fee in India is one of the lowest globally and no report has recommended a zero MDR, it said, adding that the RBI's committee for deepening of digital payments suggested a market-based pricing mechanism.

Donald Trump's Plan B sounds a lot like his Plan A. Thousands of protesters took to the streets again in Hong Kong. And Bitcoin goes on an epic roller coaster ride. Here are some of the things people in markets are talking about today. (BTC )

(Bloomberg) -- Bitcoin continued its torrid rally Wednesday, surpassing the $12,000 level for the first time in almost a year and a half. The largest cryptocurrency surged about 8%, trading at $12,273.08 as of 1:41 p.m. in Tokyo. (BTC )

Facebook Inc. unveiled plans for a new cryptocurrency that the social-media giant hopes will one day trade on a global scale much like the U.S. dollar.

A Reserve Bank of India-appointed committee headed by Aadhaar architect Nandan Nilekani submitted its suggestions to Governor Shaktikanta Das on promoting digital payments.

It was the early 2000s and a pick-up in credit card spending was all the rage. A number of private banks were falling over themselves to issue credit cards. Few believed that this form of unsecured credit would prove to be a headache in later years.

If payments were the chosen flavor of the fintech universe a few years ago, then digital lending, particularly to small business, is the newest opportunity attracting young entrepreneurs.

Bitcoin's recent rally appears to be losing momentum. Technical gauges signaling long-term buying demand for Bitcoin are deteriorating, potentially showing that selling pressures could intensify. (BTC )

Till about a decade ago, Bata shoes were considered old-fashioned with little style to draw younger customers. No anymore. (BTA )

Crypto fever has truly broken. That was a big takeaway this week from the Paris Fintech Forum, one of the biggest annual gatherings of its kind in Europe.

Subscribe to the Bloomberg Odd Lots podcast (Pocket Casts) Subscribe to the Bloomberg Odd Lots podcast (Apple Podcasts) Every week, hosts Joe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway take you on a not-so-random walk through hot topics in markets, finance and economics. (BTC )

RBI is encouraging broader use of a process called tokenisation to make digital payments more secure.

Creditors focusing on the crypto arena say they're finding strong demand from borrowers who don't want to sell their virtual coins at depressed prices, as well as from big investors eager to borrow coins for short selling. It's putting lenders on both sides of Bitcoin's bust: Helping believers pay their bills while awaiting a rebound, and also enabling bets by people who think the drop has further to go. (BTC )

At this time of year, we remember that it's better to give than to receive. And as files released by the British government reveal, that's especially true if the gift is a Turkmen horse. (MLN )

It was one year ago this week that Bitcoin reached an intraday peak of almost $20,000. Since then, it's been all downhill. The market value of all cryptocurrency assets have fallen to about $100 billion from about $800 billion at the start of the year. (BTC )

American Media Inc. agreed to accept responsibility for making a $150,000 payment to a former Playboy Playmate for a story about her affair with President Donald Trump that never ran as part of a deal with federal prosecutors in New York. (HUSH )

With the digital mode for financial transactions gaining traction in the country, there is an emerging need for a dedicated, cost-free and expeditious grievance redressal mechanism for strengthening consumer confidence in this channel.

Paytm said it stopped its messaging service a little over a year after its debut as the digital payments platform was facing cost issues to scale up the app.

Bitcoin is poised to register its biggest monthly decline in more than seven years as investors reevaluate the prospects of digital money following last year's euphoria. The biggest cryptocurrency dropped as much as 7. (BTC )

U.S. stocks posted the strongest rally in eight months on Wednesday, just a few days after the largest Bitcoin slump since February. That followed the biggest crude-oil drop for three years. In October, tech shares had their worst day since 2011. (BTC )

Bitcoin miners hit hard by the cryptocurrency's crash may be throwing in the towel. The Bitcoin network's hash rate, one way of gauging the computing power dedicated to mining the digital currency, dropped about 24 percent from an all-time high at the end of August through Nov. (BTC )

Bitcoin's tumble worsened over the weekend, putting the 2018 crash within striking distance of the cryptocurrency's worst-ever bear markets. The virtual currency, conceived just over a decade ago, fell as low as $3,475 on Sunday, Bitstamp prices show. (BTC )

(Bloomberg) -- One of the cryptocurrency world's most powerful, controversial and secretive companies just opened its books for the first time.

As virtual currencies plumbed new depths on Wednesday, the MVIS CryptoCompare Digital Assets 10 Index extended its collapse from a January high to 80 percent. The tumble has now surpassed the Nasdaq Composite Index's 78 percent peak-to-trough decline after the dot-com bubble burst in 2000.

The cryptocurrency bear market plumbed a fresh 10-month low, led by a slump in Bitcoin's biggest rival. (BTC )

While the world's largest cryptocurrency is down 65 percent since its peak in December, technical indicators suggest there's worse to come. Bitcoin has consistently had lower peaks since its apex in December, with each new high lower than the last. In addition, the Directional Movement Index signals the bullish buying pressure came to an abrupt end, and a new selling pressure trend has started. (BTC )

Cryptocurrencies dropped sharply for the second time in less than 24 hours, sinking toward a nine-month low amid concern that broader adoption of digital assets will take longer than some anticipated. (BTC )

The market's biggest digital coins dropped sharply on Wednesday amid a report that Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is pulling back on near-term plans to set up a cryptocurrency trading desk.Bitcoin, the biggest digital asset, erased gains and fell more than 3 percent in about 10 minutes. Litecoin, Ethereum and Ripple followed suit. Ethereum skidded by as much as 12 percent. (BTC , ETH , LTC )

For many Indians, demonetization provided their first experience of banks or digital payments. I just hope the insanity of the process didn't put them off formal finance forever.