Gyft, a mobile gift card provider, has launched a loyalty system that gives different levels of rewards based on the funding method, favoring alternatives over credit cards.

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) has proposed allowing Bitcoin to be accepted as contributions for federal candidates in its draft guidance.

Ripple Labs has secured $3.5 million in additional funding to fuel the development of its digital currency network.

Merchants labeled high-risk often have trouble finding processors willing to work with them, but they may have better luck if they adopt a digital currency designed to prohibit chargebacks.

On the first day RoboCoin's Bitcoin ATM was deployed, one third of its users were new to the digital currency.

The payments industry is facing pressure from outside companies that are toppling many preconceptions about how payments should work. But industry veterans are fighting back, and they shared their strategies at SourceMedia's 2013 ATM, Debit & Prepaid Forum.

As Fexco and First Data demonstrated their futuristic ATM concept, they emphasized that the bank is at the heart of the offering. And as Lamassu demonstrated a similar device for bitcoin users, a very different message came across.

Many payments companies see a conflict between innovation and regulation, with each side perceiving the other as out of touch with their needs, particularly when it comes to new technology.

GlassPay, a new Google Glass app from RedBottle Design LLC, allows consumers to make purchases with bitcoins, a prominent digital currency.

Despite Bitcoin's pop culture appeal, most people perceive the virtual currency as so complicated that it must take a rocket scientist to understand. But Moneero has invented a machine that aims to change that perception.

Even though the U.S. payments industry's regulatory environment can be difficult for startups, there is plenty of investment being made in the market for new disruptive technologies.

Payward Ltd., which runs the Kraken digital currency exchange, is the latest virtual-currency provider to partner with Fidor Bank in Germany.

Ripple Labs, formerly OpenCoin Inc., is working with two new gateways, ZipZap Inc. and SnapSwap, to allow U.S. consumers to fund accounts in-person or online.

The Lamassu Bitcoin machine, a so-called Bitcoin ATM that allows consumers to deposit cash to buy bitcoins, has its first buyer.

The price of Bitcoins listed on the Bitstamp Ltd. exchange plunged as much as 33 percent after charges were unsealed for the operator of an online marketplace for drugs and other illicit goods.

Several political candidates have begun accepting bitcoins for campaign contribution—but the future of this practice hinges on a Federal Election Commission decision coming by October 28.

New York's top banking overseer said any regulation of the nascent Bitcoin industry has to include transparency on who does the trading of the virtual currency, and if that hurts a business dominated by anonymous transactions, "so be it."

Alan Reiner, 30, thought he wouldn't find any career more interesting than missile defense simulations, but the self-described nerd left physics recently to work full-time on an ultra-secure Bitcoin wallet, Armory.

SecondMarket, which runs an online marketplace for illiquid assets such as closely held community bank shares, has created a private investment vehicle to invest in bitcoins, the decentralized virtual currency.

Before there was Bitcoin, there was Ven, a digital currency that launched six years ago as part of the Hub Culture social network.