Kagoshima Bank and the Kagoshima City Transportation Bureau announced on the 21st that they have reached a basic agreement to develop and operate a transit money function using a bank payment app. The transit payment function will be added to the Pay Don app, which was developed by the bank and is jointly operated with financial institutions in the prefecture, making it usable on local route buses and city trams. Operations are scheduled to begin in late October, and this is said to be the first case in Japan of a transit payment function being operated on a cashless payment app from a financial institution using QR codes. The aim is to improve the convenience of public transportation and promote cashless payments.
Visa Moves to Close the Points 'Loophole' on Meme Coin Purchases
Visa, the major international payments network, is moving to correct a practice that treats credit card purchases of meme coins as 'digital content,' the same as e-books and music, Crypto In America reported on September 19. According to the report, Visa has told payment processors that it will not allow the use of 'MCC 5815' for meme coin purchases. MCC is a four-digit classification code indicating what type of business a card payment is made to, and Visa's official manual stipulates that cryptocurrency purchases should in principle use MCC 6012 or 6051, along with information indicating a cryptocurrency transaction. MCC 5815, meanwhile, is the category for e-books, movies, music, and digital art. The specific end date has not been made clear, but the grace period is expected to end in the week from September 21 to 27. Behind this is the problem that when some apps purchased meme coins, the transactions were processed not as cryptocurrency but as 'digital media,' granting users the same points and cashback as ordinary purchases. Crossmint, which was processing the payments, is said to have based its position on the view of SEC Division of Corporation Finance staff that some meme coins are closer to collectibles than securities, but Visa judged that card payments must be treated as cryptocurrency and that the use of MCC 5815 is inappropriate. This move does not itself ban card purchases of meme coins, but because they will now be processed as cryptocurrency transactions, it may become harder to earn the same points and cashback as ordinary purchases.
Circle Internet Group Launches Arc Mainnet With USDC at Protocol Level
Circle Internet Group has switched on the public mainnet for Arc, a Layer 1 blockchain built for financial markets, real time payments, and AI driven economic activity, with USDC integrated at the protocol level. The rollout arrives with a validator group drawn from large financial institutions, support for USDC, EURC, and tokenized funds, and more than 100 applications and ecosystem partners already connected to Arc's infrastructure. Circle Internet Group last closed at $91.78, while the most followed narrative framework pegs fair value closer to $103.55, implying the stock is 11% undervalued. That fair value estimate uses a discount rate of 8.56% and assumes that by 2029 Circle Internet Group could be earning $723.7 million on revenue of $5.3b, with the stock trading on a P/E of 56.9x on those earnings, against a current analyst price target of $104.28. Estimates behind that single fair value number diverge widely, with 2029 earnings estimates spanning from $356.6 million to $874.2 million and price targets running from $37.00 to $243.00. The stock trades on 51.6x earnings compared with 29.5x for the wider US Software group and a fair ratio of 51.7x.
Chime Financial has entered a definitive agreement to acquire Stride Bank, a move that would give the digital banking and payments provider direct control over a bank charter and deposits. The deal would shift Chime away from its partner-bank reliant model and is expected to extend its national reach in consumer banking as it integrates Stride Bank's existing operations and customers. Chime, which operates in the Diversified Financial sector with consumer-focused accounts and card products, counts 9.1 million active members. The acquisition ties Chime's app-led engagement to a balance sheet of its own, which matters for products including Chime Card, MyPay and instant loans, and could reduce its reliance on interchange and partner banks for core economics. Owning Stride also raises new execution questions around regulation, capital and operational resilience.
