Delay the Law and Hold the Fees

Illinois hits pause on a controversial interchange law. The Senate shelves the CCCA—for now. PayPal doubles down on physical cards. Mastercard launches a game-changing credential. Worldpay and Exodus unlock crypto-native checkouts. And how many merchants really accept Bitcoin? Depends who you ask.

Welcome to Today in Payments, I’m your host, Patti Murphy, here with your weekly dose of payments notes.

Illinois Legislature Votes to Delay Controversial Interchange Law

A controversial Illinois law that would have exempted tips and tax payments from card interchange looks like it’s off the table. At least for now.

The Interchange Fee Prohibition Act had been scheduled to take effect on July 1. An 11th-hour delay to July 1, 2026, was approved by the Illinois General Assembly. Now it’s up to the governor, J.B. Pritzker, to sign or veto the legislation, which needs to happen in less than 30 days.

Bankers in the state say they are optimistic Pritzker will sign the bill, because it only delays implementation. They note that State Senate President Don Harmon voted to approve the measure, saying he was only doing so to allow time to complete a court challenge. From there, he said he hoped the IFPA would eventually go into effect. But bankers are hopeful it won’t.

The Illinois Bankers Association, the Illinois Credit Union League, the American Bankers Association, and America’s Credit Unions have a request before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois to stop the law from taking effect.

Sigh of Relief as Senators Drop Effort to Attach CCCA to GENIUS Act

Phew! That should be the reaction throughout the acquiring sector now that the Senate has closed off an attempt by Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Roger Marshall to attach the Credit Card Competition Act to the GENIUS Act.

GENIUS in this context stands for Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins. The legislation is intended to create a comprehensive federal regulatory framework for stablecoins, which are cryptocurrencies pegged to fiat currencies, most commonly the U.S. dollar. The CCCA was one of dozens of amendments lawmakers tried to attach to the GENIUS Act. But the chamber, in a procedural move, agreed to move forward with the legislation sans amendments.

PayPal Goes Physical

PayPal has announced a new physical card that consumers can use both online and in-store. The card is being issued by Synchrony Bank. To encourage users, PayPal said it is offering a “limited-time offer” to pay for travel purchases over six months with promotional financing and no minimum spend.

PayPal has offered a Mastercard debit card for a number of years, so this is not its first foray into the world of brick-and-mortar stores. It also offers PayPal Credit, a revolving line of credit for online shoppers.

The new physical credit card meets growing demand to extend this flexible financial option for in-store use, PayPal said in a press release. To encourage consumers to take advantage of this new financing option, PayPal—in addition to the limited-time offer to finance travel transactions—said customers can continue to take advantage of its six-month promotional financing on PayPal purchases over $149.

In a related development, PayPal is teaming up with Mastercard to develop new features using Mastercard One Credential.

Mastercard One Credential is a security initiative that integrates various authentication methods into a single credential that allows users to authenticate transactions securely and seamlessly across different platforms and devices. It assigns one digital credential (e.g., a 16-digit card number) that can represent debit and credit cards, as well as buy now, pay later, loyalty points, and installment plans.

Instead of managing separate cards or accounts, the user simply presents their One Credential at checkout. The system dynamically chooses the best payment method based on the user’s preset rules, merchant type, transaction amount, and real-time balances.

Users manage their One Credential through their bank’s mobile app, where they can set preferences (e.g., always use credit for travel), change default funding sources, and monitor transactions. At checkout, the merchant only sees one Mastercard credential—not the underlying funding source; Mastercard routes the transaction to the selected funding method without any extra steps required by the user.

Visa has a similar initiative it calls Flexible Credential, which it began piloting in the U.S. last fall.

Crypto Merchants Total 32K?

According to an article just published by Tron Weekly, there are over 32,000 merchants now accepting crypto payments. The online magazine—which focuses on news related to the Tron blockchain and its ecosystem—points to speed, lower costs, and ease of use as the three key reasons for merchants accepting cryptocurrencies. The article references “detailed research” by Foresight Ventures, a crypto-focused venture capital firm based in Singapore.

I wasn’t able to find that number in the report. And when I asked my AI friend ChatGPT for a number, it came back with 12,834 in 2024, which it said was a 50% increase over 2023, citing a study from BTCMap.org, which is an online map of bitcoin-friendly businesses. ChatGPT also cited another report, by a bitcoin-friendly website, indicating 15,174 businesses worldwide accept Bitcoin.

I suspect the correct number isn’t really discernable, but may be somewhere between 12K and 32K, worldwide.

Worldpay to Support Native Card Payments for Self-Custodial Crypto Wallets

Worldpay, which claims to be a leader in making crypto purchases simpler and easier, is teaming up with Exodus, the fintech that provides self-custodial crypto wallets, to bring a native checkout experience to its users.

(Native checkout refers to a payment process that occurs directly on a website or app, without redirecting users to an external gateway or platform. I had to look this up myself.)

As part of the collaboration, Exodus is launching XOPay, a first-of-its-kind solution that allows consumers to purchase cryptocurrencies directly within their self-custodial wallets using credit or debit cards.

Exodus claims it serves over 5 million people who hold their cryptocurrencies and other digital assets offline in self-custodial wallets. Those consumers can now use their preferred credit or debit cards to purchase digital assets from the wallets on the Exodus platform. In other words, they can now natively buy and hold cryptocurrencies within a single wallet platform.

In support of Worldpay’s traditional acquiring services, Exodus will be amping up its security with FraudSight, Worldpay’s flagship fraud detection and prevention solution.

Meanwhile, Worldpay said it is expanding its partnership with Visa to enhance the company’s 3D Secure solution, which provides an additional security layer for online credit and debit card transactions.

The company said over half of U.S. shoppers will abandon a transaction if it takes multiple tries to go through, underscoring the importance of making sure that a valid payment goes through on the first try. Research by PYMNTS Intelligence from last year found that 56% of U.S. consumers had experienced a false payment decline in the three months prior to being surveyed.

That’s all for Today in Payments. Stay tuned for your weekly dose of payments notes.