A recent report suggests that the lack of traditional financial infrastructure makes Africa a place where cryptocurrency adoption is likely. The report — shared with Cointelegraph by a Luno representative on May 27 — sheds light on Africa’s financial infrastructure and the role that cryptocurrencies play in it. The author of the research, which was jointly conducted by market analysis firm Arcane Research and crypto exchange, Luno, wrote that the financial landscape seen on the continent plays a role in forming appetite for crypto in Africa: “Although it is a diverse region, African nations share some key similarities and trends. …

Following the recent, third halving, Bitcoin (BTC) is now in its fourth block reward era. Leading up to the event, pundits launched into varied predictions that ranged from miner capitulation to hash rate plunges to price predictions of half a million dollars. Much of the analysis has focused around looking back at trends that followed the first and second halvings. Both events saw BTC prices skyrocket in the ensuing year and 18 months, respectively. But the third halving’s case is unlike any other. In fact, it is more like the creation of the Bitcoin network than the two previous halving …

Once my company, Jerome Baker Designs, had become one of the premier producers of custom pipes and bongs in the 1990s, I no longer enjoyed doing it. However, when the Drug Enforcement Administration busted through the doors of my warehouse, and the Feds closed my business and seized all my assets, I had a change of heart. While I still won’t blow a custom glass for cash, I will do it for Bitcoin (BTC). Why? Because I truly believe in Bitcoin. When I was indicted in 2003 for trafficking illegal drug paraphernalia, alongside 50 other individuals like my pal Tommy …

Crypto adoption is making significant advances in Africa, with crypto ownership, trade volume, and regulation all moving toward greater adoption. A recent report by Arcane Research and Luno found that Uganda, Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, and Kenya are frequently among the top 10 countries by Google searches for the word “Bitcoin.” The report describes the continent as “one of, if not the most promising region for the adoption of cryptocurrencies,” emphasizing Africa’s combination of low existing crypto adoption alongside an “enormous” domain possibility. The firms emphasize that Africa exhibits a young population, frequent monetary crises and currency failures, large unbanked …

We, as a society, are now experiencing a crisis of trust. The three pillars that we’ve had faith in all our lives — institutions, government entities and the media — have all failed us. From trusting financial institutions to guard our assets to expecting politicians to enact smart policies to hoping the media informs us on issues truthfully, we’ve entrusted these institutions to have the public’s best interest in mind and to provide crucial guidance in times of crisis. Instead of witnessing any of that, we have seen politicians, government agencies and the media fail catastrophically in the critical, early …

African peer-to-peer, or P2P, Bitcoin (BTC) trading volumes have continued to increase, with the continent posting its third-consecutive all-time high for trade activity. Africa’s surging volumes come amid a plateauing in global P2P trade, with Latin America, Asia Pacific, and Western Europe posting significant declines in post-halving volume. As such, this past week saw African P2P trade overtake Latin America to rank as the second-strongest region by weekly volume for the first week on record. Regional P2P weekly BTC trade volume: UsefulTulips. Africa’s P2P markets see prolonged volume spike More than $14.6 million worth of Bitcoins changed hands between African …

Aren't we all searching for a safe haven? Whether we mean literal shelter — four walls and a roof over our heads — or something more sophisticated, the craving for a dependable defense against random chaos has always been our instinct. With the COVID-19 pandemic rearranging society at every level, the allure of a safe haven reigns supreme for our battered psyches. In the realm of financial instruments, the search for the safest of safe havens, also known as a store of value, has taken on a new urgency. Is Bitcoin (BTC) a safe haven? Will cryptocurrency prove to be …

Back when digitized banking service evolutions such as debit cards, online banking and check imaging were sweeping the financial sector, one could have never imagined what was coming next. I certainly did not, having spent more than 10 years during this time advising executives of major global banks on the implementation of these game-changing technologies. The creation and digitization of new currencies, not owned by the government but by the people, has found its home in the global market over the last decade, starting with Bitcoin (BTC) and soon exploding to thousands of alternative digital currencies available for exchange and …

Multi-crypto wallet Infinito has announced a partnership with peer-to-peer Bitcoin (BTC) marketplace Paxful to integrate their services into the “Infinito Wallet.” According to the official announcement, Infinito users will now be able to buy Bitcoin directly from other crypto users around the world without any transaction fees involved. Speaking with Cointelegraph, Ray Youseff, CEO of Paxful, said the integration was a way of making crypto easier to obtain and use: “There is a growing trend in Bitcoin ownership globally. As an industry, we should work towards creating more crypto products that will be used for real-life use cases that can …

Crypto investors in Sub-Saharan Africa appear to be accumulating ahead of Bitcoin’s (BTC) halving next week. According to data published by Useful Tulips, surging African demand has driven record peer-to-peer (P2P) Bitcoin trading volume across Localbitcoins and Paxful, surpassing the trade activity posted during the peak of the 2017 bull run. Nearly $10 million worth of trade took place across the P2P Bitcoin markets of Sub-Saharan Africa, comprising a new all-time high for the region. Africa’s largest crypto market, Nigeria, produced its third-strongest week of P2P trade with $7.2 million worth of Bitcoin changing hands over Localbitcoins and Paxful this …

There are more than 5,000 diverse cryptocurrencies being traded with a total market cap of nearly $250 billion. As much as 95% of those cryptos are nothing but scams, according to the creator of the world’s first proof-of-work, or PoW, crypto. Emin Gun Sirer, the creator of the first PoW-based crypto, the Karma System, is confident that the vast majority of cryptos do not represent any tech advancement and only exist to grab people’s money. Bitcoin did it first In an April 29 AMA session with Equilibrium EOSDT, Sirer slammed crypto projects like Facebook’s Libra for wanting to compete with …

Securitize, a digital securities issuance platform backed by major cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, has announced a new tool that assures that secondary market transactions of digital securities are compliant with regulations. According to an April 22 blog post, Securitize Instant Access streamlines the creation of compliant peer-to-peer transactions by investors in private securities. To ensure that transactions meet the necessary requirements, Securitize uses smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain. To initiate a transaction, investors privately create an indication of interest to sell their digital securities with a web link, which can be posted and shared across various channels. The blog post …