Autor Cointelegraph By Gareth Jenkinson

Backed by Coinbase and Alameda, African exchange MARA eyes continental prospects

Backed by Coinbase and Alameda, African exchange MARA eyes continental prospects

Uverejnil používateľ | máj 11, 2022 |

East Africa is set to welcome a new cryptocurrency exchange backed by a formidable list of industry heavyweights looking to tap into a continent full of potential users.Coinbase Ventures, Alameda Research, Huobi Ventures and other prominent venture capital firms and angel investors have contributed $23 million to launch MARA. The exchange will initially operate in Kenya and Nigeria, offering new users a basic exchange platform to acquire, trade and withdraw cryptocurrencies.The platform will offer a professional exchange featuring extensive trading options and technical analysis tools for more experienced traders. Plans are in place to develop the MARA chain, a layer-1 blockchain allowing developers to build decentralized applications within the prospective MARA ecosystem.The MARA team also confirmed the establishment of a partnership with the Central African Republic. The African country followed in the footsteps of pro-Bitcoin (BTC) state El Salvador by legalizing Bitcoin as legal tender in April 2022. MARA will serve as the official crypto partner of the country and will advise the government on best practices, strategy and planning as it looks to adopt cryptocurrencies on a wider scale.Cointelegraph spoke to MARA CEO and co-founder Chi Nnadi to unpack the exchange’s inception and the prospects that Africa has to offer to the newly founded platform. After spending most of the past decade living in Nigeria, Chi recently moved to Kenya before the idea underlying MARA crystallized. Nigeria and Kenya’s position as cryptocurrency adoption hotspots on the continent was a driving factor in MARA’s decision to launch its offering in the two countries. According to Chainalysis, Kenya leads the rest of the world in peer-to-peer (P2P) trade volume, while 35% of Nigerian adults hold or trade in Bitcoin.Related: Crypto users in Africa grew by 2,500% in 2021: ReportWhile African countries continue to account for new cryptocurrency users, Nnadi conceded that there are still considerable hurdles in the way of Sub-Saharan Africa’s young and technologically-native population making crypto a part of their everyday lives:“Many existing global exchanges cannot operate in the region due to regulatory challenges as well as difficulties in reaching the African consumer in an authentic way. These barriers to access significantly restrict both the number of people who can participate in the crypto economy and the potential uses for digital currency in the region.”Despite regulatory challenges and the nascent state of the cryptocurrency space, Nnadi believes that the next generation of Africans will drive a digital transformation on the continent. Noting that Africa boasts the youngest population in the world, Nnadi said a growing number of youths are building transformative structures and solutions to adapt new technologies for their society:“This places Africa at a critical inflection point: the younger generation is beginning its ascent into adulthood and influence. It is a shift that represents the unique opportunity to fully and quickly transition the region into the new paradigms of digital ownership.”As for MARA’s role as a crypto partner to the Central African Republic, Nnadi said that the firm would serve in an advisory role as the country looks to embrace the crypto economy. This will include guidance on how to build the necessary Know Your Customer (KYC) Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) infrastructure, which includes standardizing personal identification documents to ensure a solid foundation for the country and its five million citizens.

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Michael Saylor assuages investors after market slumps hurts MSTR, BTC

Michael Saylor assuages investors after market slumps hurts MSTR, BTC

Uverejnil používateľ | máj 10, 2022 |

MicroStrategy’s CEO and Bitcoin proponent Michael Saylor is confident his firm’s BTC holdings will more than cover a potential margin call on Bitcoin-backed loans.The American business intelligence and software giant made headlines in 2021 with a number of major investments into Bitcoin. Saylor was a driving force behind MicroStrategy’s decision to convert its treasury reserve into BTC holdings.Global markets have suffered major losses in early May and Microstrategy’s stock has not been spared. MSTR has seen its value drop by 24% and the value of Bitcoin has also slumped considerably along with the wider cryptocurrency markets.This is cause for concern as the company’s subsidiary MacroStrategy took out a $205 million loan from Silvergate Bank in March 2022, with a portion of MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin used as collateral against the debt. MicroStrategy then used the proceeds to continue the firm’s BTC acquisition strategy.If the price of BTC falls too low, this would trigger a margin call on the Silvergate loan due to the value of the collateralized asset dropping. It was a focal point of the company’s earnings call in May — with the company’s CFO Phone Le confirming that it would have to sell some Bitcoin if the price of BTC fell below $21,000.MicroStrategy has a $205M term loan and needs to maintain $410M as collateral. $MSTR has 115,109 BTC that it can pledge. If the price of #BTC falls below $3,562 the company could post some other collateral. See slides 11-12 in Q1 2022 presentation. #HODLhttps://t.co/9WHsIB6Usx— Michael Saylor⚡️ (@saylor) May 10, 2022Saylor took to Twitter on May 10 to assuage investors of the company’s ability to cover its debt, with MacroStrategy’s $205 million loan needing $410 million of collateral. With 115,109 BTC as further collateral available to pledge to service the loan, Saylor noted that the value of Bitcoin would have to fall below $3,562 for the firm to run out of BTC to further back the loan.Related: MicroStrategy CEO won’t sell $5B BTC stash despite crypto winterIn August 2021, the company made waves for its decision to allocate a sizable portion of its capital directly into Bitcoin holdings. Its initial $250 million investment was made after it had met obligations to shareholders, giving the company 21,454 BTC for its treasury holdings.At the time, Saylor indicated that the investment was driven by the company’s belief that Bitcoin is “a dependable store of value and an attractive investment asset with more long-term appreciation potential than holding cash.”Perhaps more emphatic was Saylor’s insistence that Bitcoin was a superior investment to holding fiat currency and that the company had made Bitcoin its principal holding in its treasury reserve strategy.MicroStrategy made another significant acquisition of Bitcoin in September 2020, adding another 16,796 additional Bitcoin at an aggregate purchase price of $175 million. The firm continued to acquire BTC from there — which even saw CitiBank take the decision to downgrade MicroStrategy’s stock from “neutral” to “sell” off the back of its decision to make Bitcoin its primary treasury reserve asset.

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Nouriel Roubini oversees the development of tokenized dollar replacement

Nouriel Roubini oversees the development of tokenized dollar replacement

Uverejnil používateľ | máj 10, 2022 |

Economist and cryptocurrency critic Nouriel Roubini is heading up the development of a tokenized asset to combat fears of rampant economic stagnation and inflation.Roubini has long been a skeptic of the cryptocurrency space, which makes his own foray into the world of digitized financial instruments intriguing. In his role as co-founder and chief economist of Dubai-based investment firm Atlas Capital Team LP, Roubini is helping with the roll-out of a set of financial instruments to launch a security token that will act as a “more resilient dollar.”As initially reported by Bloomberg, Atlas Capital CEO Reza Bundy and Roubini outlined initial plans for the firm’s new products, primarily driven by the current state of the global economy.The Dubai-based firm will work with Web3 developer Mysten Labs which will be tasked with building the technology behind the United Sovereign Governance Gold Optimized Dollar (USG). As Roubini highlighted in a tweet on May 9, USG will begin as a traditional index offering total return swaps to major investors. Atlas hopes to expand this offering to an exchange-traded fund before transitioning to a tokenized version.According to the report, USG would be backed by real-world assets, including short-term United States Treasury bonds, gold and real estate investment trusts. The offering will be aimed at major investors like sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, and possibly central banks exposed to dollar-backed assets.In an op-ed published in the Guardian at the beginning of May, Roubini highlighted the current global socio-economic climate and its pressure on the U.S. dollar, which has long served as the world’s reserve currency.Related: Terra peg mechanism in doubt as UST crashes to 67 centsRoubini outlined an unforeseen consequence of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. The U.S. dollar’s role as a central instrument in global sanctions enforcement inevitably weakens the fiat currency over time. He said:“Not only does it create severe friction in international trade in goods, services, commodities, and capital; it encourages U.S. rivals to diversify their foreign-exchange reserves away from dollar-denominated assets.”Roubini believes this could sharply weaken the dollar and accelerate the creation of regional monetary systems. Hence the move to launch “a new instrument that’s effectively a more resilient dollar.”The note from Atlas outlining plans for the launch of USG also closed off with some negative comments towards the cryptocurrency space. The note stated that cryptocurrencies are not backed by anything – only vaporware – and don’t provide either income or use or other utility services; so they are purely speculative asset bubbles.

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Blockchain technology to power De Beers’ diamond production

Blockchain technology to power De Beers’ diamond production

Uverejnil používateľ | máj 6, 2022 |

Global diamond mining firm De Beers has launched a proprietary blockchain-powered platform to manage its diamond production and distribution.The firm has long been at work on a blockchain system to trace, record and manage its diamond mining, production and distribution across the globe. The Tracr platform was first piloted and tested back in 2018, and the company has finally released the platform at scale to serve the wider diamond mining industry.De Beers has already incorporated the system into its global operations and estimates that 25 percent of its diamond production by value is registered on Tracr for 2022’s first three Sights. In the diamond industry, a Sight is a collective term for a sale event and a respective lot of diamonds for purchase.The platform will give diamond industry producers and retailers access to tamper-proof records of a diamond’s provenance. Sightholders, companies that are authorized bulk purchasers of rough diamonds, will benefit from the immutable record of diamond credentials which will, in turn, provide retailers with the added assurance of a diamond’s pedigree and origin.De Beers has touted the performance of the platform to be able to scale to meet periods of high production. Tracr will be able to register one million diamonds per week on the platform, which is a major upgrade to centralized platforms that have been criticized for struggling with large volumes of data that historically cause bottlenecks in this process.As with many blockchain-powered systems, Tracr will allow companies and users to control the permission, use and access to diamond data. This goes down to an individual level, with each user given their own distributed version of the platform, much like a traditional node operator in other blockchain networks. Privacy and security are paramount to the ongoing operation of the diamond industry. Tracr’s blockchain-based system also ensures that every transaction on the platform is immutable, removing the threat of data tampering as a diamond moves through the value chain.In 2021 Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC) and Bain & Company released their latest Diamond Industry report, which highlighted key trends for the industry and an outlook for the next decade. A key takeaway was an increased focus on sustainability and social consumerism. The report indicated that consumers are far more conscious of environment preservation, conflict-free supply chains as well as the carbon footprint of mining operations.Related: Chainlink set to power Latin American real estate platformDe Beers Group CEO Bruce Cleaver said that the launch of Tracr to the industry is a step in the right direction as consumer behavior changes to align with conservation and environmentally friendly operations.Cleaver hopes to see the technology ensure greater confidence in natural diamonds and become a catalyst of ‘technological transformation that will enhance standards and raise expectations of what we are capable of providing to our end clients.’Interestingly, South Africa was the only country to see an increase in rough diamond production in 2020 according to the AWDC and Bain report while Botswana, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo saw slight declines. Botswana’s minister of minerals and energy Lefoko Moagi believes the Tracr system will help the industry continue to navigate economic uncertainty that has been driven by the Covid-19 pandemic.”Confidence in diamond origin is extremely important and we look forward to seeing the roll out of this new programme delivering new benefits to the diamond industry and giving more assurance to consumers.”Blockchain technology has already played a big role in the transformation of the global logistics and supply chain industry – with more than half of the companies listed in the Forbes Blockchain 50 adopting the technology to develop new-age systems and platforms.

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Africa’s top golfers to shoot for Bitcoin prize on Sunshine Tour

Africa’s top golfers to shoot for Bitcoin prize on Sunshine Tour

Uverejnil používateľ | máj 6, 2022 |

Top golfers from Africa and Europe will be eyeing lucrative Bitcoin (BTC) payouts at the end of the 2022 season after a new sponsorship of South Africa’s Sunshine Tour.The year-long season sees golfers compete for the top spot on Sunshine Tour’s overall leaderboard, the Order of Merit. Crypto platform Luno, which has a big footprint in South Africa and the wider African continent, has assumed the title sponsorship of the overall rankings.Money talks in sport but the language is certainly evolving, with Luno casting aside rand-based awards for the top golfers on the Order of Merit in favor of Bitcoin. The golfer that tops the Luno Order of Merit will receive 500,000 rand worth of BTC — equivalent to $31,000, or 30,000 euros at the time of writing.The second and third-placed golfers will receive 200,000 rand and 100,000 rand in BTC, respectively, while Luno will also be sponsoring every professional golfer on the Sunshine Tour 1000 rand worth of BTC to encourage them to explore the exchange’s mobile application.The Sunshine Tour is also using the new sponsorship to make a change to its rankings system, shifting from money-based to a points-based ranking from May 2022. This intends to create a more even playing field for golfers vying to top the Order of Merit at the end of the season. There’s plenty to play for as well, with the number one spot also including entry to two of golf’s Majors in the United States Open and British Open, as well as a year-long luxury vehicle sponsorship.Cointelegraph attended the sponsorship announcement at the prestigious Houghton Golf Club in the heart of Johannesburg and spoke to Luno’s general manager for Africa Marius Reitz, who has facilitated a couple of sports-focused marketing campaigns over the past year:“It’s significant on a couple of fronts, firstly the fact that there is Bitcoin prize money, which is a first for South Africa, and probably Africa. I think its the first sports sponsorship in South Africa involving a crypto company.” Luno intends to break new ground with their first sponsorship involving a professional golf tournament, with synergies between the two highlighted by Reitz: “The Sunshine Tour is an established brand, they’re the home of golf in South Africa. It is a trusted guide for golfers from a young age up to a professional level. The association of trust and safety makes sense for us.”Luno has made efforts to position itself as a trusted cryptocurrency exchange that introduces new users to the ecosystem with the help of a learning portal. The company made waves last year with a high-profile advertising campaign featuring Rugby World Cup-winning Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus teaching users how to buy BTC.Related: Colorful billionaire’s Dubai real estate firm now accepts BTC and ETHThe company has now continued its exploration of the sports industry in the country — a point that Sunshine Tour Commissioner Thomas Abt believes will benefit both industries in kind:“I think it’s fantastic when a new brand comes into the space. They have a strong backing, they want to make noise and they’ve been doing it like you’ve seen with the Rassie advert. They’ve done it well and I’m sure they will continue with the Sunshine Tour.”The impact was not lost on the golfers either, with Sunshine Tour professional Callum Mowat also drawing comparisons between the mentality needed to master both the world of golf and crypto:“As a golfer, you have to take risks and you also have to believe you are never out of the game, especially after a bad shot. I am not too familiar with cryptocurrencies but I know that you need patience to master both of these.”Reitz also acknowledged that the cryptocurrency space is still relatively nascent with onboarding new users and education of basic principles a primary focus. The Luno Africa general manager said that th focus on learning and education is key, while slowly introducing wider audiences to cryptocurrencies through avenues like sports sponsorships and marketing campaigns:“Golfers think differently, they’ve got a different way of looking at risk and reward – each and every shot they play they have to take calculated risks. It’s the same in crypto. It’s still new and for people to start using it in their everyday lives will require a mind shift change and that doesn’t happen overnight.” The sports industry continues to be an enticing avenue for cryptocurrency exchanges, service providers and companies to advertise their offerings. Crypto brands are actively involved in the biggest football leagues in the world, on the canvas of the UFC’s octagons and around various tracks on the global Formula 1 roadshow.

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