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Business

Ayoken raises $1.4 million to scale NFT deals.

Digital collectables marketplace, Ayoken has raised $1.4 million in pre-seed funding to sign a number of exclusive deals with artists and partnerships with telcos as well as expand its team and presence in different countries. 

As a marketplace connecting NFT creators to global audiences, Ayoken is set to enable users to attain accelerated revenue streams through its different offerings. 

The funds were raised from a number of sources including Founders Factory Africa, Texas-based Kon Ventures, Europe-based venture capital collective Crypto League, Ghana-based R9C Ventures and Maximus Ventures

Ayoken has come up with Ayokenlabs as the startup’s platform designed to connect fans and artists. It will include digital collectables from top musicians, sports brands, and influencers around the world.

Fans will be able to purchase tokens such as behind-the-scenes videos and album art through the NFT marketplace. Other benefits include access to unreleased music and exclusive live events by the creatives.

NFT holders will also get discounts for future events and VIP passes that will enable fans to livestream music by their favourite artists before it arrives on Spotify, YouTube or Apple Music. 

Ayoken intends to release NFTs of some major African artists, as well as others from around the world, in the coming months. The startup has already collaborated with Ghanaian afrobeat artist KiDi (Dennis Nana Dwamena) who is set for his first NFT release on June 1st.

The platform will allow crypto and card payments but negotiations for partnerships with telecom providers are ongoing in order to add mobile money as a payment option. Ayoken hopes to make it easier for people in African emerging markets to trade with ease. 

As an added incentive, users will get token rewards (AYO) when they buy the NFTs or refer people and these can be redeemed later for an NFT.

The startup confirms that distribution partners such as YouTubers, influencers, newsletters, crypto exchanges and Telcos are promoting NFT drops to help creators reach audiences far beyond their fanbases.

With just the click of a button, creative celebrities can have instant access to millions of people around the world without having to rely on their own social media followers to drive transactions. 

Distributors receive revenue sharing based on all transactions generated from social media promotions.

AyokenLabs aims to catalyse the mainstream adoption of crypto in emerging markets with a vision to onboard 10 million new crypto users & digital collectable owners.

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Business

Metallika Inc to Build Partnerships in Africa & Asia Pacific.

Metallika.Inc has announced an intention to expand its footprint in the African and Asia Pacific markets with new partnerships aimed at strengthening the company portfolio of mining projects.  

The blockchain-powered company that tokenizes the services of mining natural resources is still in the early stages of negotiations and thus can not disclose the names of its potential partners but the news is expected to break soon.  

The information circulating now indicates that the first company contacted is based in Singapore and has a multi-billion dollar market valuation. The partnership is expected to create a lot of positive synergies between the two companies and shows Metallika’s high level of ambition for the region. 

There has also been mention of a second company from Kenya that owns big copper reserves in the country. Demand for copper is assured because it is a strategic metal used in many industries including the budding electric car industry. 

Demand for copper is growing so much that by 2030, it will outstrip supply by more than 6 million tonnes. An analyst from Rystad energy points out that a deficit of this magnitude would have wide-reaching ramifications for the energy transition as there is currently no substitute for copper in electrical applications. 

The partnership with Metallika Inc will benefit both companies and make a difference for local communities as the implementation of the Metallika DAO platform allows them to participate in the mining process effectively utilizing the new platform’s transparency and easy-to-use interface. 

The Metallika Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) was created by the company to operate autonomously on the blockchain with the software rules for the smart contract and all financial transactions stored on the transaction blocks. 

To ensure ownership for all the DAO participants, the Metallika team deployed distributed database technologies and secure timestamps to organize a secure digital ledger of contracts, deeds and records. 

The major product of the DAO Metallika is cloud services that provide reliable and transparent communication between participants in the mining industry. These participants are enabled to form partnerships and also obtain investments at every stage of the mining cycle.

All DAO members have access to IPFS-stored documentation and can oversee approval processes for documentation created during exploration. They can also issue mineral-backed digital commodity backend tokens.

The Metallika Token serves as the utility token that enables the operation of the Metallika DAO to function by granting access to the DAO’s products and services.

One of the most important features of the token is that it can be used within the private Metalika DAO as well as other public blockchain networks such as Binance Smart Chain (BSC) and Ethereum.

The total token supply is 300,000,000 with half (150,000,000) based on the Ethereum blockchain while the remaining half will be built on BSC. The number of supported blockchains may however be increased depending on the needs of the business.

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Business

Nigeria’s Bitcoin P2P market grows by 25% in 180 days

Nigeria’s peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions have risen by 25% on a bi-annual basis despite government regulations restricting crypto trading within financial institutions in an effort to safeguard residents and oversee the technology’s progress. 

This is a clear indication that many Nigerians have continued to invest in crypto, as evidenced by the underground market. This has further weakened the country’s fiat currency, Naira.

On two prominent P2P platforms (Paxful and Localbitcoins), Nigeria now has $219 million in P2P volumes, followed by Kenya with $92 million and Ghana with $69 million. 

According to Paxful, in 2021, Nigeria recorded over 16,000 deals per day across the country. The country’s growing use of digital asset trading is due to a number of factors, one of which is to safeguard against the steep devaluation of the local currency.

A recent Chainalysis Research has re-emphasized this stating that many inhabitants in emerging economies such as Nigeria use cryptocurrencies “to protect their funds against currency depreciation, send and receive remittances, and conduct business transactions.”

In response to the increased trading activity, the Nigerian Securities and Exchange Commission recently issued guidelines on the issuance and custody of digital/virtual assets such as Bitcoins and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) in the country.

Despite recent interventions by the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Naira has continued to decline, with the parallel market closing last week at N610 per dollar, prompting many young Nigerians to invest in Bitcoin and other crypto-assets such as stablecoins.

Citizens also use the flagship crypto for remittance services, in which they trade bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies for Naira OTC. A Nigerian Over-the-Counter (OTC) trader, for example, could offer to buy bitcoin from another Nigerian and pay in Naira. Millions of Nairas are exchanged daily for OTC trades, providing dealers with a steady source of money.

Nigeria is one of the African countries with the highest population as well as the highest number of bitcoin adoptions, according to Statista.

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Business

Bitcoin Reclaims To $30,000 Level

After weeks of constant plummeting for Bitcoin, it is finally recovering. On Sunday, it soared up high above $30,700. As of this writing, it is at $30,591.97 according to the Coin market cap.

According to a recent CoinShares research, the recent collapse of the TerraUST stablecoin has prompted investors to embrace Bitcoin, with as many as 39% of respondents claiming that it is the benchmark cryptocurrency with the most appealing growth prospects. 

The rest of the market is also catching up. Ethereum (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, is up 6.6% in the past days and is currently trading slightly above $1,900.

However, this was not enough to bring ETH into the green zone on a weekly chart, the coin is still down by 7.35%.

Cardano (ADA) is also a gainer in the top-10 largest cryptocurrencies at 11.8 %, followed by Solana (SOL), which has been up 8.3 % in the last 24 hours.

Similar to Ethereum, both ADA and SOL are currently in the red, down 5% and 12.4%, respectively.

Despite the latest positive sentiment, data from Coinglass shows that Bitcoin has been down 18.63% so far this month, following a 17.3% loss in gains in April.

The major question now is whether the industry’s largest asset can maintain its momentum after the latest price action.

Categories
Social Good

Ethereum Founder Donates $4 million USDC to University

Ethereum founder, Vitalik Buterin has donated $4 million USD Coin (USDC) to the University of South Wales (UNSW) in the hopes of averting global pandemics effects. The donation is funded by Buterin’s Balvi Filantropic Fund and will go to UNSW’s open-source artificial intelligence platform, which aims to convey early warning signs for a pandemic. 

Professor Raina MacIntyre has also established EPIWATCH, an open-source intelligence (OSINT) program, and Vitalik Buterin’s funding will help it evolve further.

The technology looks for early signs of epidemics by monitoring millions of publicly available web things, such as breaking news headlines and social networking platforms. It detects anomalies in ‘normal’ health-related data. This is significantly more efficient than waiting for doctors or laboratory results. The early concerns can then be properly investigated by health authorities.

“Imagine if someone had detected COVID-19 before it spread around the world, that is our vision. Using AI and real-time open-source data, EPIWATCH does not depend on people making reports. It is a great equalizer and can overcome weak health systems and censorship.” Prof. Maclntyre said.

“The earlier we can detect new epidemics as they come, the more quickly we can start developing treatments or even stop them before they become large. Open analysis of public data is an excellent alternative to more intrusive forms of monitoring, which are also often only available to governments and other high bidders but closed to the public.” Prof. Maclntyre added.

The fund received from the Balvi Filantropic Fund is UNSW’s first crypto donation. It is also estimated to be the biggest crypto contribution ever made to an Australian university.

Ethereum’s founder is well-known for such charitable endeavors. He also donated $1 billion worth of Shiba Inu to an Indian Crypto Relief Fund that was aimed at aiding India’s COVID response. He has also lent his support to a number of organizations, including Ukrainian aid.

Categories
Social Good

Binance Crypto Awareness Tour to Kick Off in Nigeria.

Leading crypto exchange platform, Binance has announced a Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Awareness Tour (BCAT) slated to begin on 4th June in Nigeria. The program is aimed at boosting awareness of the different opportunities in the digital economy across Africa. 

In 2019, Binance BCAT Africa started out as CampusBCAT, an information-spreading platform focusing on Nigerian students in tertiary institutions since these youth were seen as the people to whom blockchain education mattered most. 

Binance visited 4 Nigerian universities and in the year, they managed to reach out to students and expose them to the different opportunities in the digital space.

The event was also held virtually in 2020 due to the pandemic but has grown to reach over 60,000 people since its inception. 

As the world’s leading blockchain ecosystem, Binance intends to build the global blockchain and cryptocurrency industry by spreading information through education campaigns that in the end will promote growth and adoption in the industry as it is demystified. 

For a continent with over a billion people in 54 countries, Africa has a largely youthful population who are impoverished and living off foreign aid despite the vast amount of natural resources and untapped working potential. 

With the internet as an added resource providing access to multiple opportunities, Binance aspires to give the African youth the tools needed to take advantage of the resources around them and create a prosperous society. 

BCAT Africa is poised to facilitate Africans far across the continent with knowledge of the digital economy with the vision of empowering millions to unlock their potential and that of resources around them.  

The Binance BCAT Africa 2022 Tour starts in South-Eastern Nigeria and will continue to spread awareness across Africa with subsequent tours in nations including (but not limited to) Uganda, Kenya, Ghana, South Africa, Tanzania and Cameroon.

With an expected turnout of over 5,000 people, the event is targeted at helping people understand concepts around blockchain and cryptocurrency, Play2Earn (P2E), NFTs, SocialFi, Move2Earn and the Metaverse as well as career opportunities in crypto. 

The event will feature a wide range of speakers and special guests with deep experience in managing businesses, capacity building, and transforming nations within and outside the African continent.

Binance BCAT Africa 2022 South East, Nigeria Edition will be held at the Amadeo Event Centre, Enugu, Nigeria on the 4th of June, 2022 and the starting time is 8 AM UTC. Registration for the event is open here.

Categories
Opinions

WEF survey finds developing countries more open to the Metaverse than rich ones.

A survey conducted by the World Economic Forum (WEF) has found that enthusiasm for the Metaverse and all its virtual/augmented reality (VR/AR) aspects is much higher in developing countries than in their high-income counterparts. 

The research showed that compared to developed countries, developing countries have more than double the number of people positive that the Metaverse will impact their lives, and they would use it daily. 

From over 21,000 adults surveyed across 29 countries, market research firm, Ipsos found that the concept of the Metaverse is widely recognised as 52% of respondents were familiar with it and 50% had positive feelings about engaging with it in daily life. 

The top five countries of China, India, Peru, Saudi Arabia and Colombia all had two-thirds or more of respondents saying they had positive feelings towards the Metaverse. China had the highest, with 78%  followed by India at 75%.

Countries with the highest incomes scored lowest with less than one-third of respondents positive about the Metaverse. Japan was the lowest with just 22% followed by the United Kingdom (26%), Belgium (30%), Canada (30%), France (31%) and Germany (31%).

The lack of positivity was matched with a lack of familiarity in the high-income countries as the research found less than 30% of respondents in France, Belgium and Germany to be familiar with the concept.

On the other side, Turkey was most familiar with the Metaverse at 86%, followed by India (80%), China (73%) and the higher income country of South Korea (71%). Poland scored the lowest at 27%.

Respondents were also surveyed on the areas of life they agree the Metaverse will impact the most. Again, respondents from high-income Japan, Belgium and France had the lowest percentages. 

Developing countries such as South Africa, India and China agreed areas like virtual learning, entertainment, digital socializing and even applications like remote surgery would make an impact on people’s lives.

In general, developing countries seem to be more enthusiastic about crypto and blockchain. This coincides with the findings from an April report by crypto-exchange, Gemini that pointed out that half of the respondents in India, Brazil and the Asia Pacific region bought their first cryptocurrency in 2021.

Residents of countries that experienced 50% or more currency devaluation were also found to be five times more likely to plan to purchase crypto than countries that experienced less inflation. The report thus made the case that inflation and currency devaluation are key drivers of crypto adoption. 

From the findings of the research, it is crucial to ensure the Metaverse is properly developed as a supplementary hybrid platform to ensure more cohesion, inclusion, and collaboration rather than creating two parallel realities leading to more division and resentment.

Categories
Business

Appzone Wins Excellence in Blockchain Technology Award at 2022 Africa Fintech Summit

AppZone, a payment infrastructure company based in Nigeria, was named the “Excellence in Blockchain Technology Awards” winner at the Africa Fintech Summit 2022, which was recently held in Washington, DC.

It was chosen to receive the award in recognition of its efforts in leading the adoption of blockchain technology for payment processing on the continent and achieving interoperability with the infrastructure of existing traditional financial ecosystem stakeholders on its blockchain payment network, ZONE.

Founded in 2008, “Zone” is Africa’s first private blockchain network that connects banks and fintech without any intermediary to enable frictionless digital payments while empowering previously excluded financial institutions to participate. It has so far been adopted by over 16 commercial banks in Nigeria and is expanding to other financial institutions, fintechs and commercial banks across Africa.

Co-Founder and CEO Obi Emetarom, expressed his delight about the company’s emergence amongst so many other well-deserving companies creating value in the ecosystem saying;

“The increasing maturity of the fintech ecosystem in Africa is impressive, and we are happy to be a part of the story of progress for the continent. Whether as an entrepreneur, investor, traditional financial institution, or customer, it is an exciting time to be involved in African Fintech. Even more rewarding is the joy of getting recognition for the solutions we create at AppZone.  We remain committed to our mission of connecting every financial store of value in Africa to the rest of the world. Recognitions like this will only spur us on to give more to Africa’s fast-evolving Fintech landscape.”

The Africa Fintech Summit brings together the entrepreneurs and opportunities revolutionizing finance in Africa to the world’s stage every year. This is the 7th year it is being hosted. The Africa Fintech Summit Awards platform is a longstanding tradition designed to recognize African fintech stakeholders for their actions in enabling the continent’s start-up ecosystem, accelerating innovation, and driving financial inclusion and literacy.

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Reviews

How To Survive a Crypto Bear Market

A crypto bear market is a market situation where there is  a decline in trade movements. It also signifies a period where most people are selling off an asset or assets in the market. 

This is usually a result of FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) in the market. 

The opposite is a bull market which indicates an upward appreciation or trend in the market. It also occurs where more buyers are in the market, possibly due to optimism.

The recent bear market that crypto investors are experiencing this year is the pioneer with  bitcoin going down to more than 50 percent of its all-time high. Alts are also being affected severely, with as many of them as Terra trading below $1.

However, does this mean that the market won’t recover? No, it does not.


The crypto bear market can be survived with the proper steps and principles discussed below.

Take time to learn more about cryptocurrency

Buying good crypto projects at a cheaper price than they would be in normal market conditions is always an option in a down market. When you purchase a cryptocurrency, you are making an investment in a blockchain corporation. Rather than researching the company and determining whether or not its business strategy is sound, many people place their bets on chance into ventures that are still in the early stages of development, hoping to become millionaires overnight. 

Conducting a fundamental examination of the coin you plan to trade is the best approach to avoid a crypto bear market. It’s critical that you understand: What does this coin do? The cryptocurrencies, the management team’s, and the token economy’s future prospects.

Create a list of tokens you’d like to exchange based on these parameters. Always keep in mind that trading is an individual experience for which you must develop your own technique.

Avoid Panic Selling or Buying

It is common to have panic as a default response during any situation of unrest or uncertainty. However, you will be better positioned to make the right decision if you avoid panic responses in these situations.

The cryptocurrency market or any cannot be timed accurately, it is just predictions in most cases. 

Before making a buy or sell decision, understanding what is going on and why things the cryptocurrency is dropping is very essential.  

Make Use Of The DCA (dollar-cost averaging) Approach

Experienced crypto investors use this approach whenever the market is down in the red. This is an investment strategy whereby crypto traders budget the amount to be invested in the bear market and then make the investment in bits until the money is fully invested. 

In other words, assuming that a crypto investor has $2000 to invest in a bear market, he can split it into $50 and invest them bit by bit. This is a good strategy because the market is highly volatile, and a crypto bull market can return at any moment. This allows you to avoid losing all of your money in a bear market while also being prepared for when the lights turn green.

Try Staking
During a down market, crypto investors are sometimes at a loss for what to do next to make money. Crypto staking is the process of storing your cryptocurrency in a blockchain for a period of time. This isn’t like traditional financial institutions, where you keep your money and don’t make any passive income.

Staking is a great method to get more exposure to a platform or asset you care about while also generating extra money.

Diversify Your Investments

The cryptocurrency market, just like the tech space, is vast. When you buy cryptocurrency, you are actually investing in a project, just like purchasing a Facebook stock or Apple Stock. 

With diversification, the key is to understand that it is only on rare and challenging occasions that the whole crypto market gets into a bear situation. Rather than have all your investments in one aspect of crypto blockchain, you can invest some in crypto blockchains and companies building games, healthcare solutions, NFT marketplaces among  others.

This enables you to balance out short-term value depreciation in investments, as seen in bear markets.

Do Not Leave Coins On Exchange

As you wait for the crypto bull market to return, don’t make the mistake of leaving your cryptocurrencies on just any exchange. There have been cases where crypto exchanges folded up during a bear market. Instances such as Cryptopia and QuadrigaCX. You can leave some funds in your crypto wallet address and keep some in cold wallets, so your cryptocurrencies are safe.

Play The Long Game
Once the crypto bull market is over, most people lose interest, especially newcomers. These are not the traits of folks who have a long-term view of the cryptocurrency market.

Cryptocurrency is a depreciating and appreciating digital asset. Those who have had the most success in the crypto world are those who have built up their portfolio while the market was down, rather than those who have quit during a down market.

Since the inception of cryptocurrency, the market has always experienced turbulence from time to time. In this period, investors usually make the most mistakes, and some build up vast amounts of money during the next bull run. What usually differentiates the losers from the winners is the actions they take. While many people act without proper guidance, the market winners follow these steps.

Categories
Business

FBI seize the first share of $6 million in BTC from Mr Woodberry.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has seized 151.8 BTC from the wallet of Olalekan Jacob Ponle infamously known as ‘Mr Woodberry’. In June 2020, Mr Woodberry was arrested in Dubai alongside notorious high-profile fraudster, Hushpuppi over their involvement in a transnational cybercrime network. 

The seizure comes as the United States Government filed documents through the District Court for the Northern District Of Illinois seeking forfeiture of any property derived from the proceeds of Mr Ponle’s alleged criminal enterprise. 

The court document stated, “Through the violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1343 as alleged in Counts One through Eight of the indictment, the United States seeks forfeiture of any property involved in or traceable to the defendant’s violation including, but not limited to 151.885720427 Bitcoin Cryptocurrency.”

The FBI filed a complaint against Mr Ponle in 2020 over how he used Bitcoin to conceal stolen funds from his alleged criminal activities online. On the date of the forfeiture filing (29th April 2022), Bitcoin was trading at $39,457 so the attached value translates to about $6 million. 

The Bureau noted that Mr Ponle had been using the same Bitcoin address since 2014 and subsequently defrauded American companies of tens of millions of dollars while converting $6.5 million into 1,500 BTC.

“Preliminary blockchain analysis indicates that Ponle received at least 1,494.71506296 Bitcoin related to these BEC schemes, valued at approximately $6,599,499.98 at the time he received the proceeds,” the document added. 

The investigation revealed that Ponle and his accomplices engaged in a scheme known as Business Email Compromise (BEC) which is a phishing attack with the objective of tricking users into taking harmful action, in this case, involving sending money to the attacker. 

At the time of his arrest, Ponle went by a number of aliases including ‘Mr Woodberry’, and ‘Mark Kain’ before getting picked up by the Dubai crime unit and extradited to the US on 2nd July along with Ramon Abbas aka Hushpuppi on multiple charges of multi-million dollar fraud. 

A US jury found Ponle to be in violation of section 1343 of the United States Codes as they summed up the allegations against him with 8 counts of wire fraud that could see him face jail time of up to 20 years and/or substantial fines.