Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

Crypto Exchange FTX Partners With AZA Finance 'to Expand the Adoption of Web3 and Digital Currencies

Bolstering Adoption of Web3 and Crypto in Africa　　Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange FTX recently announced the start of a partnership with AZA Finance, whose objective is to “expand the adoption of Web3 and digital currencies throughout Africa.” This also includes non-fungible tokens (NFTs).　　A statement released by AZA Finance said the two companies will work to “create pathways for African users to participate and learn about the Web3 economy including educational resources & networking opportunities.” The statement added that the two firms are also hoping to “Make it easier than ever to deposit and pay out in African currencies on FTX.com, including mobile money and local bank account integrations.”　　In her comments following the announcement, Elizabeth Rossiello, the CEO and founder of AZA Finance, said her company was ready to help FTX expand its footprint across the African continent. She added:　　As we built Africas largest platform for trading African currencies, one thing has been clear – that this continent is the future of global, digital economies. After serving these booming enterprises for years, we know that the next generation of users, creators & builders for the Web3 economy is undoubtedly African.　　According to the statement, AZA Finance, which operates in 10 African countries, offers

2022-03-20Deep Dive

Peter Thiel Says His ‘Biggest Mistake of the Decade Was Getting Too Late and Too Little Into Bitcoin

Paypal Co-Founder Peter Thiel Reveals the Biggest Mistake He‘s Made in the Last Decade　　Last week, the new book dubbed “The Founders” written by Jimmy Soni was discussed at great length during a panel conversation with the co-founders of Paypal. The book called “The Founders: The Story of Paypal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley,” was published last month and the story gives an account of Paypal’s origins.　　The callin.com broadcast published on March 12, features the Paypal co-founders Peter Thiel, Max Levchin, David Sacks, and Luke Nosek. While most of the conversation touches on the Paypal origins topic, at the 55:30 mark, the discussion turned to cryptocurrencies. The host of the discussion managed to squeeze in one more question, as he said “it would not be a tech conversation without a little bit of wild-eyed forward-looking statements.”　　The discussion host explained that amid Paypals rise, a “whole crypto thing going on” and he highlighted how Peter Thiel has “written and spoken a lot about it.” When asked what the group thinks about “payment systems now and crypto,” Thiel responded. The Paypal co-founder remarked:　　The biggest mistake I made in the last decade was getting too late and too little into bitcoin.While Thiel

2022-03-20Deep Dive

Here’s how the new sanctions bill could hurt the crypto industry

Yesterday, a group of democratic co-sponsors led by Senator Warren introduced a bill titled the Digital Asset Sanctions Compliance Enhancement Act. The bill presents certain precautions to properly prevent Russia from using crypto to evade economic sanctions.　　In addition to the fact that crypto cant single-handedly rescue Russia and that most countries are already applying crypto sanctions, the introduced precautions apply restrictions on persons who build, operate, and use cryptocurrency networks even if they have no knowledge or intent to help anyone evade sanctions. Anyone who publishes open-source software or facilitates communication among network participants would fall under that definition and face sanctions themselves.What would happen if the bill passed？　　The bill calls for sanctions on:　　“Anyone who significantly and materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of any [sanctioned] person.”　　This vague definition is very prone to be used in an overinclusive manner. So lets briefly go over the first actors that come to mind.All exchange platforms　　From the above sentence, exchange platforms are direct collocutors of “goods or services.” Even though non-compliant overseas crypto exchanges remain the most significant threat against Anti Money Laundering and Counter Financing of Terrorism, this act

2022-03-20Deep Dive

EU regulators: Be ready to lose all your money in crypto

Consumers risk losing all their money invested in cryptoassets and could fall prey to scams, the European Unions securities, banking, and insurance watchdogs said in a joint statement (pdf).　　“Consumers face the very real possibility of losing all their invested money if they buy these assets. Consumers should be alert to the risks of misleading advertisements, including via social media and influencers. Consumers should be particularly wary of promised fast or high returns, especially those that look too good to be true,” regulators said in the statement.　　The statement made by The European Supervisory Authorities (EBA, ESMA, and EIOPA – the ESAs) marks a ramping up of direct warnings to consumers about cryptocurrencies by EU authorities, explicitly spelling out that consumers have no protections or recourse to compensation under existing EU financial services law.Consumers buy crypto without being aware of the risks　　Regulators are increasingly worried that ever more consumers are buying the thousands of different cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH), which account for 60% of the market, without being fully aware of the risks, the regulators said.　　Specifically, the regulators list seven types of risks consumers may encounter in the crypto market. Consumers risk extreme price movements, misleading information, absence of

2022-03-20Deep Dive

Facebook sued in Australia for fake crypto ads

A few weeks ago, Australias richest man, Andrew Forrest, was forced to file criminal charges against Meta for allowing crypto scam ads with his name and age.　　Now, the Australian Competition other popular sites like Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram have also had to deal with this menace.　　According to a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) report on crypto scams on social media, unsuspecting investors lost over $700 million of their money to scams perpetrated via these sites in 2021. This, according to another FTC report, was 12 times higher than it recorded in 2020.　　As of this January, crypto scams account for most online investments-related frauds.　　However, these platforms have revealed their willingness to work with the authorities to curb the use of their platforms by these bad actors.　　Facebook, in its defense, claimed that these ads violated its policies and that the company was working to block such posts. It added that its cooperating on the investigation and will defend itself appropriately.

2022-03-19Deep Dive

Shiba Inu loses over 30,000 holders in a single day as interest in SHIB wanes

Despite the fact that the number of Shiba Inu (SHIB) coin holders has been continuously expanding over the previous three months, the decentralized token has lately experienced a massive loss of more than 30,000 holders in a single day.　　Indeed, the total number of unique addresses on the network holding the dog meme coin was on a steady climb over the last three months, until March 17, when it saw a major dip by 32,832 holders.　　Between March 16 and March 17, the number went from 1,199,453 to 1,166,621 – a 2.74% drop, according to CoinMarketCap data acquired by Finbold on March 18.　　Total number of addresses holding Shiba Inu. Source: CoinMarketCap　　Interestingly, this decline in the number of holders corresponds with the number of transactions on the network.

2022-03-19Deep Dive

ApeCoin Soars After Launch, BAYC NFT Prices Pump and Dump

On OKX, one of the first major exchanges to list the token, APE immediately shot up in price upon listing, which happened at noon UTC time on Thursday. The price later stabilized around USD 8. Overnight, the price again started to increase, reaching a high of just over USD 18 in early trading in Europe.　　APE token price on OKX:　　Developed and issued by the ApeCoin Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO), the coin is already ranked as the 62nd most valuable cryptoasset by market capitalization on CoinGecko.　　According to the ApeCoin DAO, owners of any NFT in the BAYC ecosystem can claim their token allocations, with the number of tokens varying depending on the specific NFTs owned.　　NFT owners have 90 days starting from Thursday to claim their tokens, the DAO said.　　Following the release of the tokens, the floor prices of the three NFT collections in the BAYC ecosystem spiked, before falling back down again.　　The three collections in the ecosystem include the main Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), in addition to Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC), and Bored Ape Kennel Club (BAKC).　　Among these, the fall in the price was particularly heavy for BAKC as investors realized that NFTs from this collection had to be paired

2022-03-18Deep Dive

‘How I met Satoshi’: The mission to teach 100M people about Bitcoin by 2030

Dušan Matuska is, among many other things, a Bitcoin educator and consultant. The Slovaks dream is to educate 100 million people about Bitcoin (BTC) by 2030 through talks, podcasts, webinars, workshops and even a Bitcoin education center in a far-flung destination (plans are currently under wraps). 　　Alongside his Bitcoin teaching aspirations, he helps out at a small-scale Bitcoin mining facility in Slovakia, co-founded a crypto cafe known as Paralelni Polis in the capital city of Bratislava, and has translated well-known Bitcoin books into his native tongue, Slovak.　　But, how did he get here？ And, what does meeting Satoshi Nakamoto have to do with it？　　It starts with Bitcoin, which he first heard about in 2015. But like many people, “I didnt take a lot of notice. I thought it was a scam, it was a pyramid scheme and all these kinds of things,” he told Cointelegraph.　　Nonetheless, equipped with a background in mathematics and buoyed by the enthusiasm of a tenacious friend fascinated by open-source technologies, Matuska didnt so much fall but swan dive down the rabbit hole during the 2017 bull run.　　He suddenly realized, “Oh my God, this Bitcoin thing is something really amazing.”　　He took time off his teaching and consulting jobs

2022-03-18Deep Dive

Aave V3 is here and it wants to solve everything you hate in DeFi

Since its launch in 2020, Aave has been a leader in innovation in the DeFi ecosystem. However, the protocol wasnt immune to the woes of operating in a multi-chain environment and has been impacted by the congestion and high latency Ethereum has long suffered from.　　But, all of this has come to an end with the launch of Aaves latest version, which set out to solve not just the technical limitations the protocol faced, but the problems users experienced as well.　　Aave‘s V3 set out to improve four key areas: capital efficiency, protocol safety, decentralization, and user experience. Aave’s development team saw these areas as ripe for improvement and has devoted months to overhauling the protocol.More yield, more security, better everything　　The primary goal for V3 was to enable the protocol to generate more yield for liquidity providers. This is a rather ambitious task, given that the total liquidity of Aave across multiple networks is close to $20 billion.　　The largest percentage of that liquidity currently sits idle in Aaves smart contracts, generating yield to liquidity providers from the borrowing activity on the protocol. And while this is a financial jackpot as the yield is constant and secure, there is room to improve.　　Aave‘s V3

2022-03-18Deep Dive

First Mover Americas: Bitcoin Downtrend Intact, Recession Fears May Weigh

Immediate prospects for risk assets, including bitcoin, look bleak as bond markets question the U.S. central banks ability to tighten monetary policy without pushing the economy into recession.　　“Were still in a downtrend market. Bear market rallies tend to be extreme. Until we break out of the down trendline, its hard to say the bull market is around the corner,” Kevin Kang, founding principal of BKCoin Capital LP, told CoinDesk in an email, citing potential yield curve inversion, geopolitical tensions as key near-term risks to risk assets, including bitcoin.　　Treasury yield curve inversion occurs when the 10-year yield drops under the two-year yield. The U.S. curve has inverted before each recession since 1955, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.　　The curve was just 20 odd basis points short of inverting at press time, having flattened by 70 basis points since early January. So, recession fears will likely linger, keeping risk appetite under check.　　“Look at the massive flattening in the 2y10y – its signaling that the Feds ability to engineer a soft landing is quite narrow,” David Duong, head of institutional research at Coinbase, said. “Plus, theres still a large risk that inflation could remain high and sticky, even with the

2022-03-18Deep Dive

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