Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

Is Cryptocurrency trading prohibited in Nigeria or just a rumor?

By: Damian Okonkwo　　There are a lot of uncertainties today surrounding the status of cryptocurrency trading in Nigeria today. This scenario has been brought about with the popular directives given to the Deposit Money Bank (DMB) operating in Nigeria by the CBN in on February 5, 2021.　　It is good to recall that the CBN released a ruling that ordering all DMBs in Nigeria to stop facilitating crypto transactions and refrain from transacting business with entities engaging in cryptocurrency trading. Of course in the past it was possible to buy cryptocurrency of ones choice from any exchange operating in Nigeria using ones ATM card online but today it is no longer possible as the banks have been requested to withhold such services.　　The directives further instructed all banks and financial institutions to close accounts of individuals and any entity found engaging in cryptocurrency dealings with a stern warning to the banks that any breach of these directives will attract severe regulatory sanctions.　　This has brought a mixed feeling and misinterpretation of the statement by the CBN regarding the state of Cryptocurrency trading in Nigeria. Thus some said, cryptocurrency has been made illegal with this directives and has become an offence in Nigeria.　　However, the general

2022-03-23Deep Dive

10 less known tips for cryptocurrency trading

1. Do Your Research　　This one is a no-brainer, but its still worth mentioning. Before trading cryptocurrencies:　　• Do your research and understand what youre getting into.　　• Learn about the different types of cryptocurrencies, their features, and how they work.　　• Familiarize yourself with market trends and analyze past performances.　　2. Reliable Cryptocurrency Wallet　　It also allows you to track your transactions. There are many different types of wallets, so be sure to choose one thats right for you.　　3. Start Small　　Dont go all-in on your first trade. Start small and increase your investment as you gain experience. It will help cut your risk and give you time to learn the ropes.　　4. Diversify Your Portfolio　　Don‘t put all your eggs in one basket. Cryptocurrency is a volatile market, so it’s wise to spread your money around. 　　You dont want to invest all your funds in one cryptocurrency and watch it plummet in value.　　Instead, invest in a variety of cryptocurrencies to help spread the risk. It will also allow you to capitalize on different market trends.　　5. Use Stop Losses　　A stop loss is a type of order instructing your broker to sell a security when it reaches a specific price. It helps protect you from losing too much money

2022-03-23Deep Dive

Ethereum, buoyed by Merge upgrade, is currently outperforming Bitcoin

The promise of migration to a Proof of Stake network for Ethereum is positively affecting its price performance. For the first time in two weeks, ETH has crossed the $3,000 barrier and is now outperforming Bitcoin.　　While the talks of the transition have been going on for a long time, recent developments on the networks show that the event is a matter of months away.Investors‘ optimism about Ethereum grows　　When complete, it’ll considerably reduce the energy consumption level on Ethereum by 99%, and it would also help make the network more scalable and cheaper to transact on.　　“Following the merge, the amount of ETH issued is projected to drop by 90%, which would lead similar levels of fees to reduce Ethers supply by as much as 5% a year,” IntoTheBlock reported.　　This has built a level of renewed optimism in Ethereum among investors who are pouring in massively into the coin. Per data on Twitter Sentiments about the coin, there have been over 62,000 positive tweets about the Merge and Ethereum generally.　　According to available CryptoSlate data, the second-largest crypto asset by market cap is one of the best-performing digital assets within the last seven days amongst the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap.　　Its value

2022-03-23Deep Dive

Qantas announces NFT collection and becomes the second airline offering NFTs

BeyondWords　　Australian airline provider Qantas recently announced that they were planning an NFT drop to their frequent flyers. This is not surprising as NFTs have spread to fields other than art, such as music or even Instagram.　　As exciting as it sounds, Qantas wasnt the first airline company that stepped into NFTs.AirBaltic　　Latvian airline AirBaltic released its NFT collection in February 2021 and became the first airline company who does.　　Their NFT collection is inspired by their local sights and aims to serve as a tourism campaign. In honor of Latvia‘s centenary in 2018, airBaltic held polls on favorite towns and cities in Latvia. The results came out as Kuldīga, which named the company’s Airbus A220-300 fleet.　　The poll inspired airBaltics NFT launch as well. Starting with Kuldīga, all cities added to the survey were represented as NFTs. As a result, all AirBaltic NFTs look like the sample on the left at first, except for the sequence numbers assigned differently for each city.　　The First edition included 100 unique NFTS with a fixed price of 0.05 ETH.　　The company commented on its NFT launch and said its primary goal is to increase global recognition. They said:　　“As a part of its marketing strategy, helping airBaltic to gain global

2022-03-23Deep Dive

Grayscale Investments Launches Smart Contract-Focused Diversified Fund

Grayscale Launches GSCPxE — Fund Holds Cardano, Solana, Avalanche, Polkadot, Polygon, Algorand, Stellar　　Grayscale Investments has announced another fund that covers the landscape of smart contract tokens, but leaves the largest smart contract token ethereum (ETH) out of the equation. The new Grayscale fund is called the “Smart Contract Platform Ex-Ethereum Fund” or “GSCPxE.” Essentially, smart contracts allow users to program operations on blockchains and data shows the market valuation of all the smart contract platform coins today is $669 billion. Of course, ethereum (ETH) is the largest smart contract platform coin, as its market cap of $360 billion represents 53.81% of the entire $669 billion.　　Grayscale‘s announcement on Tuesday notes that there are seven smart contract platform coins in the fund. The tokens added to the GSCPxE fund include cardano (ADA), 24.63%, solana (SOL), 24.27%, avalanche (AVAX), 16.96%, polkadot (DOT), 16.16%, polygon (MATIC), 9.65%, algorand (ALGO), 4.27%, and stellar (XLM), 4.06%. While GSCPxE is the company’s 18th investment product, the Smart Contract Platform Ex-Ethereum Fund is also Grayscales third diversified fund offering.Grayscale CEO: ‘Investor Demand for Diversified Exposure Has Grown’　　The digital currency asset manager says the fund is now open to eligible individuals and institutional accredited investors. In terms of the

2022-03-23Deep Dive

UK's ASA Issues Crypto Ad Guidelines for 50 Firms

The UKs Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has issued a guideline for companies advertising cryptocurrency services.　　The ASAs enforcement notice was sent to 50 companies that have advertised cryptocurrency services. It urged the companies to scrutinize their advertisements to ensure that they comply with the new guidance.　　According to the guideline, advertisers must inform and mention that crypto is unregulated in the UK, and the “value of investments is variable and can go down.” The notice further added clarity, stating that “ads must not ”state or imply that investment decisions are trivial, simple, easy or suitable for anyone“ or ”imply a sense of urgency to buy or create a fear of missing out, or that investments are ‘low risk’.　　The ASA said that “this is a ‘red alert’ priority issue for us, and weve recently banned several crypto advertisements for misleading consumers and for being socially irresponsible.”　　Under the list of 50 companies, all firms have previously been subject to ASA rulings, and some popular names include Coinbase, eToro, Luno and Crypto.com.　　The advertisement guidelines must be met by May 2. Those firms advertising crypto services who fail to do so after the designated date will be reported to the financial watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority

2022-03-23Deep Dive

Rare Pepe NFT collector loses $500,000 after failing to read the fine print

Matt Furie, the creator of Pepe The Frog, joined the crypto world last year as he released the following image as an exclusive NFT. However, six months later, the father of modern memes may have just set fire to the whole digital collectable industry.The Rare Pepe backstory　　In October 2021, Furie founded a DAO called PegzDAO to release an exclusive Pepe NFT entitled “FEELSGOODMAN Series 20, Card 50” via auction. Aside from 1 NFT that was to be put on auction, the DAO minted an additional 99 NFTs to be held in their treasury. For context, Furie previously had another NFT collection, the Sad Frogs District, taken down from OpenSea for copyright infringement.　　This showcased the intellectual property rights for Pepe were to be acknowledged by the NFT community and verified the authenticity of the PegzDAO collection. Collectors could have been forgiven for putting faith in the PegzDAO collection after Furies DMCA notice against plagiarised content.　　The auction received a lot of interest, and NFT collector Halston Thayer had the winning bid at 150 ETH (around $537,084). A lot of money by anyones standards, but we have seen NFTs go for a lot more. Given that this was a verified Matt Furie Pepe,

2022-03-22Deep Dive

$5.8 Billion Burned: Second Largest Crypto Network Records 2 Million Ethereum Destroyed in 7 Months

2 Million Ethereum Burned, More Than $5K in Ether Destroyed Every Minute　　During the last year, the Ethereum (ETH) network has seen a slew of changes and seven months ago the network implemented the Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 1559 on August 5, 2021.　　Ever since then, the network has been destroying ether at an extremely rapid rate, as EIP-1559 transformed the algorithm tethered to the base fee per gas in the protocol and it burns the base fee per gas. Ethereum advocates like the idea because it makes the crypto networks supply deflationary.　　At the time of writing, and since the August 5 introduction of EIP-1559, Ethereum has destroyed approximately 2,001,495.6 ETH. Using current exchange rates on March 21, 2022, the amount of ethereum burned is equivalent to $5.81 billion in USD value.　　While more than 2 million ether has been burned, the speed of burn per day has been coasting along at 1.74 ether per minute or roughly $5,059.05 per minute using current ether exchange rates. Measuring the burn rate by hour shows the network destroys 1.51 ETH per minute.　　On March 21, the non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace Opensea is the largest ether burner as the NFT market has destroyed 229,922 ether worth $790

2022-03-22Deep Dive

Malaysian Ministry Proposes Legalizing NFTs to Boost Participation in Crypto Sector

Malaysian Ministry Wants NFTs Legalized　　Malaysias Ministry of Communications and Multimedia has proposed legalizing non-fungible tokens (NFTs) “to help the younger generation who are actively involved in the space,” Malaysian national news agency, Bernama, reported Monday.　　Deputy Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Zahidi Zainul Abidin was asked in Dewan Rakyat, the lower house of Malaysia‘s parliament, about the government’s position on NFTs (non-fungible tokens) which have become increasingly popular, particularly among the younger generation.　　Zahidi replied:　　We hope the government will allow and legalize this so that we can increase the youths uptake of cryptocurrencies.　　The deputy minister further revealed that the ministry is looking into ways to increase young peoples involvement in digital assets.　　He noted that crypto activities are under the purview of the central bank, Bank Negara Malaysia, and the countrys Securities Commission.　　Bernama originally stated that the deputy minister proposed to adopt crypto as legal tender. However, the publication soon removed the legal tender reference and changed its headline to say the deputy minister “proposes legalization of NFT, cryptomining activities.”　　Earlier this month, Malaysias deputy finance minister said that cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin and ethereum, are not suitable as a means of payment or a store of value. However, he noted that they still

2022-03-22Deep Dive

Fed Chair Jerome Powell Hints at Aggressive Rate Hikes After Saying 'Inflation Is Much Too High'

Powell Envisions ‘Raising the Federal Funds Rate by More Than 25 Basis Points’　　On March 16, 2022, the U.S. Federal Reserve increased the federal funds rate for the first time since 2018, and the central bank expects six more rate hikes this year. Inflation has jumped a great deal in the United States, in a short period of time, as the U.S. Labor Departments February Consumer Price Index (CPI) report indicated that inflation has risen at the fastest pace since 1982.　　On Monday, following last week‘s rate hike, Powell vowed the central bank would be aggressive toward ensuring price stability returns to normal. Powell explained the Fed’s position during remarks at the National Association for Business Economics. “The labor market is very strong, and inflation is much too high,” Powell detailed. The central banks chair noted that in order to tame inflation, the federal funds rate could be raised higher than the traditional 25 basis points (bps) raise. Powell added:　　We will take the necessary steps to ensure a return to price stability. In particular, if we conclude that it is appropriate to move more aggressively by raising the federal funds rate by more than 25 basis points at a meeting or meetings,

2022-03-22Deep Dive

...

293295

...

742