Cardano has rewarded its investors with significant gains this year, with a growing number of holders joining the coveted millionaires’ club following the latest ADA price surge. Since the start of the year, the number of millionaire investors in ADA has increased more than 13-fold to 6,710 as of May 17, according to United Kingdom-based news agency Finbold. Using data from Coin Metrics, the agency determined that there were just 504 ADA addresses worth at least $1 million on Jan. 1. The number of active ADA addresses also grew by 417.81% between Jan. 1 and Apr. 28. ADA’s value has …

After nearly three years in operation, Nigerian cryptocurrency exchange Quidax has reported more than $3.2 billion in transactions, underscoring the rapid adoption of digital assets in Africa’s largest economy. Since launching in August 2018, Quidax has amassed over 400,000 customers across 72 countries, the company disclosed on Monday. The figures were published alongside an announcement that the exchange plans to further expand its crypto trading operations beyond Africa. In addition to its expansion plans, Quidax announced the launch of QDX, its native token, on Binance Smart Chain. The BEP-20 token “will power all the functions within the Quidax ecosystem from …

Input Output Hong Kong, or IOHK, is helping the government of Ethiopia leverage blockchain technology to overhaul its education system. The research and development arm behind Cardano is deploying its expertise to provide Ethiopian authorities with a new system for student and teacher identification, digital grade verification and the remote monitoring of school performance. IOHK’s Atala PRISM ID will allow authorities to create a tamper-proof record of educational performance for five million students across 3,500 schools. It will also enable the Ethiopian government to narrow down locations and causes of educational under-achievement. John O’Connor, the director of IOHK’s Africa Operations …

A state-owned Moroccan fertilizer company has executed a $400-million transaction using blockchain technology, in what it says is a first for intra-African commerce. In a deal facilitated by the Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank, OCP Group sold phosphate fertilizer exports to Ethiopia, using blockchain technology, in a deal worth an initial $270 million. The remaining deals will be executed in the coming months, taking the full transaction value to $400 million, reports Global Trade Review. Trade finance deals that are typically executed over a matter of weeks can be finalized in hours using blockchain, according to OCP …

Senegalese-American rapper and businessperson Akon is set to begin building another crypto city — this time in the East African nation of Uganda. According to a report by Uganda’s flagship television network NBS, the country’s government has announced the allocation of land for the project. Akon City in Uganda will reportedly occupy one square mile half the size of the City of London (not to be confused with Greater London, which makes up the majority of the United Kingdom capital). Akon is also building a much larger crypto city in Senegal for $6 billion, with the project covering 2,000 acres …

The first-ever virtual version of Blockchain Africa delivered an optimistic outlook for the cryptocurrency and blockchain space in the continent as the world settles into a new normal dictated by COVID-19. The conference featured a number of well-known industry commentators, participants and thought leaders from around the world who addressed a completely virtual audience. The event attracted around 4,000 attendees online, according to organizer Sonya Kuhnel, despite going virtual in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. A major highlight of the conference was an insightful keynote address from Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson on Africa’s burgeoning position as a hotbed for …

Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, or CBN — which previously banned banks from servicing crypto exchanges — has reportedly clarified the bank’s position on the use of cryptocurrencies in the country. According to local news outlet TodayNG, CBN Deputy Governor Edward Lamekek Adamu said on behalf of Emefiele that the bank had not banned Nigerian residents from buying, trading or selling crypto but “[protected] the banking sector from the activities of cryptocurrencies.” Lamtek spoke at a seminar for finance correspondents and business editors in the capital, Abuja. “The CBN did not place restrictions from use of …

The seventh session of the Africa Regional Forum on Sustainable Development convened earlier this month with the theme “Building forward better: Towards a resilient and green Africa to achieve the 2030 Agenda and Agenda 2063” and to promote the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. Amina Mohammed, deputy secretary-general of the United Nations, pointed out that developing a just, fair economic model that embraces green and renewable energy, resilient infrastructure, and digitalization — while protecting natural resources by broadening partnerships for science, technology and innovation — could unleash the region’s green potential and fuel economic transformation. UNECA’s digital …

Standard Bank Group — Africa’s largest bank by assets — has partnered with enterprise-grade distributed ledger technology project Hedera Hashgraph. According to a joint announcement, the African banking giant now joins other major corporations like Google, LG, and IBM as a member of the Hedera Governing Council. Standard Bank will also become a Hedera node operator, the first in Africa with a focus on utilizing DLT to ease bottlenecks in cross-border trade on the continent. Across Africa, innovations in domestic payment rails have created faster and efficient transaction systems. However, this advancement is yet to translate to the cross-border payment …

Akoin (AKN), the crypto project developed by Senegalese-American singer Akon, has completed the pilot rollout stage of its deployment in the Mwale Medical and Technology City complex in Kenya. As previously reported by Cointelegraph, the trial phase was launched back in November 2020 at the time of the AKN listing on the Bittrex crypto exchange. Following the success of the initial pilot, the Akoin crypto is now ready for full deployment in the $2 billion complex in July. Commenting on the success of the pilot program, Akoin President and co-founder Jon Karas revealed that the roll-out was received with “great …

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has announced the creation of a blind Bitcoin (BTC) development trust worth 500 BTC ($23.7 million), along with rapper Jay-Z, for teams working on the project in India and Africa. Dorsey revealed the creation of the trust on Feb. 12 while sending out a call for three board members to oversee the blind trust initially. JAY-Z/@S_C_ and I are giving 500 BTC to a new endowment named ₿trust to fund #Bitcoin development, initially focused on teams in Africa & India. It‘ll be set up as a blind irrevocable trust, taking zero direction from us. We need …

Africa-focused but U.S. based unified financial data platform Pngme this week announced its successful seed funding round raised $3 million. The investment was led by Radical Ventures, Raptor Group, Lateral Capital, and EchoVC. It was actually closed in the third quarter of 2020 and came after the fintech startup raised $500,000 in a pre-seed round in 2018. The platform collects user-permissioned data through a partner’s existing mobile app using a one-click data-sharing feature which then delivers real-time financial data and alerts. Pngme hopes to tap into the burgeoning mobile money market in Africa that was kicked off with M-Pesa in …