A new partnership in the cryptocurrency space wants to address financial inequities on the continent of Africa. Digital finance and payment platform Sesacash announced in a blog post on April 14 that it is partnering with peer-to-peer cryptocurrency trading platform CryptoLocally. The two firms aim to solve the various challenges facing Africa’s financial sector. Sesacash CEO and co-founder Blaise Bayuo told Cointelegraph that easy access to cryptocurrencies will help Africans enjoy cheaper and faster cross-border payments: “Cryptocurrencies offer a cheaper and faster medium to make cross-border payments into Africa and within Africa. We expect more Africans to join the global …

Runway Fund — an emergency relief fund assembled by the co-founders of OnChain Capital to help startups impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic — has been “overwhelmed” by the number of applications. Cointelegraph spoke to Ran Neuner, host of CNBC Africa’s Crypto Trader and co-founder of both OnChain Capital and Runway Fund, to find out more about the project's plans to assist struggling start-ups. The fund is open to applications from startups in all jurisdictions and has received 400 submissions from startups worldwide in only two weeks. Neuner states that the fund has received “more requests than we ever could have …

Most of the fundraising in the cryptocurrency space shifted from the Americas to Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), and the Asia Pacific regions (APAC), according to a recent report by Big Four auditing firm PwC. According to PwC's 2nd Global Crypto M&A and Fundraising Report, during 2019, fundraising efforts in the crypto space obtained 18% less funding, while funds in mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in the space decreased by 40%. As funding decreased overall, APAC and EMEA's share of the pie got larger. While APAC and EMEA saw 44% of combined fundraising and M&A deal value in 2018, …

With pundits like Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey predicting that Africa “will define” the future of Bitcoin (BTC), cryptocurrency and blockchain technology continue to attract interest from both public and private establishments across the continent. Many of these adoption cases have been moving beyond finance, developing solutions targeted at issues like unemployment, identity management, health care and supply chain, among others. Amid the growing enthusiasm for crypto and blockchain technology in Africa, industry stakeholders interviewed by Cointelegraph identify a lack of education as one of the major hurdles standing in the way of more broad-based utilization of the technology. The absence …

Bitcoin seems to be settling happily above $6,000 and is currently just north of $6,500 again. Let’s hope we’ve seen the last of those $5,000 movements and we’re ready for a steady climb back to double figures before the halving in mid-May. It’s getting closer. In the meantime, the Federal Reserve now appears to have merged into the federal government. An opinion piece in Bloomberg has described how an alphabet soup of financial programs intended to help the economy through the current crisis is allowing the government to buy up securities through the Fed. The result could allow the government …

The South African National Blockchain Alliance carried out an online livestream launch while the country is in the midst of a 21-day lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. The organization was due to be launched at the beginning of April in Johannesburg but had to be taken online as South Africa and the world tackles a global health crisis. The launch happened during a livestream on YouTube on April 3, which included a panel of speakers elaborating on how SANBA will help nurture blockchain-focused startups and companies that are developing capabilities using the technology. Bringing parties together …

Africa’s largest country has welcomed its first Bitcoin ATM. Blockstale BTM, the company that installed the ATM in the Dazey Lounge and Bar in Lagos state, plans to launch more than 30 more terminals across Nigeria. “Despite all the legal uncertainties about cryptocurrencies in Nigeria, Nigerians happen to be the highest crypto traders in Africa,” Blockstale’s chief executive and founder, Daniel Adekunle, told local media on April 1. Adekunle developed his Bitcoin ATMs in partnership with a tech firm based in Shenzhen, China. Nigeria welcomes Africa’s 15th Bitcoin ATM Despite being home to the largest trade volume in Africa, Nigeria …

Decentralized finance, more commonly known as DeFi, is quite complicated. Even the heads of DeFi companies seem unable to define the sector in a few sentences. So, here’s another attempt: DeFi is a financial ecosystem, in which it is possible to build tools, services and smart contracts and then bond them together on a blockchain, just like lego. It might not sound like fun, but it’s probably more useful. Lego might well be Denmark’s most famous export, but DeFi’s number one company, MakerDAO, is giving it a run for its money. Since the company was formed in 2015, it has …

Cryptocurrencies have seemingly taken a backseat due to a concerted focus on blockchain technology in Africa, but there is still a growing interest and demand for trading on the continent. This was one of the main takeaways from the Blockchain Africa conference held in Johannesburg in the middle of March 2020. The Blockchain Africa conference, which is the biggest in the continent, has become heavily focused on the technology underpinning cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and far less so on the crypto trading space. It is a fact that was admitted by event MC Tanya Knowles, who recently became Binance South Africa’s …

The Blockchain Africa conference produced a swathe of optimism for Africa to become a driving force behind the development and use of new blockchain-powered technologies. Over the past few years, blockchain has replaced cryptocurrency as the “it” word in the fintech space. It is a fact that was mirrored by the Blockchain Africa conference itself, with speakers focusing more on the possibilities of blockchain answering a number of industry inefficiencies, and far less on cryptocurrency trading and tokenized solutions. Africa has its own unique challenges in the global space given that many of its countries are trailing behind the rest …

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, the country’s central bank, is considering a regulatory sandbox for crypto companies in an apparent change from its previous anti-cryptocurrency stance. The proposed sandbox is reportedly part of a broader agenda by authorities in Zimbabwe to revamp the nation’s financial sector, which has seen massive hyperinflation since 2007. Meanwhile, Zimbabwe’s government is also partnering with Apollo Fintech to develop a gold-backed cryptocurrency for the country. The collaboration is expected to allow Zimbabweans to have access to the Apollo wallet for digital-currency payments. Despite the government’s 2018 crypto ban, peer-to-peer trading of cryptocurrencies continues to thrive …

Rapper and entrepreneur, Akon, shares his vision for his forthcoming Akoin cryptocurrency in this exclusive video interview with Cointelegraph. The crypto platform will enable the tokenized trading of mobile phone credits, a popular alternative to many volatile fiat currencies on the continent of Africa. In this interview preview, Akon discusses how the widespread use of mobile phone credits as a means of trade across Africa inspired the Akoin crypto network. To find out about Akon’s plan to build crypto-powered cities in every major African city, check out our complete exclusive video interview with Akon. Akon on the use of phone …