Australian Senator proposes landmark Digital Services Act

Cardano Whales Devour Dip, Why They Don’t Care About Price Action

Despite the crypto market’s bloodshed, in the past few days, the Cardano (ADA) trading activity has been relentless, and its holders’ balance remains strong with a multi-year high. Into The Block data indicates that the wallet balance held by long-term Cardano holders hit a multi-year high on February 23. “Regardless of the price action, Cardano‘s holders remain strong. The balance held by HODLERS- addresses holding >1 year, is at a multi-year high. These HOLDERS increased their positions to 10.12b $ADA, the largest balance since December 11, 2019.” Despite the geopolitical tension causing the altcoin’s price to drop dramatically, traders have increased their position of Cardano. Holders have accumulated the highest balance of ADA since December 2019. Cardano’s network recent developments might be serving as fuel to its supporters, and as a consequence, many believe its price will climb. “Every bounce is still getting sold off, waiting for a final leg down before a reversal. Would consider buying this at 0.50,” an analyst noted. A Finder’s poll indicated several analysts believe the price of ADA will reach $58 by 2030, and a few thought it might close this year at $2.72, a 160% increase. Many traders received the $58 prediction as an exaggeration unless the Cardano ecosystem truly manages to explode during the following years. Expert Vanessa Harris was also bullish on the altcoin. She expects it to close 2022 around the $3 mark, adding that its criticized slow-paced growth could pay off as nations turn their eyes towards it: “It is one of the few smart contract platforms that have placed security, correctness [and] decentralization at their core, backed by formal methods and peer-reviewed research… While this means Cardano moves more deliberately in the short term, long term this resilience should support adoption by nation-states and non-governmental organizations. We are already seeing this adoption happen in Ethiopia and Tanzania.” However, other experts remained bearish and cited “lack of execution and poor technology” and alleged that “They have failed on their promise of delivery for the last several years.” But however slow, the expansion of its DeFi ecosystem is starting to happen and might support the loyal holders’ sentiment. Related Reading | Cardano Daily Transaction Volume Up, But ADA Prices Remain Sluggish Cardano DeFi Expansion Cardano volumes and transactions are growing as developers focus on building the first dApps solutions and its DeFi space is set to grow. It has even surpassed the on-chain activity of Ethereum ranking 2nd in 24h transaction volume after registering $17.04 billion on February 22. In terms of gaining traction, the decentralized exchange SundaeSwap, an Automated Market Maker DEX, was anticipated by many users and launched at the beginning of the year. It tumbled at the beginning due to congestion. But after some adjustments of the block size done by IOHK, the transactions run smoothly now and SundaeSwap reports a Total Value Locked of $21 million. The boom of NFTs is also contributing to the Cardano blockchain attraction. The non-custodial decentralized exchange ecosystem Arcadex will soon be launched on the network. It has generated enthusiasm for providing a wide variety of DeFi services through both DEX and NFT marketplaces. Despite the slow-paced growth and 6-month downtrend, Cardano is still gaining traction and holders are not letting go. More growth is expected as the Cardano roadmap aims to increase scalability. Related Reading | Bitrue Announces Support For Cardano (ADA) As Base Pair On Exchange Price Of ADA At the time of writing, Ada is down to $0.83, shedding around 0.72% over the past 24 hours.  

India-based crypto exchange CoinDCX beefs up AML protection with Solidus Labs

CoinDCX, the popular India-based crypto exchange, announced today that it has selected crypto-native risk monitoring firm Solidus Labs as a strategic compliance partner. With the aim to protect its users from known forms of market abuse and emerging crypto-specific risks, partnering with Solidus will enable CoinDCX to forge greater trust and transparency on its platform. […]

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What Factors Are Driving The Bitcoin Remittance Revolution In Africa These Ones

The Bitcoin remittance business is blowing up all over the world. South African financial website moneyweb brings us the report directly from the oldest continent. The conditions that led to El Salvador making Bitcoin legal tender are present all over Africa. The people are unbanked but everybody has mobile phones. Plus, the diaspora is huge and sends money home constantly while big companies rob them blind with high fees.  Related Reading | Is Largely Unbanked Africa Primed for Bitcoin Adoption? “The African continent has many opportunities for widespread Bitcoin adoption. One of those opportunities is remittance fueled by Africa’s growing ~mobile~ population. There are over 30 million Africans living outside their countries of origin. Since 2012, the African Union considers the African diaspora the sixth Africa’s region.” On one hand, “countries such as South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya” want to regulate bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. On the other, “According to the World Bank Global Findex, 60% of the population” in the continent are unbanked. The recipe is there. And Bitcoin remittances might be the use case to bring mass adoption to Africa. Remittance Revolution, Factor 1. Mobile Wallets Not only is the mobile population growing, but the whole continent also has ample experience with other forms of “mobile money.” It’s a concept already entrenched in the culture: “Africa is the global leader in mobile money usage. Sub-Saharan Africa has the fastest growing mobile money industry in the world. The region will continue to see substantial growth in the number of people owning mobile phones. Mobile subscribers in Sub-Saharan Africa are projected to reach 623 million by 2025, half of the continent’s population. The figure will be even higher because of mobile phone sharing culture.” From there to using Bitcoin, the most efficient money network in the world, it’s just a step. The road is clear. Factor 2. Government Policies Inadvertently, governments all over the African continent are pushing Bitcoin adoption with their restrictive policies. For example “In 2020, the Central Bank of Nigeria suspended international mobile money transfers to Nigeria. The suspension came after the banking regulator allowed US dollar payouts for international remittances in the country.” And that “means that only Nigerians with a bank account will be able to receive money from abroad. Not all international money transfer services to Nigeria support cash payout.” Everyone underestimates the rate of #Bitcoin adoption in Nigeria, it will be a major religion soon. — Bernard ‘berlin’ Parah ⚡️ (@bernard_parah) February 5, 2022 What have the Nigerians done? Turn to Bitcoin remittances, of course. Another example: “In Zimbabwe, several restrictive monetary policies have led to the growing interest and use of bitcoin for remittances. First, the government banned all foreign currencies such as the US dollar, Euro, South Africa rand, and others. The government also placed restrictions on mobile money services, as well as daily withdrawal limits because of severe fiat currency shortages. To bypass these restrictive policies by the central bank, a growing number of Zimbabweans prefer bitcoin remittances to fiat money.” Remittance Revolution, Factor 3. Weak Currency This factor wasn’t present in El Salvador, which is a dollarized country. However, in Africa, there are several “countries that experience double-digit inflation such as Zambia, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Sudan, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.” For example: “The Guinean franc is one of the world’s weakest currencies as we launch into 2022. In 2020/21, the Zambian kwacha and Zimbabwe’s dollar were one of the worst performing currencies in the world. The Nigerian naira has lost more than 50% of its value since 2015. The Central Bank of Nigeria devalued the naira thrice in 2019. In May 2021, the central bank devalued the naira by 7.6%.” What have the Nigerians done? Adopt Bitcoin remittances. What will the other countries do? Adopt Bitcoin remittances, also. Who said Kenyans don't own #Bitcoin.. Kenya Ranks 2nd in Africa in P2P settlement, overtaking South Africa 🌍.#cryptocurrencyKE 🇰🇪#africarising 🖤 pic.twitter.com/fg8Ivj3mQA — CRYPTOCURRENCY KENYA 🇰🇪 (@CryptoHubKE) February 8, 2022 Factor 4. Transfer Fees And Speed The remittance fees were a prominent factor in the El Salvador story. And in Africa, the story repeats itself: “A study by the World Bank shows that transfer fees to Sub-Saharan Africa, the poorest region in the world, are the highest in the entire world. The cost of sending $200 to Sub-Saharan Africa towards the end of 2020 was 8.2% on average. Sending money within Africa is even more expensive.” What will the whole Sub-Saharan Africa do? I could wait another 25 years for the ANC to do good on their promises to fix some of historical injustice in South Africa, or I can take control of my own life and buy #bitcoin now. — Tensai Bankai⚡️ (@tensaibankai) February 8, 2022 Remittance Revolution, Factor 5. Education This is a positive one, for a change. According to BTrust’s Abubakar Nur Khalil, in a recent article for Bitcoin Magazine: “Africa is home to more than a thousand indigenous languages, with non-English speaking countries. The majority of Bitcoin material available is in the English language, which means we must also engage in translation efforts to unlock knowledge for millions of non-English speakers on the continent, both on the developer and user front. Currently, there are efforts around Africa to translate Bitcoin material into different languages such as Amharic, Arabic and Wolof by Kal Kassa, Arabic_HODL and Fodé Diop, respectively, with ongoing work on others.” Related Reading | South African Man Loses $900,000 Worth Of Bitcoin After Accidentally Deleting Keys And we also have to mention Exonumia, who is “creating open source African language translations for Bitcoin literature through community.” And, of course, the BTrust. The organization created and financed by Jay-Z and Jack Dorsey is on a mission to promote Bitcoin development in Africa and India. One of its board of directors members, Abubakar Nur Khalil, recently spoke to Bloomberg Technology about the initiative. Meet one of the board members of Jay-Z’s and Jack Dorsey’s blind Bitcoin trust: Recursive Capital CEO Abubakar Nur Khalil in Nigeria. He tells @sonalibasak how he envisions web3 in Africa https://t.co/IdyBB7wTvb pic.twitter.com/eFKEga4Nbg — Bloomberg Technology (@technology) February 4, 2022 Conclusions And The Market There are negative factors that affect Bitcoin positively, like high fees, weak currencies, and worse government policies.  And there are positive ones, like high mobile adoption and available education. The mix might form a perfect storm for Bitcoin adoption in Africa. And the Bitcoin remittances revolution is leading the way. BTC price chart for 02/10/2022 on Bitstamp| Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com After a recent surge of sorts, Bitcoin has been trading horizontally for the last few days. Featured Image by James Wiseman on Unsplash | Charts by TradingView