📌 Emerging Onchain This Week #12
This week, we bring you African crypto updates & data from countries including Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa
Welcome back crypto friend 👋.
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-Worldcoin execs appear in Kenya’s Parliament
Following Worldcoin being told to cease its operations in Kenya last month, its CEO and Chief Legal Officer appeared before the Kenyan Parliament. Whilst Worldcoin argues that its parent company (Tools for Humanity) had met all legal requirements having successfully registered as a data controller and processor in Kenya, Kenyan officials argued that this was not sufficient. Specifically, whilst the orbs had been inspected and required no approval as ‘biometric scanners’, Kenyan officials argued that they were also used as communication devices which do need approval to operate.
In the session, Worldcoin’s CEO stated that over 301,000 Kenyans have registered and verified their details on the platform's app but only 106,000 Kenyans had been scanned. Worldcoin has claimed to have invested $4.8million in crypto education in Kenya. The session was part of a Worldcoin-focused Kenyan Parliamentary inquiry which is expected to share its report by the end of September.
-Yellow Card partnered with MoonPay in Nigeria
Africa’s pioneer fintech company Yellow Card has strategically partnered with global leader MoonPay, in an aim to streamline and leverage local bank transfers to enhance the crypto purchasing experience & overall accessibility for Nigerians.
This integration will offer Nigerian users ease of access to P2P transactions by offering a simple, inclusive transaction method for users. With the help of MoonPay’s local bank transfer support, this could potentially make the Nigerian crypto landscape more inclusive and user friendly, with the elimination of the more traditional finance obstacles. MoonPay first entered Nigeria earlier this year with its partnership with MetaMask. They joined the likes of KuCoin who earlier this year expanded their P2P offering to Kenya & Ghana.
-Kotani gets $2M in pre-seed funding round
The Nairobi-based crypto payments startup Kotani Pay, funding round was led by P1 Ventures, with participation from multiple other investors including DCG/Luno and Flori Ventures. Kotani Pay is a tech stack that allows blockchain protocols, dapps and blockchain fintech companies to integrate with local payment channels, making cross-border remittances much easier.
The startup plans to expand its offerings to Rwanda, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Tanzania and Nigeria. The use of USSD - Unstructured Supplementary Service Data - allows users to send, deposit or withdraw funds as well as pay for bills or buy goods using a specific short code without the internet.
-Nestcoin raises $1.9M to scale Onboard
The round was led by emerging market fund Hashed Emergent, with participation from new investors Adaverse & Base Ecosystem Fund, and existing investors Alter Global, Magic Fund, CMT Digital, and 4DX Ventures. Nestcoin which started as a venture studio has since spun out MVM (focused on the gaming industry) into an independent company, with Nestcoin now focused on its crypto self-custody wallet with embedded P2P self-custody on/offramps Onboard.
Onboard took part in Base’s launch as the only African project; Base believes working with Onboard will empower Africans on their onchain journey which seeks to bring freedom and increased opportunity access. Currently, the local currency that Onboard supports is the Naira, more local currencies are said to be coming soon.
-African Bitcoin Talent Firm Qala acquired by Jay-Z & Jack Dorsey’s Btrust
Qala, which trains Bitcoin and Lightning engineers in Africa, has rebranded to the Btrust Builders Programme as part of the acquisition. Qala which to date had relied on grants for its ongoing existence, as it was a social enterprise, as part of its programmes had offered fellows a stipend.
The non profit, Btrust was created in 2021 with the aim to support Bitcoin development in Africa and India and initially funded by Jack Dorsey and JayZ.
Product Launch
-VALR introduces VALR Pay
With the help of their partnership with CryptoConvert, South Africa-based crypto exchange VALR now provides its users with the ability to use their Bitcoin (BTC) on VALR to make purchases in over 1,500 Pick ‘n Pay stores - including the clothing and liquor stores - across South Africa.
VALR Pay is only available for fully verified accounts on the latest VALR mobile app. Currently, only BTC is accepted for payments, more options are said to be coming soon.
-MiniPay Launches on Celo in Nigeria
Global web innovator Opera launched MiniPay, which is a web3 non-custodial wallet built on Celo, available on Android using Opera Mini. It enables users to instantly send, receive and acquire stablecoins using mobile phone numbers and with sub-cent fees. Launched in Nigeria, with rollouts expected in Kenya, Ghana and South Africa in the coming months, MiniPay enables users to on/offramp using MPesa, bank transfer, cards or airtime through partnerships with the likes of Fonbnk.
Opera, which has over 100M users and was once one of the key browsers in Africa, launched Opera Mini in 2006. Opera Mini is a mobile browser that uses significantly less data than the likes of Google. Developers interested in building for MiniPay can find more information here.
Henley & Partners shared data on the number of crypto millionaires and billionaires in their Crypto Wealth Report.
Fidelity Digital Assets releases their ‘Ethereum Investment Thesis’
Podcast episode with Coinbase Advanced group product manager Moheeth Alvi on Hashing It Out, a Cointelegraph podcast
Chainanalysis’s expert from their pending 2023 Global Crypto Adoption Index
An Unreal Primer on Real World Assets by Teej Ragsdale, Jack Chong and Mukund Venkatakrishnan
A Blockchain Letter titled ‘Emerging Catalysts in Crypto’ by Cosmo Jiang, Matt Stephenson and Erik Lowe
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