📌 Emerging Onchain This Week #17
This week, we bring you African crypto updates & data from countries & regions including South Africa, Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria
Welcome back crypto friend 👋.
Know others who are looking to know more about the African crypto space? Well…
- ClickPesa and Pendulum partner to offer financing
ClickPesa, which focuses on helping businesses with payments in Tanzania, has partnered with Pendulum, a DeFi platform leveraging the Stellar and Polkadot ecosystems. The partnership is hoped to enhance the financial accessibility of SMEs & women-led enterprises by empowering MFIs (Microfinance Institutions) in Tanzania, through the ClickPesa Debt Fund.
ClickPesa's $5 million Debt Fund fundraising marks a new phase in Tanzanian fintech, it reinforces ClickPesa's position in East Africa's fintech sector and showcases Pendulum as a central DeFi hub promoting financial inclusion globally.
-Politician Arrested in Connection to Funds Stolen from Patricia
In a post made on his personal LinkedIn account, Patricia Founder & CEO Hanu Fejiro Agbodje, stated that former Cross River 2023 Governorship Candidate Wilfred Bonse was arrested by the Nigerian Police Force PRO. Wilfred is said to have been part of a larger network of criminals who stole a total of ₦607 million (~$756,902) from the company. The full list of culprits involved in the ₦2 billion (~$2,493,912) is still under investigation.
Hanu reiterates that while other high reaching politicians have been identified as potentially involved in the May 2023 hack, Patricia’s commitment is to the users, ensuring that the repayment’s which began on November 20th would continue until all users have been reached.
Product Launch
-VALR launches perpetual futures
The new product from VALR, one of the largest exchanges in Africa, is the first in the world to offer BTC/ZAR and USDT/ZAR perpetual pairs. Offering up to 5x leverage across all perpetual markets, perpetual futures are a financial tool that obligates the buyer to purchase and the seller to sell a specific asset at a predetermined price.
Unlike in trad-fi, perpetual futures have no expiry date and are the most traded crypto-related instrument currently accounting for over 75% of global trading volumes. The new product launch comes a month after VALR announced its partnership with Visa.
-Stitch Pay with crypto
Certified South African payments solution company Stitch, has launched "Pay With Crypto," which allows customers to use cryptocurrency for payments while businesses receive settlements in rand. The integration, developed using the VALR Pay’s API, expands options for VALR and other crypto users in South Africa's e-commerce market.
Stitch President Junaid Dadan, highlights the crypto adoption in South Africa and aims to offer businesses a way to tap into it without direct volatility risk exposure. The system allows customers to choose their wallet and cryptocurrency at checkout, confirming their payment via mobile verification and settling the merchant in ZAR the following business day after converting the crypto.
Philippines to sell $179M in tokenised treasury bonds
The Philippines Bureau of the Treasury has opted to offer 10 billion Pesos (~$180 million) of one-year tokenised treasury bonds, canceling a traditional auction scheduled for November 20th. The tokenised bonds will be available to institutional buyers, with a minimum denomination of 10 million Pesos (~$180,210) and increments of 1 million Pesos (~$18,021).
Issued by the state-owned Development Bank of the Philippines and the Land Bank of the Philippines, the bonds will be valid for one year, maturing in November 2024. The final interest rate will be disclosed on the issuance date. Hong Kong and Singapore have also been exploring tokenised bonds and real-world asset tokenisation.
Circle Launches Mint in Singapore
Circle has launched Circle Mint in Singapore, following the receipt of a Major Payments Institution (MPI) license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in June 2023. The move aims to enhance accessibility and utility of digital currencies in the Asia Pacific region.
The benefits include zero minting fees for USDC, instant availability of fiat to USDC conversion, and alignment with MAS regulations to ensure efficient and secure financial activities. Circle plans to offer expanded access to regional banking rails for near-instant settlement in the future.
Binance's Changpeng Zhao pleads guilty, steps down to settle US illicit finance probe
Binance chief Changpeng Zhao (CZ) has stepped down and pleaded guilty to breaking U.S. anti-money laundering laws as part of a $4.3 billion settlement. The deal, involving one of the largest corporate penalties in U.S. history, requires CZ to pay $50 million personally.
Binance itself is accused of violating U.S. anti-money laundering and sanctions laws, for failing to report what the US deems suspicious transactions related to terrorist groups, and being a major recipient of ransomware proceeds. CZ's exit raises questions about the future of Binance, with Richard Teng set to take over. CZ still retains his stake in Binance, worth $10.2 billion, and legal experts consider the outcome favourable for him.
In PayPal’s Q3 Earnings Report , their growth in Total Payment Volume seems to come at a lower transaction margin. The transaction margin, said to be PayPal's gross profitability measure, declined from 51% in Q3 of 2022 to 45.4% Q3 of 2023.
Here is a short list of some of the resources we are reading, listening to or watching to catch up on the emerging trends affecting the crypto:
An interview at the NYS NASDAQ Studios, titled ‘The Business of Blockchain’ featuring Jia, Huma Finance and Verda Ventures
Chainanalysis Podcast Episode 83, Crypto Adoption in Sub-Saharan Africa, on the GEO Report
Wiza Jalakasi’s blog posts, ‘The Hard Things About Subscription Payments in Africa’ and ‘What’s Really Happening with Crypto in Africa’
The Bank of Ghana’s notice on Money Transfer Organisations (MTOs) operating within the Remittance and the Ghana Forex Market without approval
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