Pundits in Nigeria Says Blockchain Can Boost African Economy

Cryptocurrency regulations have been both a boon and a bane for cryptocurrencies at large.

The hardcore cryptocurrency fanatics would not want any regulations in the sector at all, some of the most respected personalities in the crypto sphere has been actively engaging regulators to negotiate sensible regulations in the space.

The fanatics expressed dismay over these efforts as it goes against the very essence of decentralization but others argue that this is the only way to achieve legitimacy and ultimately mass adoption.

This is what crypto experts in the African nation of Nigeria have been telling the crypto community in the continent.

For cryptocurrencies to thrive and achieve the level of success it has been trying attain for the past decade it needs to be guided in the right direction which they say is for the betterment of everyone.

In an event called Building Trust in the Nigerian Cryptocurrency Market, the Chief Operating Officer of Blockchain limited Lucky Uwakwe has revealed that cryptocurrency is on the rise globally with more than 65% of people already aware of cryptocurrency.

He also states that cryptos are now being used as a payment tool to send money and as an investment tool that carries value. With this in mind the Country Manager of Luno, Owenize Odia has expressed the importance of regulations to cement trust in the continent that can bring credibility to the market despite efforts of backs trying to distant their operations from cryptocurrencies.

He also believes that by leveraging this emerging technology, it can boost the Nigerian economy as well as other neighboring countries in the continent.

Yen To Surpass The US Dollar In Trading Bitcoin

It has been reported that that the Japanese Yen is well on its way of becoming the dominant national currency used when trading bitcoin against fiat.

For several years the U.S. dollars has been the fiat of choice by traders who are trading crypto with fiat.

This is not surprising since the USD has been the de facto global currency in doing business and trade.

It is in fact the most popular currency in the forex market.

However, things might be changing soon as the national currency of Japan is slowly creeping up on the US currency.

According to market indexing platform Coinhils, BTC/USD accounted for more than 48 percent of all Bitcoin/fiat trades for the past 24 hours.

The Japanese Yen comes as a very nears second accounting to around 47.23 percent of all bitcoin transactions within the same time frame.

These two sovereign currencies accounts to around 95.87 percent of all trading pairs making the two currencies the most popular fiat currencies in BTC trading by far.

It has been recently been revealed that the Asia Markets has been increasingly having a bigger impact on the price of Bitcoin.

This is compared to the U.S. and European market.

This is according to research done by a cryptocurrency research firm Mosaic.

This can be attributed to the general crypto-friendly policies that are prevalent in many Asian countries particularly in Japan and their affinity to embrace BTC commerce.

Coinbase Executive Says No To Short-Term Institutional Investors

The cryptocurrency community can agree that 2018 was not the best year for cryptocurrencies.

In fact it has been one of the worse years in terms of market valuation as it has lost much of its valuation earlier this year.

It is so bad that many cryptocurrency projects has closed shop or do some drastic structural overhaul to deal with the prevalent bearish market conditions.

However some experts and executives form the cryptocurrency industries have a different take on what have happened in 2018.

In an interview with CNBC, the president of the Coinbase has expressed a more positive tone on the year called it a year of innovation.

Asiff Hirji went on to say that there had been never been more innovation and institutional buy-in of crypto as there were in 2018.

This he claim even if trading volumes are down across the board.

The Coinbase executive must e inferring to the increase of institutional investors cautiously entering the market with more valid venue to trade as well as better custodian solutions.

Despite this very optimistic view on the cryptocurrency he later admits that his company’s revenue is directly tied to trading volume.

Obviously these volumes are way down.

However he reminds that none of the investors were entering the cryptocurrency space betting on the price of the asset in the short-term.

He states that if the time horizon of an institutional investor is for the short-term only then perhaps this type of investor should not get into cryptocurrencies.

Cryptocurrencies is not for the faint hearted.

Legalization Of Bitcoin In India Possible Under Strong Rules

Reports has been spreading on the possibility of India legalizing cryptocurrencies under tough terms and conditions.

According to an anonymous senior official who attended the committee meetings which was formed to investigate cryptocurrencies the committee is not in favor of outright band.

During the two meetings conducted there has been a general consensus that cryptos cannot be dismissed as completely illegal but must be legalized with strong riders.

The committee is currently deliberating on this.

The government of India has created a committee earlier this year to examine cryptocurrencies and study how its existing regulatory framework relates to them.

The team is tasked to suggest new measures to deal with the new technology to ensure that consumers are well protected and money laundering laws are followed.

The committee members came from the different agencies of the government which includes representatives from department of economy and taxation, as well as the central bank and other agencies.

This new development is seen as a softening of the government towards cryptocurrencies.

According to reports the committee last October recommended the government to develop a legal framework to ban the use of private cryptocurrencies in India.

The previous report has further dampened the cryptocurrency industry which is already confused with the legal standing of the new asset in the country.

Back in April the Reserve Bank Of India prevented domestic banks from providing services to cryptocurrency firms such as echanges.

Litecoin Sponsoring Latest UFC Event

It seems that Litecoin is the first cryptocurrency organization that will be sponsoring the next UFC event.

The said event will be held in the evening of Saturday in California.

The main event will be the championship bout between UFC superstars Jon Jones and Alexander Gustafson who both will dispute the UFC light heavy weight belt that was recently vacated by Daniel Cormier.

According to Litecoin Foundation it identifies well with UFC in terms of community focus.

It says that UFC has evolved from its humble beginnings to a global phenomenon largely because of is extremely passionate community.

The Litecoin Foundations sees many parallels to its own organization in which the community has been instrumental in the group of the whole Litecoin ecosystem.

Throughout the years the Litecoin community has provided unwavering support and enthusiast that has help the organization move forward.

This news comes at a time when doubt has been cast over Litecoin Foundation after Bitmain has express sizing down due to financial woes.

Bitmain has revealed that they will be laying off 80% of its total workforce.

According to sources Bitmain currently hold 1 million Litecoin which it can easily be liquidate.

Hopefully with the current partnership with UFC it will be able to get the kind of exposure that the company needs to and perhaps result to a better and more positive price movement.

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