Cryptocurrency
Nigerians’ love for cryptocurrencies on the rise, as it offers cheaper ways to transfer funds
Nigerians do have a high passion for digital currencies and are among the greatest users of cryptocurrencies in the world.
In 2019 Google Trends, Lagos, Nigeria was the number one city based on online search volumes for Bitcoin worldwide. While recently, in May 2020, Arcade Research ranked Nigeria fifth globally with its 11% of connected Nigerians owning or using cryptocurrencies.
In addition, data obtained from Coinmarketcap recently revealed the largest cryptocurrency users around the world, with Nigeria surging by 46% among its youth users. As a country, it gains stood Nigeria Up 211%.
READ ALSO: Luno breaks barrier, allows Ethereum/Naira trading pair
These trends have shown that Nigerians do have a high passion for digital currencies and are among the greatest users of cryptocurrencies in the world. This is based on a major fact that Nigerians are using cryptos to avoid expensive and heavily bureaucratic money transfer systems currently available. Many Nigerians rely on remittances for their daily activities and any way of making the process effective cheaper would be of great benefit to them, this is where Bitcoin comes in
What you need to know: Cryptocurrency is basically, a digital currency based on an innovative technology called the blockchain. Its users range from small businesses to process payments, financial tech-based startups, and retail consumers that use it to send money across the border and as an investment asset.
READ ALSO: Bitcoin hits $10,000, as cheap money floods financial market
Consequently, Asia’s arguably most popular cryptocurrency exchange listed Nigeria’s Naira to be first African currency supported on its Binance P2P platform, The Binance CEO said:
“We no longer need to bank the unbanked. We can empower them with cryptocurrency financial services directly. Nigeria is a vibrant innovation hub with a great passion for cryptocurrencies. We strive to provide the easiest cryptocurrency access and best trading service for the African community, and P2P trading is a more flexible approach, giving users the freedom to choose their payment methods and counterparty in a trade.”
However Nigeria’s central bank issued a statement about three years ago banning the use of bitcoin for transaction purposes, this statement was sent to all banks in Nigeria warning them against facilitating the trading of cryptocurrencies but that seems not to pause Nigerians growing love for cryptocurrencies.
Cryptocurrency
Hackers, expose crypto wallets worth $150 million at Kucoin
It was disclosed Kucoin wallets got exposed and might have affected $150 million in user funds.
KuCoin Global CEO, Johnny Lyu in a statement disclosed yesterday about a reported hack lately in details after private keys linked to crypto wallets got exposed and might have affected $150 million in user funds.
He added by saying the findings of the internal security audit report, revealed part of Bitcoin, ERC-20, and other tokens in KuCoin’s hot wallets were transferred out of the crypto exchange, which contained few parts of the total assets holdings.
“The assets in the cold wallets are safe and unharmed, and the hot wallets have been re-deployed.”
However, Cryptoquant an On-chain data/chart provider for investors had a shred of strong evidence showing the crypto exchange might truly be affected.
“It seems Kucoin got hacked.
“Usually, after being hacked, the $BTC outflow increases rapidly and then becomes zero. Since 20:00 UTC on September 25th, the outflow has continuously been zero,” Cryptoquant tweeted.
It seems #Kucoin got hacked.
Usually, after being hacked, the $BTC outflow increases rapidly and then becomes zero. Since 20:00 UTC on September 25th, the outflow has continuously been zero.
Chart: https://t.co/kHsUEzh92C pic.twitter.com/qgycevVsnT
— CryptoQuant (@cryptoquant_com) September 26, 2020
According to Paolo Ardoino, the Chief Technical Officer at Bitfinex and Tether, the two entities froze $33 million in total.
If the sum of $150 million was hacked, that represents 22% of the lost funds. He said:
“Bitfinex froze 13m Tether USDT on EOS as part of the hack, Tether just froze 20M Tether USDt sitting on this Ethereum address as a precautionary measure.
PSA: re #KuCoin hack@bitfinex froze 13M Tether USDt on EOS as part of the hack@Tether_to just froze 20M Tether USDt sitting on this Ethereum address https://t.co/GYmESH44da as precautionary measure.
Stay safe everyone!
— Paolo Ardoino (@paoloardoino) September 26, 2020
In the official statement, Lyu said KuCoin disclosed it was partnering with major crypto exchanges that included Binance, BitMax OKEx, Huobi, and ByBit. The Kucoin also added it was cooperating with law enforcement agencies on the matter.
At least in the near term, it would make it challenging for hackers to try to move the funds. The CEO said:
“We are in contact with many major crypto exchanges such as Huobi, Binance, OKEx, BitMax, and Bybit, as well as blockchain projects, security agencies, and law enforcement to work on this. Some effective measures have been taken, and we will update with more details soon.”
Cryptocurrency
3 Tron investors transfer 719,000,000 cryptos
TRX price is up 9.4% in the last 24 hours.
Investors have been cashing in big time on Tron, a relatively popular digital asset in the crypto-verse. Data feed on Whale Alert, an advanced crypto tracker, revealed that three whales moved about 719,000,000 Trx worth over $20 million transferred from unknown wallets to other unknown wallets.
200,000,000 #TRX (5,627,410 USD) transferred from unknown wallet to unknown wallet
— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) September 26, 2020
220,000,000 #TRX (6,147,722 USD) transferred from unknown wallet to unknown wallet
— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) September 26, 2020
299,000,000 #TRX (8,400,678 USD) transferred from unknown wallet to unknown wallet
— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) September 26, 2020
READ: Buying signal, Bitcoin whales with 1000 BTC or more continue to rise
TRON, at the time this report was drafted, traded at $0.02817222 with a daily volume of $1,128 billion. TRX price is up 9.4% in the last 24 hours. It has a circulating supply of 72 Billion coins and a max supply of 101 billion coins.
TRON is a blockchain-based platform that is designed to ensure that its technology is suitable for daily use. Whereas Bitcoin can handle up to six transactions per second, and Ethereum up to 25, TRON states that its network has capacity for 2,000 TPS — 24/7.
This project is best described as a decentralized platform focused on content sharing and entertainment; to this end, one of its biggest acquisitions was the file-sharing service BitTorrent back in 2018.
READ: Binance offers DeFi coders $100,000; DeFi market value hits $8 billion
TRON was founded by Justin Sun, who now serves as CEO of BitTorrent. Educated at Peking University and the University of Pennsylvania, he was recognized by Forbes Asia in its 30 Under 30 series for entrepreneurs.
TRON is one the biggest and most popular blockchains globally, ranked fifteen by market value, has entered a strategic alliance with BitGo, the leader in digital asset financial services, to bring Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) and a newly minted Wrapped Ether to the TRON ecosystem as TRC20 tokens.
READ: U.S public listed company allocates $425 million into Bitcoin
Justin Sun says that TRON users will not encounter high fees like in the Ethereum ecosystem.
“Everyone may now use their BTC/ETH to enjoy all the benefits of the TRON DeFi ecosystem without the high gas fees on Ethereum! JustSwap, a Uniswap alike service on TRON, has achieved $100 million 24-hour volumes since its start and represents TRON’s strong and growing DeFi ecosystem.”
Cryptocurrency
DeFi crypto market value gains over 1000% from June
Defi based crypto market value had risen from $1 billion in June to $10.71 Billion
DeFi cryptos are now a force to reckon with, especially since the era of the worst pandemic known to man came to play.
It’s important to note that DeFi-related assets are gaining traction, as data feeds from Defipulse revealed that Defi based crypto market value had risen from $1 billion in June to $10.71 billion, at the time this report was written, showing an astronomical gain of 1071%.
READ: Crypto: Why investors are rushing to DeFi assets
Why investors are flocking to DeFI cryptos
Several DeFi crypto assets have had their share of the spotlight in recent times, with cryptos such as Chainlink, Compound, YAM, UniSwap, Cream finance, and Melon gaining investors’ capital inflows.
- Using “Defi” technology, one can build smart contracts with codes that facilitate the actions of intermediaries, including managing and accepting deposits, handling collateralized loans, and liquidating collateral assets as per the terms of the contracts, should their values fluctuate.
- Although DeFi assets, about few days back, had experienced some price corrections due to the rebound of the dollar and overbought indicators, the market seems to show a bullish bias relatively in the midterm, as Defi based investors increase their asset purchases momentarily.
- DeFi crypto owners in some cases can typically receive better interest rates than they would from traditional banks on the basis that lower operating costs is enabled by operating on an automated decentralized network
As a credit to blockchain technology, the contract codes cannot be terminated or manipulated by any entity, and are executed with specific conditions.
READ: Guinness Nigeria finding it hard to refinance its loans due to dollar scarcity
What DeFi means: Defi means “decentralized finance.” By definition, it’s a crypto ecosystem made up of financial apps designed on leading blockchain platforms.
- Defi, in short, is the use of blockchain technologies (including smart contracts, decentralized asset custody, etc.) to replace all “intermediaries” with program codes, therefore maximizing the efficiency of financial services and minimizing costs.
- These digital assets are designed on Ethereum codes, and usually exhibit characteristics that include having protocols and financial smart contracts.
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