Cryptocurrency
Africans lead in the fight against crypto fraud
Illicit cryptocurrency activity accounted for just 2% of the region’s roughly $16 billion.
The education against crypto fraud seems to be bearing fruit in Africa as a report retrieved from Chainalysis, Blockchain forensics discovered that crypto players in Africa are less likely to fall victim to scam addresses than crypto traders located in other geopolitical zones.
Chainalysis revealed that the percentage of illicit crypto activity associated with scams isn’t as high in Africa as other regions around the world. Illicit cryptocurrency activity accounted for just 2% of the region’s roughly $16 billion trading volume from July 2019 to June 2020. Scams accounted for 55% of this low level of illicit activity.
READ: Crypto: Why Tether became a U.S. dollar replacement for many Chinese
“People in many parts of Africa have fallen victim to financial scams common in the fiat world, such as pyramid schemes and other investment scams,” the report stated.
“While scams still make up a large portion of illicit cryptocurrency activity in Africa, the share isn’t as high as it is elsewhere.”
READ: What Nigerian banks consider before granting personal loans
Why it might be happening
Recall that Nairametrics in recent times has reinforced its readers with vital insights on how to stay ahead of crypto fraudsters, by revealing their strategies, and in most cases, offering solutions on how to keep crypto-assets safe from the hands of fraudsters.
Billions of dollars have been lost through the ignorance of people who are new to the cryptocurrency market to crypto scammers.
READ: Crypto-Scammers stole $24 million worth of BTCs in 2020
How to protect your cryptos
Nairametrics recommends that the best way to safeguard your crypto in the case of Bitcoin, depends on how you protect your private key, which is a 256-bit number that unlocks a BTC wallet. That sensitive data should be protected with care by all means, preferably offline or through a proprietary secured online wallet system.
You need your private keys to have access to your BTCs, so if you allow your BTC wallet to be compromised by having malware on your system, going through unsecured web pages, or responding to phishing scams, cybercriminals can spend your bitcoins, or you can lose your BTCs.
READ: $30 billion worth of BTCs disappears forever
Using cold wallets or a proprietary smartphone is recommended. These are specifically designed tools to keep your bitcoin from falling into the hands of hackers on the internet.
Next time you are thinking of investing your funds in a bitcoin fund or firm, consider the promised returns versus the performance of the cryptocurrency market. An investment fund cannot promise 100% returns, while Bitcoin is only seeing 9% increases weekly.
Cryptocurrency
List of Cryptos expected to outperform many financial assets in 2021
A list of cryptos expected to do very well in 2021 has been unveiled by a renowned crypto expert.
Widely respected crypto trader, Michaël van de Poppe recently unveiled the list of cryptos expected to do very well in 2021 amid the prevailing bullish run in the Crypto verse.
He started by mentioning Polkadot (DOT) and looking at levels where investors can buy on dips.
“We do see these retests at $15. That was one of the levels I discussed. Another one is this $13-level which is lower timeframes and then we’ve got this area around $10.50,” he said.
Polkadot protocol connects private and public chains, oracles future technologies, and permission-less networks allowing such independent networks to share information and transactions through the Polkadot relay chain,
Van de Poppe expects the next leg of the bull run to catapult DOT to his targets at $25, $29, and $45.
In addition to Polkadot, the analyst says he’s also bullish on smart contract platform Cardano (ADA), blockchain for enterprise solutions Zilliqa (ZIL), hybrid blockchain platform ICON (ICX), high throughput blockchain Elrond (EGLD), and interoperable blockchain network Cosmos (ATOM).
Cardano is a type of blockchain that permits people to receive and send funds.
- ADA coin is the name of the cryptocurrency.
- It uses the Cardano blockchain and it also allows people to design smart contracts just like Ethereum.
Elrond is a type of blockchain architecture, created to facilitate a 1000-fold cumulative improvement in the execution of speed.
Its architecture combines a secure Proof of Stake (PoS) algorithm facilitating unlimited scalability.
Zilliqa is a type of cryptocurrency that focuses on making blockchains more scalable and much faster; It uses sharding technology to simplify the consensus process so that blockchains like Ethereum can provide fast transaction processing successfully.
Another solid crypto on the crypto expert’s radar is Celer Network (CELR). He says the layer-two scaling platform can potentially rise to $0.035, representing a potential return of 400% from its present value of $0.007.
Last but not least is chainlink on the bias it has more room for upsides as its still upcoming crypto and has a solid fundamental;
“Chainlink itself has a very big market share of the oracle niche. Other oracles are just starting up their first,” Poppe said.
Chainlink is a blockchain that is designed to bridge the space between blockchain technology-based smart contracts (created by ETH), and other user programs.
Cryptocurrency
Chainlink defying law of gravity, now more valuable than Litecoin
Chainlink traded at $25.31 with a daily trading volume of $3.9 billion and gained about 20,000 percent since its inception.
Chainlink (LINK) continued its bullish rally amid strong buying pressure in recent days, thereby setting a new all-time high at $25.50 and surpassing Litecoin (LTC) in terms of total market cap to become the seventh most valuable crypto.
READ: Nigeria leads the world in Bitcoin searches on Google
What you should know: At the time of drafting this report, Chainlink traded at $25.31 with a daily trading volume of $3.9 billion. It has gained about 20,000 percent since its inception.
- Chainlink is a blockchain that is designed to bridge the space between blockchain technology-based smart contracts (created by ETH), and other user programs.
- Since blockchains by principle can’t have access to data outside their paths or networks, a DeFi instrument is needed to facilitate data feeds in smart contracts, and Chainlink helps to solve such needs.
READ: 100% of Chainlink (LINK) wallets are now in profit
Recall some days back, a highly revered crypto strategist, Michaël van de Poppe, listed some crypto assets that might likely overtake XRP as Polkadot did. Michaël, via his Twitter handle, revealed the cryptos expected to surpass XRP.
“Polkadot takes over spot 4 over XRP by market capitalization. Just a matter of time before Cardano, Chainlink, and Litecoin surpass XRP too.”
READ: List of cryptos likely to overtake XRP
#Polkadot takes over spot 4 over #XRP by market capitalization.
Just a matter of time before #Cardano, #Chainlink and #Litecoin surpass #XRP too.
— Michaël van de Poppe (@CryptoMichNL) January 16, 2021
READ: Binance offers DeFi coders $100,000; DeFi market value hits $8 billion
For enterprises, Chainlink is an abstraction layer that securely connects smart contracts to existing backend systems, massively expanding the kinds of business use cases that are possible, from parametric weather insurance to supply chain tracking.
READ: CHAINLINK now sixth most valuable crypto, keeps setting new highs
Should you buy it now?
Many individuals have the impulse to enter a position when the price is soaring. But those support/resistance flips actually give the best entries. Specifically, the first area of concern for global investors is the $25 resistance level, on the bias that some crypto traders anticipate profit-taking amid its impressive run in recent days.
Cryptocurrency
Why Ethereum is becoming more attractive than Bitcoin
Ethereum-based crypto market value has risen to over $48 billion from $1.9 billon a year ago.
The buying interest on the world’s utility crypto, Ethereum, has been on a record high since the second half of 2020, amid an increased buying pressure from institutional investors and big capital.
Still, as the attention of the financial media got fixed on flagship crypto asset, bitcoin, recent trends show that Ether (ETH) is getting very attractive; they also reveal why this cryptocurrency should become the “first cryptocurrency” for every investor.
READ: Ethereum defying law of gravity surges past $1,050
Recent data from Defi revealed that a lot of activity is ongoing on the Ethereum network, as Ethereum-based crypto market value has risen to over $48 billion from $1.9 Billon a year ago, according to data from Coingecko.
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.
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 are enabled when operating on an automated decentralized network.
READ: List of Cryptos outperforming Bitcoin, with weekly gains of over 100%
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.
What this means: Recall some days ago, Nairametrics broke the news that the amount of Ether held on crypto exchanges could go into extinction amid the high buying pressure seen in recent days.
Alex Saunders, a crypto expert, via Twitter, released key details on why Ether coins on crypto exchanges could be all gone within 48 hours amid high buying pressure.
“Exchanges could be out of $ETH within 48 hours. Demand has skyrocketed. Exchange reserves fell 20% from 10 million to 8 million in the last few hours. With targets of $5k, $10k & $20k long term, I doubt many HODLers will sell their ETH in the $1-2k range”
READ: Best performing Crypto W/W, Sushi up 85%
Exchanges could be out of $ETH within 48 hours. Demand has sky rocketed. Exchange reserves fell 20% from 10M to 8M in the last few hours. With targets of $5k, $10k & $20k long term, I doubt many HODLers will sell their ETH in the $1-2k range. 🌐🖥️👽 #ETH2 #DeFi #NFTs #Gaming #DAO pic.twitter.com/rYPOch2u7p
— Alex Saunders 🇦🇺👨🔬 (@AlexSaundersAU) January 14, 2021
READ: Litecoin displaces XRP as 4th most valuable crypto
That said, Ethereum (ETH) miners seem to have an edge now over their arch-rivals, as they have surpassed Bitcoin (BTC) miners on transaction fees charged for some months now.
Crypto market data aggregator, Messari revealed key metrics showing that it is the longest period for which Ethereum’s transaction fee revenue has surpassed BTC in the crypto asset’s history.
- This prevailing macro is positive for Ether miners whose turnovers have been increased by higher fees and more transactions. In fact, Ethereum’s network hash rate has been growing consistently, having reached a near two-year high.
- At the time of writing this report, Ethereum traded at $1,425.86 with a daily trading volume of $46 Billion. ETH price is up 13.2% for the day.
