Nigerian millennials in the past few weeks have taken to the streets in unprecedented numbers, kicking against the abuse done by a significant number of law enforcement officers, most specifically, the disbanded Special Anti-robbery Squad (SARS).

As the protest rages on, various rights groups have set up funds to provide participants, support, while they glamour for the long-overdue reforms.

READ: #EndSARS protest: Lagos loses N234 million to tollgates closure

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Feminist Coalition, recently gave reasons why it’s now switching to crypto. The group said;

“We’re moving to only accepting donations in Bitcoin using BTC Pay. BTC Pay is a free, secure, decentralized, and censorship-resistant platform, which makes it our best option, given the past few days #EndPoliceBrutalityinNigeria. Please donate here: https://donatebtc.feministcoalition2020.com”

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We're moving to only accepting donations in Bitcoin using BTC Pay. BTC Pay is a free, secure, decentralized and censorship-resistant platform, which makes it our best option, given the past few days #EndPoliceBrutalityinNigeria

Please donate here: https://t.co/FvsEKetUL9

— feministcoalition (@feminist_co) October 15, 2020

The fast-rising Nigerian rights group provides logistics, aid to Nigerians pressing for Police reforms via street protests disclosed they raised about 8 bitcoins valued at over $88,0000 and other cash donations.

All balances
NGN 34,610,019.13
USD 11,474.34
CAD 5,595.89
GBP 5,733.49
EUR 875.42
GHS 1,256.70
KES 53,016.60
BTC 7.82026017

2/2#EndSARS

— feministcoalition (@feminist_co) October 19, 2020

Why this matters

The donations are used in providing medical and legal bills for some Nigerians arrested in recent days, and most importantly to hire private security guards in protecting them against armed gangs, who of late have tried to discredit the theme of the peaceful protests.

READ: Hackers, expose crypto wallets worth $150 million at Kucoin

Another critical macro making many Nigerian millennials use crypto amid protest for reforms is basically because the #EndSARS protests in principle is decentralized. There is no known centralized authority coordinating the protest, and not forgetting, the much advantage cryptos have over fiat currencies are that they are decentralized finance assets, meaning, funds can’t be controlled, blocked or disengaged by any central authority.

Also, crypto donations are very secure, and privacy concerns kept at a minimal level, on the basis you don’t disclose your personal details when making such transfers.

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Backstory

Nairametrics had earlier given vital insights on how for years, young Nigerians, mostly via social media, have called for the notorious Police unit to be disbanded and rogue elements in the force brought to justice. Despite repeated promises by the government, they have failed to heed to the demands, triggering a new wave of protests that have now spread across the country.

READ: #EndSARS: President Buhari promises extra-judicial killings investigations, Police reform

The world’s most valuable crypto exchange, Coinbase, recently disclosed that it had a significant number of requests from law enforcement agencies in the world’s largest economy, U.S, and other parts of the globe.

In its first-ever Transparency Report, Coinbase disclosed that it currently serves about 38 million customers globally, thus it collected 1,914 requests from global law enforcement and government agencies in H1,2020 that sought to get details on customers’ details and their financial data.

READ: 3 Crypto exchanges control about 14.3% circulating BTC supply

Unsurprisingly, the United States leads the pack with 58% of such requests; others include law enforcement agencies from the United Kingdom, Germany, and France which filed for 441, 176, and 45 information requests, respectively.

READ: Over $500 million dollars worth of Bitcoins withdrawn from BitMEX

READ: Hackers, expose crypto wallets worth $150 million at Kucoin

Why this matters: The leading American U.S crypto exchange believes that trust is optimized through transparency and honesty via releasing a Transparency Report that shares insights into how it handles legitimate government requests for some customers’ data.

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Coinbase believes that transparency reports like this should be encouraged, in spite of the opaque reporting seen by many startups, especially in financial services. It believes that it is important, not just for crypto companies, but for fintechs and banks at large to shed light on financial data sharing practices, and contribute to the understanding of industry trends in a meaningful way.

READ: Crypto: Celo gains over 50% within a day, as Coinbase announces its listing

Insights

• 58% of all requests come from US agencies.
• 90% of all requests come from three jurisdictions: the U.S., UK, and Germany.
• 16% of all U.S. requests come from state or local authorities.

READ: CBN reacts to videos, pictures of new N2,000 and N5,000 in circulation

Popularly known Crypto hedge fund manager and co-founder of Morgan Creek Digital Assets, Anthony Pompliano, recently revealed some key strategies on how the world’s flagship crypto, Bitcoin, could reach $225,000 by 2021.

In his most recent letter to investors, the hedge fund manager outlined key fundamentals that may trigger such price action in the not too distant future by saying:

“The average investor fears inflation right now, regardless of whether we actually see that inflation or not. This fear has driven significant capital flows into inflation-hedge assets (Gold, Bitcoin, Real estate, etc). The combination of the Fed’s asset price manipulation and inflation fears have driven gold and Bitcoin to drastically outperform equities and other commodities.

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“Let’s first look at the demand side of the equation. The macro-environment is serving as a tailwind. Bitcoin is up more than 50% year-to-date. The continued 0 rate environment and QE will continue to drive demand. Additionally, we are seeing traditional asset management firms start to make the leap into owning Bitcoin.

“Fidelity Investments recently published a paper showing a positive impact for 1%-5% Bitcoin allocation in clients’ portfolios. Stone Ridge ($10B asset manager) now owns $115M in Bitcoin.

READ: Uniswap biggest DeFi Crypto Exchange

“Paul Tudor Jones publicly revealed that he has put 2% of assets into Bitcoin. Multiple public pensions in the US have now gained exposure to Bitcoin via fund managers. Grayscale, the largest digital asset investment manager, saw record inflows of $1B+ in 3Q20 and now has almost $6B in total AUM.”

Why it matters: The world’s economy now looks to be heading toward the insolvency phase, meaning that crypto traders, and global investors are now wary that pre-COVID-19  global economic growth will take longer than anticipated, thereby leading popular companies to hedge against currency devaluation and inflation via investing in digital assets like Bitcoin. Coupled with the bias, there is a fixed amount of BTCs to satisfy the huge appetite prevalent in institutional investors.

READ: 3 Tron investors transfer 719,000,000 cryptos

Anthony Pompliano also gave key insights on why bitcoin’s high demand, in spite of its fixed amount of supply, might just signal the push in price value next year. He said:

“This increase in demand is just starting in my opinion. We can list all of the leading, forward-thinking firms in only two paragraphs. Eventually, their peers will join them. The demand outlook is strong, and it shows signs of actually accelerating into the first half of 2021.

READ: Publicly traded companies own 601,000 Bitcoins, gain $500 million

“More than 60% of all Bitcoin in circulation today have not changed hands in the last 12 months. This means that the majority of Bitcoin investors stomached multiple double-digit price movements, both up and down, and continued to hold the asset.

READ: Ethereum robber transfers $1.5 million worth of Crypto

“You could evaluate this situation as (a) demand is increasing significantly, (b) the supply shock is making Bitcoin more scarce, and (c) the available float is much smaller than people actually realize. This framework leads me to believe that we are going to see a violent upward movement in the Bitcoin price by the end of 2021. My base case is approximately 10x to $100,000 and the bull case is around $250,000 per Bitcoin.”