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Mara has raised $23 million in funding to construct a pan-African cryptocurrency alternate. The intention is to create a portal to the crypto financial system for Africans.
The Lagos, Nigeria, and Nairobi, Kenya-based firm raised the cash from Coinbase Ventures, Alameda Analysis (FTX), Distributed World, TQ Ventures, DIGITAL, Nexo, Huobi Ventures, Day One Ventures, Infinite Capital, DAO Jones (funding decentralized autonomous group backed by Mike Shinoda, Steve Aoki and Disclosure), and almost 100 different crypto traders, and angels together with Amit Bhatia and Hamad Alhoimaizi.
As well as, Mara has additionally introduced a partnership with the Central African Republic, which simply handed a invoice legalizing Bitcoin as authorized tender. As a part of this partnership, Mara will turn into the official crypto associate of the Central African Republic and an adviser to the President on crypto technique and planning.
Mara’s launch comes at a vital inflection level in Sub-Saharan Africa. Political and financial instability has led to devaluation of currencies throughout the area, whereas the present centralized monetary system continues to current ongoing obstacles to the event of each native economies and people. Because of this, meals costs have doubled to tripled in some areas and created record-breaking rates of interest. These drained techniques have prompted a dire want for a decentralized different, Mara stated.
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Whereas cutting-edge applied sciences reminiscent of cryptocurrency have proven unimaginable promise amongst Sub-Saharan Africa’s predominantly younger and technologically-native inhabitants, there are appreciable hurdles to utilizing them. Many present international exchanges can’t function within the area as a consequence of regulatory challenges in addition to problem reaching the African client in an genuine method. These limitations to entry considerably limit each the quantity of people that can take part within the crypto financial system and the potential makes use of for digital foreign money within the area.
Mara has already constructed as much as 80 folks, with two-thirds of them working in-house and the remaining outsourced builders.
“The inefficiencies inherent to the previous twentieth centralized Sub-Saharan African monetary techniques has introduced an impediment to the correct improvement of Sub-Saharan people and economies for many years,” stated Chi Nnandi, CEO of Mara, in an electronic mail to VentureBeat. “A decentralized different (which can embrace however not be restricted to finance, artwork, possession, infrastructure, and enterprise as an entire) will give Sub-Saharan Africans an alternative choice to these drained techniques. Via this digital monetary system—via this freedom—the area will discover itself in a a lot stronger aggressive place earlier than different elements of the world.”
Mara’s suite
The Mara staff
The Mara suite of merchandise addresses quite a lot of crypto-finance wants whereas complying with native rules and being constructed authentically for the African viewers. The options embrace:
Mara Pockets – a brokerage app providing the crypto-curious person a pleasant, distilled expertise via which they’ll purchase, ship, promote and withdraw each fiat and crypto property immediately and with none prior crypto data.
Professional-Alternate – a cryptocurrency platform targeted on skilled customers that provides a complete suite of buying and selling choices and technical evaluation instruments.
Mara Chain – a Layer-1 blockchain, powered by the native Mara token, that provides savvy builders a spot to construct decentralized functions that can assist form the way forward for the African crypto financial system.
The Mara government staff is led by Nnadi, Lucas Llinás Múnera, Dearg OBartuin, and Kate Kallot. It’s joined by board advisers Kojo Annan and Tatiana Koffman.
“Mara’s mission is to facilitate a extra equitable distribution of capital by offering a decentralized different that spans throughout tribes, class, cultures, and nations,” stated Nnadi. “Our aim is to shut the hole in alternatives for Sub-Saharan people and set up a monetary infrastructure that they’ll construct their lives upon.”
Not like its rivals from North America and Europe, Mara’s onboarding, assist, and ecosystem displays the wants of Africans. KYC/AML (quick for know-your-customer and anti-money laundering procedures) is compliant to international requirements, and is suitable with worldwide monetary rules, the corporate stated. Buyer assist is well accessed and will probably be obtainable in each native and worldwide languages.
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“We’re happy to associate with Mara because it embarks on constructing a digital monetary system for Sub-Saharan Africa,” stated Schuster Tanger, cofounder of TQ Ventures, in a press release. “With the precise assets, this area has potential for mass adoption of cryptocurrency. To that finish, the native data and specialised expertise of the Mara staff is kind of promising.”
Mara will initially launch in Kenya, Nigeria, and surrounding areas. The Mara Pockets app will probably be obtainable within the App Retailer and Google Play shops. Pre-registered customers will be part of a queue to allow early entry on a first-come, first-served foundation.
“Whereas there are different crypto exchanges in Africa, there’s but to be an indigenous African crypto alternate,” Nnandi stated. “That’s the place Mara is available in — we’re a Pan-African crypto alternate constructed by Africans, for Africans. Assist may be accessed simply via means folks in Africa are conversant in.”
As soon as onboarded, the Mara Pockets will allow customers to spend money on crypto and ship cash to their members of the family in actual time, with out processing instances or delays.
“As a way to have actual success in Africa, it’s a must to have alignment with the regulatory regime, particularly relating to crypto,” Nnandi stated. “The Mara founding staff, myself included, sits at an attention-grabbing intersection between the older and youthful populations. This implies now we have the extremely distinctive potential to know the wants of the youthful technology whereas understanding the ache factors of the elders and educating them on the significance of blockchain expertise. We’re capable of shut the hole between these two generations and construct a bridge to regulators.”
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The 2024 cryptocurrency bull market has sparked a remarkable surge in wealth, creating over 88K new millionaires and elevating six individuals to billionaire status, according to a recent report by British investment migration consultancy Henley & Partners.
The number of individuals holding crypto worth of at least $1M has skyrocketed to 172K, up 95% from a year before. The significant shift comes during the same year in which bitcoin (BTC-USD) reached a new record high of $73.8K in March, buoyed by the launch of U.S. spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds that have ushered in notable institutional – and retail – capital.
What’s more, the number of centi-millionaires – individuals with assets exceeding $100M – has surged by 79%, reaching a total of 325, the report added. And five out of the six newly minted crypto billionaires have amassed their fortunes through investments in bitcoin (BTC-USD). MicroStrategy’s (MSTR) Michael Saylor, who personally owns about $1B of bitcoin, is an outspoken bitcoin whale.
But, since its price swoon in early August, bitcoin (BTC-USD) has been trading 23%-16% off its all-time highs. That’s despite the fact that the Federal Reserve is gearing up to start cutting borrowing costs, a move that may attract investor demand for riskier assets, including BTC. Year-to-date, BTC climbed about 38%.
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“The longer bitcoin stays in this range, the more likely a strong breakout will happen, although it’s uncertain which direction it will take,” said Seeking Alpha analyst Dean Popplewell in Bitcoin’s Steady Range: Mt. Gox Impact And Future Outlook.
Fellow SA contributor Florian Grummes is leaning on the bearish end of the bull-bear spectrum, citing seasonal patterns and potential stock-market volatility.
He expects bitcoin’s pullback from March highs “to intensify over the next one to two months, and would not be surprised if the markets crashed temporarily, he said in Bitcoin: This Correction Is Probably Not Over Yet. A panic sell-off lasting several weeks should then provide patient investors with very good entry opportunities in September or October, or at the latest, after the US election in early November.”
Elsewhere in Henley & Partners’ report, crypto-wealthy investors are increasingly seeking residency in jurisdictions that are both crypto-friendly and tax advantageous, it found. Singapore continues to be the “premier cryptocurrency hub,” excelling in regulatory framework and infrastructure development. Coming in second place, Hong Kong has investor-friendly tax policies. And the United Arab Emirates, also with its tax advantages, ranks third in this competitive landscape.
“The crypto millionaires of 2024 are not content with digital riches alone; they seek freedom of global mobility to match their borderless assets,” said Dominic Volek, group head of private clients at Henley & Partners.
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The report includes stats on wealthy crypto investors provided by wealth intelligence firm New World Wealth, along with insights from academics, industry experts and crypto players.
Tesla IncTSLA CEO Elon Musk said on Friday that he would like to have the option of paying with meme cryptocurrency Dogecoin DOGE/USD reinstated for the company’s merchandise.
What Happened: “Me,” Musk wrote in reply to an X user who asked whether anyone would like Tesla to reinstate the option of paying with Dogecoin for its merchandise.
Tesla has an online shop with company merchandise. Though it currently only allows payment in dollars, it previously allowed users to make payments with Dogecoin. Earlier this year, Musk even suggested in an address during his visit to Giga Berlin that the company would accept Dogecoin as an official form of payment for its cars at some point.
The EV giant’s website even has a support page for clearing doubts about paying with Dogecoin for its products.
“Tesla only accepts Dogecoin. Tesla cannot receive or detect any other digital assets. Ensure you are making your purchase with Dogecoin. Sending any other digital assets may result in the assets being lost or destroyed,” the page reads.
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Why It Matters: Earlier this week, Musk and Tesla secured the dismissal of a federal lawsuit accusing them of defrauding investors through insider trading and market manipulation of Dogecoin.
The decision was delivered on Thursday night by U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein. Investors had accused Musk of exploiting Twitter (now X) posts and other publicity stunts to trade profitably at their expense through several Dogecoin wallets controlled by him or Tesla.
Judge Hellerstein, however, stated that no reasonable investor could rely on social media posts to pursue a securities fraud claim. The lawsuit was subsequently dismissed with prejudice, preventing it from being filed again.
Over the years, Dogecoin’s price movement has become increasingly linked to social posts and endorsements by Musk, as well as developments around companies owned by him.
Earlier this month, Musk posted an AI-generated image referencing the cryptocurrency through his X account, which caused it to spike.
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According to a recent report by Microsoft’s cybersecurity team, a group of North Korean hackers known as the “Citrine Sleet” have exploited a previous flaw in Google Chrome to steal cryptocurrency from people.
Microsoft first became aware of the cyberattack on Aug 19, when the hackers exploited a vulnerability in the Chromium engine, the open-source software that powers Chrome and other popular browsers like Microsoft Edge.
This type of flaw is called “Zero-day”, meaning that Google was unaware of the issue and had no time to fix it before it was exploited.
According to Microsoft researchers, Citrine Sleet which operates similarly to the popular notorious Lazarus Group, often creates fake websites that look like real crypto trading platforms to trick people They use these fake sites to get users to download harmful software known as “AppleJeus”.
This software is often disguised as job applications or cryptocurrency wallets. Once the software is installed, it gives the hackers control over the victim’s device, allowing them to steal their cryptocurrency.
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Google eventually released a fix for this flaw on Aug, 21, two days after being alerted by Microsoft. However, it’s still unclear how many organizations or people were affected by the attack
Also Read: Kylian Mbappé’s X Account Hack Fuels $1 Million Crypto Scam