August 22, 2022

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All the emerging market blockchain & crypto news you needin less than 5 minutes

In This Issue

Africa•ENERGY: Adam Neumann's Flowcarbon interested in bidding on oil and gas licenses in the DR Congo•ADOPTION: Machankura - The First Bitcoin USSD Service in Africa

Latin America & The Caribbean•WEB3: Brazilian investment firm launches Latin America's first web3 fund•PARTNERSHIP: Ripple and Travelex team up to provide crypto-native enterprise cross border payment service in LATAMAsia•MINING: Chinese Bitcoin mining giant doubles profit even with a crypto ban and price plummet•METAVERSE: Emirates NBD, Dubai International Financial Centre Fintech Hive, and Microsoft launch global accelerator program for metaverse start-ups

Eastern Europe•SANCTIONS: Japan's largest online brokerage to shutter Russian crypto mining operations•CBDC: Ukraine stands to benefit a lot from the creation of a CBDC - Deputy Minister Of Digital Transformation

Africa

Image Credit: TechCrunch - Max Morse via Wikimedia Commons

ENERGY: Adam Neumann's Flowcarbon interested in bidding on oil and gas licenses in the DR Congo (3 minute read)

Last month the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) put 30 oil and gas blocks up for auction and will allow crypto companies to bid in a licensing round.  Flowcarbon, WeWork Cofounder Adam Neumann's new startup, is among the parties who've expressed interest. Flowcarbon's head of crypto said the startup has contributed staff and resources to RedemptionDao, a decentralized autonomous organization established to purchase oil rights in the DRC to protect its rainforest.

ADOPTION: Machankura - The First Bitcoin USSD Service in Africa (2 minute read)

The first Bitcoin USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) is now available in Africa via Machankura, a South African service that let's people send Bitcoin peer-to-peer on the lightning network without a smartphone. Although smartphones are penetrating the continent, old fashion 'feature phones' continue to be popular. The service is available in South Africa, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, and Malawi.

Want more Africa news?•Crypto Sees the Lowest KYC Fraud in Africa in H1 2022, Reveals Latest KYC Report•South African Banking Regulator: ‘De-risking’ Crypto Firms Potentially Creates ‘Opacity in Financial Conduct’•A Chat with Betty – The First and Only Woman from Africa to Get Elected Onto the Telos Blockchain Board•Nigerians Traded $1.1 Billion on Paxful Despite Bitcoin Ban Making it World’s Biggest P2P Market

Latin America and The Caribbean

Image Credit: Diego PH via Unsplash

WEB3: Brazilian investment firm launches Latin America's first web3 fund (3 minute read, original article in Portuguese)

Rio de Janeiro-based global investment firm, Fuse Capital, is launching Latin America's first web3-focused fund and raising USD$50mm. The Fuse Capital Fund II will invest in companies that are solving problems in web2 by using tech such as blockchain, DeFi (Decentralized Finance), NFTs, and stablecoins. The fund will select companies and projects that are providing solutions in sectors such as insurance, healthcare, open finance, and e-commerce.PARTNERSHIP: Ripple and Travelex team up to provide crypto-native enterprise cross border payment service in LATAM (3 minute read)

The Central Bank of Brazil has green lit foreign exchange company, Travelex, to partner with digital payment network, Ripple, to utilize RippleNet’s On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) platform for enterprise customers. Travelex will offer instant and inexpensive enterprise cross border payments in Brazil with Ripple's native token, XRP, and will debut cross border payments between Brazil and Mexico. The central bank approval marks the first time a Latin American bank will use ODL.Want more Latin American & Caribbean news?•Crypto Is Tumbling, but in Argentina It’s Still a Safer Bet •ABCripto resists changes in regulatory project [Portuguese]•Liqi announces first NFT of a national film in partnership with H2O Films [Portuguese]•BNB Chain aims to raise 30K new Web3 developers across Latin America in 2022•Accused of fraud, BlueBenx partners reappear, change hacker story and promise to pay customers [Portuguese]

Asia

Image Credit: Annie Spratt via Unsplash

MINING: Chinese Bitcoin mining giant doubles profit even with a crypto ban and price plummet (15 minute read)

Chinese Bitcoin miner and ASICs provider, Canaan Inc., announced that 2022 2nd quarter profits doubled despite a total crypto ban in China and downward BTC price pressure. The company reported that mining revenue, gross profits and net income increased 7,853% (you read that correctly, RMB 52.1mm, USD$7.8mm), 117% (RMB 930mm, USD$139mm), and 149% (RMB 608mm, USD$91mm) respectively from the same period in 2021. Although China implemented a blank crypto ban in 2021, the country has reemerged as the second-largest Bitcoin mining country as of January 2022.

METAVERSE: Emirates NBD, Dubai International Financial Centre Fintech Hive, and Microsoft launch global accelerator program for metaverse start-ups (3 minute read)

Emirates NBD bank has launched a global accelerator program for metaverse start-ups with the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) Fintech Hive and Microsoft to enhance the customer experience for the new virtual economy. The program positions the bank as a financial innovation leader aligned with Dubai's Metaverse Strategy: a national strategy to develop Dubai as a top 10 metaverse economy, add USD$4B to Dubai's economy in the next five years, and create over 40K jobs. During the 10-week accelerator program the DIFC Fintech Hive will evaluate and match Emirates NBD with startups that offer unique value creation, experience, and tech stack proposals required for the metaverse.

Want more Asia news?•Uzbekistan Blocks Crypto Exchanges•Bank of China unveils new e-CNY smart contract test program for school education•India’s primary payment rail NPCI calls for Indian Blockchain Platform•Qatari National Blockchain Blueprint Spotlights Benefits of the Technology to Country’s Economy

Eastern Europe

Image Credit: Aachal via Unsplash

SANCTIONS: Japan's largest online brokerage to shutter Russian crypto mining operations (2 minute read)

SBI Holding Inc., Japan's largest online brokerage, will shut down its crypto mining operations in Russia and its CFO announced the company plans to sell its mining equipment. The brokerage house's decision is in response to US sanctions, the uncertainty created by the Russian war in Ukraine, and the global crypto market slump. SBI has not decided when their Russian mining operations will be shut down.CBDC: Ukraine stands to benefit a lot from the creation of a CBDC - Deputy Minister Of Digital Transformation (1 minute read)

Ukraine’s Deputy Minister Of Digital Transformation, Alex Bornyakov, said in a tweet that "…Ukraine could benefit from launching its national currency on the blockchain. CBDC as a new form of a programmable monetary instrument can be a big leap toward digitalization of the state finance system." In follow up tweets he explains that a CBDC "could reduce transaction costs for the state and business, improving macroeconomic and financial stability" and "international transfers between states may take only a few seconds and can be practically free." Bornyakov concludes that "Blockchain has the potential to become a game changer in anti-corruption efforts, protecting public registries from tampering and fraud."Want more Eastern Europe news?•Russian Hospital Employee ‘Mined Crypto in a COVID-19 Ward’•Two Of Ukraine’s Largest Tech Retailers Now Accept Bitcoin

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