The crypto scene has been more lively than usual over the last few days as bitcoin soared to $19,000 for the first time since 2017. Additionally, South Africa released new crypto rules to address the rising use of crypto in the country. In this week’s news roundup, we will look at this story and other top news.
South Africa Releases New Crypto Rules
The Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) in South Africa has published a draft declaration of crypto assets as financial products. The new rules are published under the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act.
“Globally, there is growing interest by retail investors to purchase crypto assets. South Africa has also experienced an exponential increase in the provision and use of crypto assets,” the regulator said.
The draft declaration has included several recommendations from the Crypto Assets Regulatory Working Group’s position paper.
The new rules will affect cryptocurrency service providers like exchanges, brokers, and advisors. That means that anyone offering advice or intermediary services with regard to cryptocurrencies will have to seek authorisation from the FSCA.
However, the regulator has made it clear that the draft declaration does not intend to regulate or legitimise crypto assets.
South Africans have until 28 January 2021 to submit their comments about the draft declaration.
Chipper Cash Raises $30 Million
Chipper Cash has raised $30 million through a Series B funding round and launched a crypto trading service. Ribbit Capital and Bezos Foundation were participants in this funding round.
Chipper Cash offers P2P payment services in seven African countries. However, due to demand, the company has added crypto trading services. Currently, the Chipper Cash app and website have beta dropdowns, where users can buy and sell bitcoin.
“We will always be a P2P financial transfer platform at our core. But we have heard the demand from our users to offer other value service like purchasing cryptocurrency assets and making investments in stocks,” CEO Ham Serunjogi told TechCrunch.
The startup has also added a beta product that enables its African users to buy US stocks. The company will also add more products with the funds it has raised and expand its operations to other countries.
Stellar-Powered ClickPesa to Enable Cross-Border Payments in East Africa
ClickPesa, a B2B payment platform in East Africa, has announced that it is using the Stellar network to facilitate cross-border payments. That means that the company is an Anchor on the Stellar network, and can provide on/off ramps to the banking systems in Tanzania, Kenya, and Rwanda.
According to the Stellar Development Foundation, “anchors accept deposits and withdrawals via traditional rails and convert them to and from digital currency. They also interoperate with one another — and with other Stellar-built applications — to empower users to transact across borders and across currencies.”
Moreover, ClickPesa is working on integrating mobile money operators like Tigo, M-PESA, and Airtel. That means that the platform can leverage the Stellar network to allow a user to send a payment directly from a bank account in Europe to a mobile wallet in Tanzania.
The company has been operating in Tanzania for a few years and plans to expand to Kenya and Rwanda soon.
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