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The Biggest Cryptocurrency Trends in 2021

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2021 will be remembered as the year in history when cryptocurrency trends grew to new heights. To learn about the biggest cryptocurrency trends in 2021, keep reading.

Institutional Investor Crypto Adoption

More institutional investors adopted cryptocurrencies in 2021, indicating rising acceptance. For instance, asset management company BlackRock commissioned its two funds to invest in bitcoin futures, according to January 2021 SEC filings.

In March 2021, investment bank Goldman Sachs relaunched its crypto trading desk to fulfill the increasing demand from its clients. Another large investment bank, Morgan Stanley, was not left behind either. The bank introduced private bitcoin funds for its clients in 2021. According Coindesk, the bitcoin funds raised $29.4 million in the first 14 days.

Despite the crypto market crash that took place in the second quarter of 2021, institutional investment continues to trend. In May 2021, Glassnode recorded the highest “single-day outflow from OTC addresses in 3.5 months.” This shows that institutional investors, who mainly use OTC desks, are buying the dip.

The Rise of NFTs and Crypto Art

When an NFT artwork sold for $69.3 million, the excitement in the space skyrocketed. The NFT art trend spread to every corner of the world, and artists rushed online to create their own NFTs hoping to rake in the big bucks. In Africa, Picha Images and AFEN embraced the trend, keen to take advantage of the opportunity.

While Beeple’s 69.3 million ‘Everydays: The First 5000 Days’ is the most expensive NFT artwork to date, other artists have also cashed in a pretty penny. WhIsBe sold a rotating golden gummy bear skeleton for $1 million. Another artist that goes by the pseudonym Pak sold NFT artwork for $904.41K.

Several CryptoPunks also sold for a lot of money in 2021. For example, the super rare CryptoPunk alien #3100 sold for $7.58 million.

Although the overall NFT market is experiencing a drop in sales in Q2/2021, NFT art projects like CryptoPunks, Meebits, and SuperRare are performing excellently, according to data on Non-Fungible.

Publicly Traded Companies Buying Bitcoin

cbz holdings

Publicly traded companies have been acquiring a slice of the bitcoin pie as confidence in the cryptocurrency continues to rise.

In 2021, companies like Square, Meitu, and MicroStrategy increased their existing crypto holdings as the market boomed. For instance, on February 23, 2021, payments company Square purchased 3,318 BTC, adding to its October 2020 investment of 4,709 BTC. Chinese company Meitu boosted its total crypto holdings to about $90 million after purchasing $28.4 million in ether and $21.6 million in bitcoin in March 2021.

Even as the market crashed in Q2/2021, MicroStrategy, under the leadership of bitcoin evangelist Michael Saylor, did not waver in its commitment to bitcoin. The company bought 229 BTC in May, bringing their total stash to 92,079 BTC. Interestingly, the company is not done. It plans to offer $400 million senior secured notes to fund another bitcoin purchase.

However, things have been different with Tesla. The company, through Elon Musk’s tweets, has publicly displayed its love and hate relationship with crypto. These tweets have, as a result, affected Tesla’s stock price and the crypto market. After revealing a $1.5 billion bitcoin investment on February 8, Tesla started accepting bitcoin payments, then stopped shortly after. Next, the drama continued when Elon Musk tweeted that he had broken up with bitcoin, leaving people wondering if Tesla is set to sell its BTC holdings.

Other publicly traded companies that have bought bitcoin include Nexon, Marathon Digital Holdings, and Riot Blockchain.

Defi Apps and Use Cases

DeFi applications and use cases were another huge cryptocurrency trend in 2021. In the first quarter, the value of the crypto assets that DeFi applications were managing grew by 150 percent to $50 billion. Aave had the highest total locked value (TVL) as of June 9, 2021.  The other top DeFi projects based on TVL at the time of writing were Maker, Compound, Curved Finance, Uniswap, and InstaDApp.

Some of the DeFi use cases that are standing out include decentralised exchanges, stablecoins, projects with cross-chain functionality, and derivatives. Uniswap, a decentralised exchange (DEX), has the highest trading volumes. Sushiswap and Synthetix rank second and third, respectively.

Other examples of popular DApps like Bitcoin Keno and Bitcoin Crash.

More Bitcoin Adoption Globally

There are more bitcoin owners globally as companies and individuals rush to grab a share of the limited cryptocurrency. Overall, there are over 200 million crypto users in the world, according to data from Triple A.

The top five countries in bitcoin ownership are the US, Nigeria, Vietnam, the UK, and Turkey. Also, more men (79 percent) than women (21 percent) own cryptocurrencies. 58 percent of the people that own crypto are below 34 years of age.

Paxful CEO Ray Youssef believes that Africa is seeing a lot of cryptocurrency adoption as people look for alternative ways to make a living, store wealth, and send remittances. The P2P platform expects increased growth in 2021 in Kenya and Ghana. Furthermore, Youssef predicted that Cameroon and Ethiopia will “be strong contenders for emerging crypto markets in the” coming years.

Whether people are using crypto to gamble on platforms like BetFury.io, are sending money to family abroad, or use it as a store of value, crypto adoption is growing globally and in Africa.

As 2021 moves to Q3 and Q4, it will be interesting to see how these cryptocurrency trends evolve. Some experts report that NFTs, DeFi, and cryptocurrencies are bubbles that are going to burst. But is this true? Let us wait and find out. Meanwhile, remember to invest wisely.

If you want to use crypto to gamble, check out all of Betfury’s bitcoin games here.

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to any company, product, or service mentioned in this article. BitcoinAfrica.io is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any loss or damage caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, product, or service mentioned in this post. 

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Problems Nigerians Face With Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies

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Nigeria is ranked as Africa’s largest country with the most crypto traders and ranks third globally. The country accounts for the largest volume of cryptocurrency transactions outside the United States. In the last six months, it has been recorded that about 35% of the Nigerian population has traded cryptocurrency.

As encouraging as these numbers may be, Nigeria, as an environment, has been very unfriendly to cryptocurrency and its related aspects. Last year, the Central Bank of Nigeria ordered all commercial banks and lenders to stop transactions or operations in cryptocurrencies, citing a significant threat to the country’s financial system.

The ban on cryptocurrency in Nigeria was big negativity to the Nigerian youth, especially knowing that over 50 million of the population are involved in cryptocurrency. During this time, a lot of crypto trading platforms were shut down in the country. Also, many bank accounts suspected of dealing with cryptocurrency were locked, including their funds.

Even today (as of May 27, 2022), any bank transaction with a description or notes of “crypto,” “bitcoin,” “P2P,” or any crypto-related words will be locked away alongside the account(s).

The unfriendly treatment of cryptocurrency in the country is alarming. In the plight of making a positive solution, the community led to adopting systems where crypto traders could trade cryptocurrency without involving the bank.

Top 4 Problems Nigerians Face When Dealing with Cryptocurrency

  1. Where to Buy or Sell Cryptocurrencies

Today, finding the right crypto trading platform that works for you significantly can be frustrating. Many cryptocurrency exchanges came into existence to aid in safer cryptocurrency transactions in the country. In this plight, some fraudulent platforms were made in disguise to exploit money from crypto investors. How would Nigerian crypto traders know which platform is genuine or not? With some checklists for selecting the best crypto exchange in Nigeria, you will be given key guidelines on how to choose the best place to sell bitcoin in Nigeria.

  1. Speed of Transactions

A fast crypto transaction is important as the speed of cryptocurrency may block. Most times, transactions take hours to complete. Ideally, crypto transactions on regular crypto trading platforms take between 10 minutes to one hour. Surprisingly, some take over 5 hours. However, a few crypto transactions can take less than five minutes, depending on the app. In cases where we need transactions done quickly, or we accept crypto payments for your business, how do we intend to confirm payment before allowing customers to take their products? Should the customer wait for hours?

The speed of transactions has been a damaging factor for most Nigerian crypto traders. This has been a reason why many Nigerian companies find it difficult to accept cryptocurrency as payment options for their businesses.

  1. High and Inconsistent Fees

Crypto transaction fees are another issue many Nigerians face. To really compare the best options for you, you have to look at the fees before and after conversion. What are the withdrawal fees, processing fees, and receiving fees,… These fees cause a huge discouragement in crypto trading in the country.

  1. Limitations

It is saddening that many Nigerian crypto traders cannot make transactions because many of these crypto trading apps have put some limits on how much they can withdraw, receive, buy or sell. This breaches the purpose of cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency has made it easy for people to send money from one place to another without a barrier. Why should I not be able to receive my funds because it is below your limit for withdrawal?

Limitations have made many Nigerians lose interest in cryptocurrency or lose their cryptos.

These factors, alongside many others, have caused the trading of cryptocurrency in Nigeria very difficult.

How Breet Solves Some of the Issues Nigerians Face in Cryptocurrency

Breet is an OTC crypto exchange platform that allows users and businesses who simply want to receive crypto and get a flat equivalent of their coin to convert their crypto to cash money immediately. 

Breet App

With Breet’s over-the-counter system, you are saved from the hassle of boring explanations of what and how crypto works and tedious illustrations of cryptocurrency market charts. Breet enables users to securely convert and withdraw their crypto coin to cash money in less than five(5) minutes without the use of peer-to-peer trading or any third-party agent.

Breet is a revolutionary new way to convert and withdraw your crypto coin without the need for peer-to-peer trading or any third-party agent. With just one click, you can have cash money in hand within five minutes.

With Breet, you can sell your cryptocurrency in less than 5 minutes. This is an incredible feature on its own, meaning businesses can now accept cryptocurrencies as payment options without having their customers wait for hours to confirm payment.

Breet is also completely free. There are no hidden charges, no withdrawal fees, no processing fees and no receiving fees. There are zero charges with Breet. Breet’s free usage solves the issue of high and inconsistent charges for many Nigerian crypto traders.

Breet

There is no limitation to how much you can receive or withdraw on Breet. You don’t have to have about 10,000 Naira worth of cryptocurrency before you can withdraw. You can even withdraw as low as 100 Naira with Breet Exchange.

Breet is simple, free and certified. There is not much sugar coating to tell before believing that Breet is, arguably, the best crypto trading platform in Nigeria currently. The incredible reviews on the Breet app give perfect evidence.

What more do you need? If not, a crypto exchange that makes crypto transactions easy and makes people happy. You should become a Breet user by downloading Breet mobile app available on all Android and iPhone devices.

Remember being a crypto trader in Nigeria can be challenging. This is why it is important for you to learn more about cryptocurrency and the latest news by doing your own research.

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Ethereum Timeline: Shift to Proof of Stake

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Shift to Proof of Stake

The much-anticipated transition of the Ethereum network from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus is finally taking place. The adaptation of PoS has always been the plan and a vital part of scaling Ethereum by future upgrades. However, abruptly shifting to PoS can pose significant technical and community challenges that are not as simple as using PoW to achieve network consensus. Having said that, what exactly are PoS and PoW?

Proof of Work

Proof-of-work (PoW) is a consensus algorithm that allows for the secure, decentralised verification of transactions on a blockchain. In a PoW system, miners are responsible for verifying and committing transactions to the blockchain. During the verification process, miners compete against each other to solve complex cryptographic puzzles. The first miner to solve the puzzle is rewarded with cryptocurrency, and the transaction is added to the blockchain.

Reasons To Shift From Proof of Work

The Ethereum ecosystem has evolved at an astounding rate in the last year. This growth was primarily due to a significant emergence and explosion of NFTs and Decentralised Finance (DeFi) initiatives. While the change-over was imminent, some factors to be considered for the same are:

  • The PoW consensus protocol requires users to utilise significant computational power to validate transactions and add new blocks to the network.
  • Users who devote their computational resources to the shared ledger are miners.
  • These miners are rewarded with Ether tokens in exchange for the computing power they have supplied to the network.
  • With PoW consensus, Ethereum takes up to 113 terawatt-hours of electricity in a year. According to Digiconomist, it is more than the total electricity consumption of the Netherlands per year.
  • The current Ethereum transaction with PoW consensus takes up energy equivalent to the consumption of one week of energy of an average US household.

With so many downsides to its cap, PoW has many advantages, which is one of the main reasons it has been a reliable consensus for so long. The PoW consensus has been robust and secure all these years. But the consensus can be utilised by a cryptocurrency with a massive valuation and relatively simple use case, such as the bitcoin. With the amount of energy and power involved, it becomes difficult for individuals to meddle with a high valuation asset.

Proof of Stake

The consensus protocol Proof-of-stake (PoS) has been introduced to address the issue of over-mining. Proof of stake (PoS) is critical to understand because it could eventually replace the proof of work (PoW) consensus mechanism that is currently used by most cryptocurrencies.

“PoS is a way to achieve decentralised consensus without using energy-intensive mining. It is an alternative to the more common proof of work algorithm. With PoS, a cryptocurrency’s blockchain is secured by its token holders who are required to lock up their tokens as stake and not by miners equipped with powerful hardware. It’s an energy-efficient, cost-effective and therefore, a popular choice for crypto giants like Ethereum,” states Dev Sharma, CEO of Blockwiz, a crypto marketing agency.

In contrast to PoW, in which the individual who completes the mathematical proof first is rewarded with new coins, with PoS, no new coins are created.

Benefits of Proof of Stake Consensus

Proof-of-stake introduces several enhancements over the PoS mechanism:

  • Improved resource proficiency – you don’t need as many energy mining blocks.
  • Minimal entry barriers, lower hardware requirements – Even if you don’t possess top-tier hardware, you still get ample opportunities to participate in the creation of blocks.
  • More excellent resistance to centralization – PoS would imminently facilitate the generation of more nodes.
  • Staking facilitates the operation of a node. It does not necessitate significant expenditure on equipment purchases or resources, and if you lack the ETH token to stake, you cannot participate in staking pools.
  • Staking consensus enables reliable sharding. Shards enable Ethereum to generate new blocks simultaneously, leading to enhanced throughput of transactions.
  • In a PoW mechanism, sharding the chain would reduce the amount of energy required to modify a particular network section.

In a Nutshell

Proof of stake (PoS) is a type of algorithm used by cryptocurrencies to determine who gets to create new blocks on the blockchain. PoS works by requiring users to lock up some of their currency in a smart contract called a stake. In return, they are given the right to validate blocks on the network and earn rewards.

The advantage of PoS is that it doesn’t require the massive energy consumption that PoW does. This non-dependency on massive energy utilisation makes it more environmentally friendly. It reduces the risk of centralisation since few users would be able to control the majority of the currency. Therefore, it’s no wonder that Ethereum is making the much-anticipated switch.

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Amber Group March Recap 2022: Here’s What Happened

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Amber Group NewsNamed one of CB Insights’ 2022 Blockchain 50, an annual ranking of the most promising blockchain and crypto companies in the world.

Announced the appointment of Ehsan Haque as the General Counsel for Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA)  region.

CEO Michael Wu was selected as a recipient of the “Top 100 CEOs in Innovation Award 2022” by Word Biz Magazine.

Product Development and Partnerships

Amber Group Partnerships

Participated in Mina Foundation’s token sale, EthSign’s seed round, and Zecrey protocol’s angel round.

In the News

Michael Wu CEO Awards

World Biz Magazine: Michael Wu, CEO of Amber Group – interview WBM Top 100 Innovation CEO.

CNBC: For crypto to be adopted globally, we will have to comply with regulators: Crypto-trading platform.

Bloomberg: Bankers Who Stay in Hong Kong Are Rewarded With a Pay Bonanza.

Economist: EthSign raises $12 million in stable coin led by Sequoia Capital India, Mirana Ventures.

Forkast News: From crisis currency to consumer adoption: What next for crypto?

CoinDesk: Mina foundation raises $92M to accelerate adoption of Zero-Knowledge Proofs.

Cointelegraph: If the glass slipper doesn’t fit, smash it: Unraveling the myth of gender equality in crypto.

AMBCrypto: Amber Group strengthens management team with Ehsan Haque as EMEA General Counsel.

CoinCu: Zecrey protocol has raised $4M in an angel fundraising round.

Chain Debrief: Is the user experience in DeFi bad? Opportunities, challenges and how to see growth in DeFi.

Medium: Reproducing the $APE airdrop flash loan arbitrage/exploit.

Medium: Non-fungible trends.

Events and Media Appearances

Michael Wu

CEO Michael Wu joined Forkast News to discuss crypto’s consumer adoption and what’s next for crypto.

CEO Michael Wu joined CNBC Street Signs Asia to share how Amber Group seeks a balance between regulation and crypto development.

CEO Michael Wu gave an interview with Economist Impact at Technology for Change Week on how to stay ahead of the curve in the fintech space.

Managing Partner Annabelle Huang joined Economist Impact’s Asia Trade Week to discuss the future of crypto as payment in Asia.

Managing Partner Annabelle Huang joined Avalanche Summit to discuss the opportunities and challenges in DeFi.

Managing Partner Annabelle Huang joined Goldman Sach’s panel discussion on “Digital assets – Investing in the future” to celebrate International Women’s Day.

Annabelle Huang

Managing Partner Annabelle Huang gave a guest lecture on DeFi and Web3 for the International Finance class at Singapore Management University.

Managing Partner Annabelle Huang joined the DIG FIN VOX podcast to talk about Amber Group’s move to Singapore and into retail.

CSO Dimitrios Kavvathas joined Blockchain Africa Conference 2022 to discuss institutional investment in crypto.

CSO Dimitrios Kavvathas joined FinTech Festival India at a panel discussion on “De-Fi – A better solution for peer-to-peer lending”.

CSO Dimitrios Kavvathas joined the World Blockchain Summit in Dubai at a panel discussion on “Fostering the global crypto ecosystem”.

Dimitrios Kavvathas

Europe Managing Director Sophia Shluger delivered a keynote speech on digital wealth at Blockchain Africa Conference 2022.

Europe Managing Director Sophia Shluger joined the CryptoCompare Summit in London to discuss the building blocks of the new digital economy.

Europe Managing Director Sophia Shluger joined the FundFocus Europe 2022 conference to discuss the foundation for the widespread institutional adoption of cryptocurrency.

Sophia ShlugerRear

Latin America Managing Director Nicole Pabello joined the Ethereum Rio conference to discuss the LATAM Ecosystem in the world.

Nicole Pabello

Institutional Sales Director Justin d’Anethan joined EmergentX’s Annual Digital Asset Summit to discuss the institutionalizing of the digital asset industry.

Justin d'Anethan

Managing Director Ben Radclyffe joined Credit Suisse’s Asian Investment Conference to discuss the spillovers between crypto and equity markets.

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