In this week’s news roundup, you will read about Cassava Network, an African Web3 platform that has partnered with UniPass to advance crypto adoption in Africa, and more.

African Web3 Platform, Cassava Network, Partners with Self-custody Crypto Wallet to Expand Crypto Adoption in Africa

Cassava Network, an African Web3 platform with a focus on gaming, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and rewards, has announced the launch of the third version of its platform that features integration with UniPass, a non-custodial smart contract, enabling users to use their email addresses instead of seed phrases and gas. 

The partnership will enable Cassava Network to onboard Africans from Web2 to Web3 as users will be able to create Cassava accounts and automatically sign up to UniPass where they will be able to send, receive, and store on-chain digital assets across various Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) blockchains. 

Speaking about the launch of the new platform version, Mouloukou Sanoh, Co-founder of Cassava Network, said, “Cassava v3 serves as a bridge for global Web3 businesses to connect with African Web2 users.”

Sanoh went ahead to mention that 90 percent of the partners engaging with the community feature of the new version are African businesses. 

Benjamin Obenze, Cassava Network’s Business Developer, in an interview said that African users and businesses will be able to use the new platform version to enter Web3 spaces. 

Nigeria Leads the African Continent with Crypto Leverage Searches on Google

According to an analysis of Google searches done by Leverage Trading, Nigeria scored the second-highest globally (94) for searches related to crypto leverage in the last five years. 

Singapore is the only country that outscored Nigeria with a score of 100 regarding searches but with more emphasis on transactional searches like ‘how to leverage trade crypto’. South Africa and Ghana follow Nigeria closely as both countries have also dominated Google searches for the term ‘trade crypto.’ 

Despite Nigeria leading in the crypto leverage searches and South Africa and Ghana following closely, Leverage Trading established that Africa still lags behind when it comes to searches for the term ‘stock leverage.’ 

To learn more about Bitcoin, download the Bitcoin Beginner’s Handbook for free.

In this week’s news roundup, you will read about South Africa’s new clause on its advertising code targeted towards the cryptocurrency sector and more.  

South Africa Introduces New Cryptocurrency Standards to Advertising Code

The South African Advertising Regulatory Board (ARB) has introduced a new clause targeted at the crypto industry and aimed at protecting consumers from unethical advertising. 

According to the new clause introduced to Section III of the country’s advertising code, both companies and individuals in South Africa will be required to abide by certain advertising standards in relation to the provision of crypto products and services. The first clause makes it mandatory for adverts, including crypto offerings, to clearly express that crypto investments may result in the loss of capital given the volatile nature of cryptocurrencies. In addition, crypto adverts should not contradict warnings about potential investment losses that investors may face. 

The clause also went ahead to emphasize that adverts for particular services and products must be explained in an easily understandable manner for the target audience. Advertisements must also have balanced messages around benefits, features, returns, and risks associated with the particular service or product. 

Rates of returns, projections, or any kind of forecasts must also be sufficiently substantiated, including how they are calculated and what conditions apply to touted returns. Moreover, any information relating to a crypto product or service’s past performance will not be used to promise future performance or returns, and should, therefore, not be presented in a way that creates ‘a favourable impression of the advertised product or service.’

The clause went on to state that adverts from crypto service providers who aren’t registered credit providers should not push for the acquisition of digital currencies using credit. However, this does not prevent the advertising of associated payment methods provided by crypto service providers. In the same breadth, brand ambassadors and social media influencers will also be expected to comply with certain advertising standards, such as sharing factual information and not offering advice on investing or trading in crypto assets as well as the prohibition of promises of benefits or returns. 

Central African Republic Keen on a Legal Framework for Cryptocurrency Adoption

Central African Republic (CAR) has set up a 15-member committee that will be responsible for developing a bill on the use of cryptocurrencies and tokenization in the region.

Once developed, the legal framework will enable cryptocurrencies to operate in the Central African Republic and expedite the development of the country’s economy. CAR’s President, Faustin-Archange Touadéra, believes that digital currencies will help eliminate the country’s financial barriers and build a business-friendly environment that’s supported by a legal framework for crypto usage in the country. 

He went on to say, “With access to cryptocurrencies, the monetary barriers existing until now will disappear, the main objective of the measures adopted by the government being the development of the national economy.”

The committee tasked with drafting the crypto bill comprises 15 experts from five different ministries of CAR, including the Ministry of Mines and Geology, the Ministry of Waters, Forest, Hunting and Fishing, the Ministry of Agriculture ad Rural Development, the Ministry of Town Planning, Land Reform, Towns and Housing and Ministry of Justice, Promotion of Human Rights and Good Governance.

To learn more about Bitcoin, download the Bitcoin Beginner’s Handbook for free.

In this week’s news roundup, you will read about Carry 1st securing a $27 million funding round and more.

African Web3 Games Publisher, Carry 1st, Secures $27M in Funding

Carry 1st, a mobile games publisher, has announced that it has successfully raised $27 million in funding to grow its digital content creation and publishing platform in Africa. 

Initially, the company said it would use the funds to grow its content portfolio by exploring Web3 play-to-earn (P2E) games, integrating non-fungible tokens (NFTs) into the gaming experience, and expanding its internal capacity. However, it appears as though Carry 1st will use its latest funding round to expand the capabilities of Pay1st, its monetization-as-a-service platform, which allows third-party publishers to make more money in Africa.

Carry 1st’s funding round was led by Bitkraft Ventures and saw additional participation from Andreessen Horowitz, commonly known as a16z. Alumni Ventures, Kepple Ventures, Konvoy, Lateral Capital, and TTV Capital also took part in the round. This funding round comes a year after the company raised $20 million in funding that a16 and Alphabet (Google’s parent company) supported. 

Nigerian Cryptocurrency Exchange, Roqqu, Granted European Virtual Currency License

Roqqu, a Nigerian crypto exchange, has been given a virtual currency license for the European Economic Area after two years of waiting for permission from regulatory authorities. 

With the license, Roqqu will now be able to operate in 30 countries and expand its services within one of the world’s largest crypto markets. Roqqu plans to attract early traders keen on gaining an edge in the crypto sector by offering a better experience and competitive fees for newcomers. In addition, the company hopes to reach more than five million users in 2023, up from the 1.4 million users it has in Nigeria, which was the only country it operated in until it was awarded the license. 

Traditional cross-border payment methods are known to take days, and this is what Roqqu seeks to solve. Benjamin Onmor, Roqqu’s CEO said, “It makes a lot of sense to solve this problem by using crypto as the vehicle. Crypto is a faster and cheaper route that can bridge the gap and help reduce fees for moving money globally. This is the core of the problem we want to solve.”

Roqqu plans to expand to other counties in Africa, with Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda being top of the list of countries it’s eyeing to expand into. 

To learn more about Bitcoin, download the Bitcoin Beginner’s Handbook for free.