Private Equity Moris Beracha Wuani

By Harare Bureau BLOCKCHAIN technology can help enhance transparency, efficiency and grow investor confidence in Zimbabwe’s fledgling capital markets, experts say. The technology, which underpins crypto-currencies like bitcoin, is temper-proof. Its decentralised nature allows for financial transactions to be traced throughout the payment process by anyone with a computer or smartphone with internet connection. These characteristics have meant that blockchain technology is now being adapted for use in several spheres including the supply chain, banking, financial markets and even voting, to curb fraud while improving transparency. Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) chief executive Justin Bgoni told our Harare Bureau that the exchange is open to exploring how it can harness Blockchain technology in the near future although there is still no regulatory clarity on the matter. Mr Bgoni spoke about introducing blockchain-based new products and services such as real estate ...

By Yogita Khatri Cryptocurrency exchange Binance said it is revamping security measures after losing some 7,000 bitcoin worth over $40 million in a hack earlier this week. “Significant” changes related to its application programming interface (API), two-factor authentication (2FA) and withdrawal validation are being made, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said in a blog post published on Friday. The exchange did not disclose more details regarding these efforts, but said it is also improving its risk management and know-your-customer procedures to fight phishing, among other additional security measures at the back-end. Binance will take action of some of the measures within this week and in the coming weeks in order to resume services at the earliest, according to the post. Zhao said tentatively, the exchange is looking to resume withdrawals and deposits “early next week.” Binance will also be adding support for hardware-based 2FA devices such as YubiKey “very soon,”...

    By Helen Partz     Crypto market cap tracker CoinMarketCap (CMC) will remove exchanges from its calculations if they fail to provide mandatory data by June, the firm wrote in its sixth anniversary blog post on May 1. CoinMarketCap, a major source of data about all traded digital currencies , has made a series of announcements to celebrate its sixth birthday today. As such, CMC has announced a brand new alliance called the Data Accountability & Transparency Alliance (DATA) in order to provide “greater transparency, accountability, and disclosure from projects in the crypto space.” A broad number of exchanges have already joined the new alliance, including Binance , Bittrex , OKEx , Huobi , Liquid, UpBit, IDEX, OceanEX, Gate.io, KuCoin, HitBTC and Bitfinex, with more partners expected in the future, the announcement states. As a part of its transparency initiative, CoinMarketCap will also now require all the crypto exchanges...

Decentralized project ContentsDeal is a content exchange platform that enables users and creators (e.g., singers, artists, writers, etc.) to trade and distribute genuine, exclusive content transparently via blockchain. By simplifying the complex distribution structure of copyrights in today’s entertainment industry, ContentsDeal ensures fair profitability to artists, content creators as well as contributors to the network, the team emphasizes. All the parties involved can leverage blockchain encryption to make sure transaction information, payments and membership are kept safe and secure on an immutable network.  ContentsDeal is the place where creators can protect their rights, while at the same time contribute to the development of a transparent content production environment. The benefit of the public is that by signing up on the platform they get higher quality content that they can use via trading content using StarCoin (KST) and DEAL tokens.  Blo...

By Tanya Abrosimova While Russian lawmakers are dawdling on passing a law on financial digital assets, business is looking cryptocurrency and blockchain technology adoption.  Thus, a prominent Russian billionaire and the owner of Norilskiy Nickel Vladimir Potanin in a recenet interview announced the plans to launch blockchain-based platform and potentially issue a crypto token backed by palladium, Bloomberg reports.  Being the world’s top producer of palladium, Nornikel wants to inspire innovations in the industry and lead the new technology adoption and inspire. Currently, the company plans to issue tokens via its Switzerland-based palladium fund and holds the talks with the Swiss government.   “People more and more tend to use decentralized networks and platforms that don’t have a main operator,” he said. “We want to be active participants of this process,” as trading in digital tokens has many advantages, Potanin...

By Marie Huillet      Data scientists at blockchain infrastructure firm Elementus have published details of recent transactions from crypto exchange CoinBene that they consider to be suspect, beginning with $105 million in crypto swiftly being moved out of the exchange’s hot wallet. The findings, reportedly based on data sourced using the Elementus Query Engine, were published  on March 27. Elementus also provides independently verifiable raw data that readers can download and compare against the Ethereum ( ETH ) blockchain. As previously reported, CoinBene was yesterday prompted to reassure users that a period of unforeseen maintenance was in fact not due to a hack, as some community members had suspected . In presenting its findings, Elementus emphatically states that it is not aiming “to refute what CoinBene is claiming.” It nonetheless presents several key observations based on its findings, arguing that the identified pattern of transf...

By Frank Chaparro   Just when you thought there were plenty of markets for crypto futures in the U.S. and elsewhere, along comes another player. Eurex, a derivatives exchange operated by Germany’s Deutsche Börse, is gearing up to launch a slew of new futures contracts tied to the digital assets market. The firm follows a number of U.S.-based exchange-operators, including CME and Cboe Global Markets, both of which launched bitcoin futures markets in December 2017. Several people familiar with Eurex’s plans says the firm will announce its plans to launch futures tied to bitcoin, ether, and XRP imminently. In recent weeks, the exchange has been meeting with market-making firms about the products.  At the same time, a number of new ventures — including Bakkt, Seed CX, ErisX — that are aiming to launch markets for physically delivered crypto futures sometime this year. As for Eurex, the firm has had its eye on the crypto market since 2017. A...

by Nathan Rodriguez   Binance Coin has reportedly extended its latest gains, thus it set a new all-time high in Bitcoin-denominated value. Also known as BNB, it is the token issued by the world’s largest digital currency exchange by trade volume called Binance. Setting A New Record At press time, the aforementioned token was trading at around 0.002619 BTC or $9.60. It is worth noting that before it reached the new figure, it was only able to reach 0.002688. This was believed to around 10:00 UTC Monday. This is basically the crypto’s highest price in its entire one and a half year history, as per the data from Binance. The company said to have first listed BNB for trading sometime in July 2017. Since then, the token was successful in receiving at least 9,600 percent return on investment, particularly from its Initial Coin Offering (ICO) on December of the same year and with a price of $0.10. At the same time, the BNB still has a lot of ways to go...

By Moris Beracha .- The high levels of volatility of the most popular cryptocurrencies in the world have led investors to look towards price stable “Stablecoins” or crypto assets. These are digital assets designed to maintain a stable price, linked to a stable fiduciary currency, or that are related to products or other cryptocurrencies. The advantages of backed cryptocurrencies are that currencies are stabilized by assets that fluctuate outside the technological realm, that is, the underlying asset is not correlated, reducing financial risk. The main Stablecoins are: Tether (USDT) is the best-known example of stablecoins. Originally launched as Realcoin, the project was founded in November 2014 and has two tokens: USDT and EURT, pegged to the dollar and the euro. Both cryptocurrencies are connected to the Bitfinex exchange house. TrueUSD (TUSD) is another token pegged to the dollar that is part of the TrustToken platform. Digix Gold (DGX) ...

By Marie Huillet      Crypto asset brokerage Voyager Digital — co-founded by the ex-CTO of Uber — has gone public on Canada’s TSX Venture Exchange. The news was announced in an official tweet from Voyager on Feb. 11. Shares are traded under ticker symbol VYGR.V, as a company blog post outlines. The listing comes following the completion of a so-called reverse takeover — also known as a reverse initial public offering or backdoor listing. Last week, Voyager had announced that its merger with former shell company UC Resources Ltd. was nearing completion. The moved allows the crypto brokerage to qualify as a TSX Venture Tier 2 Company. Generally, a reverse takeover occurs when a privately held company merges with a publicly traded company — thereby bypassing at least some of the bureaucratic scrutiny involved in the process of going public, including regulatory issues and due diligence. Upon completion of the deal, the buyer gains automa...

(Reuters) - London Stock Exchange Group ( LSE.L ) said on Tuesday Hong Kong-based AAX would use its technology for cryptocurrency trading, allowing the British exchange operator enter a nascent yet highly speculative industry.  The AAX exchange, which is backed by Atom Group, a fintech firm focused on blockchain technology and emerging digital assets, will use LSE’s Millennium Exchange matching system, LSE said in a statement.  The deal, however, comes at a time when cryptocurrency exchanges in Asia face scrutiny and policymakers have warned about the risks of speculative investments in cryptocurrencies.  Online platforms where virtual currencies such as bitcoin can be bought and sold by individuals operate with lower safeguards than traditional financial markets and are vulnerable to market manipulation.  Cryptocurrency exchanges and traders in Asia are also struggling to insure themselves against the risk of hacks and theft, a fact...

New cryptocurrency exchange has reportedly raised $27.5 million from investors which include NASDAQ Ventures and Fidelity Investments. The platform will offer cryptocurrency trading on spot and future markets starting next year.  Nevermind the Bear Market Seemingly unphased by the current bleeding conditions of the cryptocurrency market, Fidelity Investments and NASDAQ Ventures have reportedly taken part in a funding round of new cryptocurrency exchange ErisX. The total amount raised is $27.5 million,  Reuters  reports . According to the report, Nasdaq has already confirmed its participation while Fidelity is yet to respond to the requests for comment. The new cryptocurrency exchange will purportedly enable investors to trade Bitcoin (BTC) $3786.42 +0.14% , Litecoin (LTC) 0 0 , and Ether (ETH) 0 0 on both spot and futures markets. It is expected to launch in 2019 following regulatory approval. Speaking on the matter was Thomas Chippas, CEO ...

By Moris Beracha .-  After a nasty drop in the price of Bitcoin, it seems that the currency is climbing back to its price of last December. Some experts believe that it could increase significantly. However, several things must be done. Firstly, they say, the currency must adopt rates as a store of value and be a medium of exchange, two common functions among conventional currencies. For that to happen, Bitcoin must become a better security infrastructure. “Assuming that Bitcoin will be used in the future as a store of value going forward (e.g., digital gold), a better security infrastructure overarching the entire crypto ecosystem will be needed for people to place trust in this new financial medium and start using it,” says Christian Ferri, President and CEO of BlockStar. “Once this happens, more people will jump in, so a scalable infrastructure will be crucial.” While a better security infrastructure is an important factor that will help th...

  By Bitcoin Exchange Guide News Team Innovative Samsung Chips Could Be Beneficial for Cryptocurrency Mining Activities Samsung started to produce a new 7nm chip known as Low Power Plus (7LPP) process node. According to the company, the new chip is able to reduce energy consumption by up to 50 per cent. The information has been released in an official press release on October the 18. The chip will be produced by Samsung Foundry, and it will allow a 40% increase in area efficiency, with a 20% higher performance of 50% power reduction. The new process is based on extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography technology. That means that the chips are denser and energy efficient. During the last months, cryptocurrency miners in the industry have experienced a reduction in profitability. With the current cryptocurrency prices, electricity bills cannot be paid. In some cases, miners operate losing money. With Samsung’s latest innovation, energy costs could be reduced ...

By Molly Jane Zuckerman U.S. investment firm Fidelity, which administers over $7.2 trillion in client assets, has announced the launch of a new company, Fidelity Digital Asset Services, according to an Oct. 15 press release. The new company will offer custody and trade execution services for digital assets, targeting institutional investors like “hedge funds, family offices and market intermediaries,” and will not for now be open to retail investors. According to the press release, Fidelity Digital Assets will focus on providing a “secure, compliant, and institutional-grade omnibus storage solution for bitcoin, ether and other digital assets.” Tom Jessop, head of the newly-created business, is quoted in as saying that Fidelity began exploring blockchain and crypto “several years ago,” telling CNBC in an interview today that the idea of commercializing a “standalone” crypto firm began in mid-2017. Fidelity cites research from Greenwich Associates that found t...

The SEC this year has kept up a steady stream of actions against private-equity firms By Chris Cumming Evidence is building that the Securities and Exchange Commission has moved on from the era of trying to reform private equity through enforcement actions. The SEC last week released its strategic plan for the next four years, which offers an important window into how the commission views the markets and its role as regulator and enforcer. The plan is heavy on efforts to protect retail investors and adapt to changing technology, including issues like improving cybersecurity and tracing initial coin offerings. But it dedicates almost no time to private markets, institutional investors, or fee and expense abuses, areas that were often highlighted as priorities under the previous SEC regime. Instead, the SEC is focused on ways to protect retail investors, a point Jay Clayton has repeatedly emphasized since taking over as the regulator’s chairman last year. Goals in the ne...