Verda Ventures, a global venture capital firm specializing in blockchain, has unveiled a $40 million initiative in collaboration with Opera, a web browser company, to back blockchain startups in emerging markets.

The fund aims to support companies developing financial products centered on Opera’s MiniPay wallet which was launched in Nigeria in 2023.

INTRODUCING | #Opera Launches the MiniPay Stablecoin Wallet for African Users on the #Celo Blockchain #MiniPay is sad to be a collaboration betwee

Verda Ventures, a global venture capital firm specializing in blockchain, has unveiled a $40 million initiative in collaboration with Opera, a web browser company, to back blockchain startups in emerging markets.

The fund aims to support companies developing financial products centered on Opera’s MiniPay wallet which was launched in Nigeria in 2023.

INTRODUCING | #Opera Launches the MiniPay Stablecoin Wallet for African Users on the #Celo Blockchain #MiniPay is sad to be a collaboration betwee

South African neobank, TymeBank, has raised $250 million in a Series D round which brought its valuation to $1.5 billion.

TymeBank joins Nigeria’s MoniePoint as the latest African fintech to achieve unicorn status in 2024 despite a recent drop in venture capital funding to startups on the continent, joining a list that includes the likes of Flutterwave, MNT Halan, and Wave.

A Look at #African #Startups that Have Achieved #Unicorn Status – https://t.co/zNYixQ4mGB

— Stanley’s Musings (@StanleyE

Rwanda has officially unveiled its National Fintech Strategy, designed to guide Rwanda’s fintech development from 2024 to 2029.

The plan, launched by the Ministry of ICT and Innovation, in partnership with Access to Finance Rwanda (AFR), is described as a comprehensive roadmap that aims to:

Increase financial inclusion, which is already really high at 96%

Attract investments, and

Position the country as a leading fintech hub on the continent.

Rwanda, whose Kigali Financial Center was ranked

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume and users, has announced the launch of Binance Alpha, a platform within Binance Wallet (previously known as Binance Web3 Wallet) designed to spotlight early-stage projects and help users explore Alpha opportunities.

Notably, Binance Alpha serves as a platform for featuring tokens that may be considered for listings on the Binance Exchange in the future.

 

“Binance Alpha serves as a pre-listing token selection pool, designe

Bitcoin’s journey to a $100,000 price milestone spanned over 5,200 trading days, hitting a market cap briefly exceeding $2 trillion, highlighting the network’s resilience and steady evolution, says a new analysis by Glassnode.

MILESTONE | #Bitcoin Surpasses the $100,000 Mark for the First Time in History

Since the start of 2024, Bitcoin is up by over 120% and by over 50% in the last one month since the election victory of U.S. President Donald Trump.https://t.co/Zc1PC4lDbM #Bitcoin100K pic.twi

The Nigeria Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arrested 193 foreign nationals in a busted operation against a cybercrime and cryptocurrency fraud syndicate in the city of Lagos, Nigeria.

According to EFCC spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, the suspects – comprising 148 Chinese nationals and 40 Filipinos – were arrested on December 10 2024 at the seven-story Big Leaf Building in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial hub.

Some of the $355,000 Funds seized in Nigerian romance and crypto invest

JuicyWay, a Nigerian cross-border payments startup that assists businesses in obtaining foreign exchange for international transactions, has secured $3 million in pre-seed funding.

The company plans to use the funds to grow its marketing and business development teams, enhance its technology, and scale operations in Nigeria, the U.S, the UK, and Canada.

The funding round was led by:

P1 Ventures

with participation from:

Ventures Platform

Future Africa

Magic Fund

Microtraction

and angel i

Safaricom’s leading mobile money platform, M-PESA, gained over 500,000 new users between October and November 2024, bringing its total user base to 34 million in Kenya alone. This represents a 1.5% increase from the 33.5 million active users reported in September 2024.

 

“We are immensely proud to reach 34 million M-PESA customers in Kenya. This accomplishment underscores our dedication to deliver frictionless, always on, and secure financial services to our customers,” said Safaricom CEO Pete

The South Africa Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) has approved 248 crypto asset service provider licences out of the 420 applications received, the regulatory body has said.

So far, only nine applications have been rejected, while 106 were voluntarily withdrawn after discussions with the regulator about the suitability of their business and operating models.

One of the main reasons for rejecting CASP license applications has been the failure to meet the ‘fit and proper‘ criteria outli

Nigeria’s fintech ecosystem secured over $2 billion in investments in 2024, according to the 2024 Economic Report released by the Office of the Special Adviser to Nigeria’s President on Economic Affairs, within the Office of the Vice President.

The report identified telecommunications and ICT, particularly fintech, as one of the key sectors driving Nigeria’s economic growth in 2024, with the potential to sustain or even double this performance in 2025.

 

“Nigeria’s telecommunications and ICT

Nigerian fintech, Billboxx, has raised $1.6 million pre-seed funding round, the startup announced in a press release.

The round saw participation from renowned investors including:

Norrsken Accelerator

Kaleo Ventures

Founders Factory Africa – FFA (now 54 Collective)

P2Vest, and

Afrinovation Ventures

FUNDING | Founders Factory Rebrands to 54 Collective, Transforms to a Full-Fledged VC Firm for Early-Stage Startups

Founders Factory has an active portfolio of over 50 ventures across 10 coun

The number of monthly active developers in the web3 ecosystem in 2024 was 23,613, says a new report by Electric Capital.

According to the report, the number represents 39% growth when annualized since 2015 the year when Ethereum launched with 1,085 devs. On a Year-on-Year basis, the contributing developers have dropped marginally by 7%.

Despite a slight drop, the number of established developers (those who have contributed 2 or more years) increased by 27%, while newcomers and emerging develop

Crypto industry giants, Circle Internet Group Inc. and Binance have joined forces in a new strategic partnership announced at Abu Dhabi Finance Week that will expand adoption of USDC and support the development of the global digital assets and broader financial services ecosystem.

With the growth and worldwide adoption of $USDC as one of the most powerful utilities for money on the internet, this collaboration brings together a trusted and compliant digital dollar with the largest platform in t

The story of Legitify, a cutting-edge project developed by a talented team of students from the University of Dar es Salaam is inspirational.

Recently, Legitify was recognized as one of the winning projects at the Based Africa Hackathon 2024, and we’re thrilled to give you an inside look at what makes this innovative solution so impactful.

LIST | Here is the List of the 23 ‘Based Africa’ 2024 Hackathon Winners

With over 750 builders signing up in recent weeks and 280 projects submitted, here

Emerging markets lead the way in blockchain adoption, while many nations in Europe, east Asia and the Americas are more skeptical, according to a new survey by Consensys and YouGov.

According to the survey findings, over half the population in:

Nigeria (84%)

South Africa (66%)

Vietnam (60%)

The Philippines (54%), and

India (50%)

report owning a crypto wallet in 2024.

Wallet ownership in the Americas is highest in the U.S at 43%, while

Turkey leads European countries surveyed at 44%

Glo

The Kenya National Fire Brigades Association (KENFIBA) has become the first labor union in the country to adopt a Bitcoin reserve, according to Proof of Workforce, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping unions and workers adopt Bitcoin.

𝐁𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆: KENFIBA, The Kenya National Fire Brigades Association adds Bitcoin onto their balance sheet, becoming the first labor union in Kenya to hold Bitcoin!

Potentially, the first labor union on the continent to hold Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/1

The Kenya National Fire Brigades Association (KENFIBA) has become the first labor union in the country to adopt a Bitcoin reserve, according to Proof of Workforce, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping unions and workers adopt Bitcoin.

𝐁𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆: KENFIBA, The Kenya National Fire Brigades Association adds Bitcoin onto their balance sheet, becoming the first labor union in Kenya to hold Bitcoin!

Potentially, the first labor union on the continent to hold Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/1

According to Tether, 109 million on-chain wallets held USDT at the start of the fourth quarter, making the stablecoin one of the most popular assets.

 

“109 million on-chain wallets held USDT at the start of Q4 2024, which is more than double the number of wallets holding bitcoin and close to the 128 million wallets holding Ethereum – making USDT one of the most widely held digital assets.”

 

USDT wallets have increased 71% in the past year and 129% the year before, driven primarily by walle

BIT Mining Limited has announced the acquisition of 51-megawatt crypto mining data centers and 17,869 high-performance Bitcoin mining machines in Ethiopia in a transaction valued at $14.3 million on December 3 2024.

 

“Upon completion of the first phase, a 35-megawatt operational and electrified crypto mining data center and all the BTC mining machines will be transferred to the company. The first phase is expected to close in the next few days,” said a press release.

“The second phase, which