Akon, a famous Senegalese-American musician and a known blockchain supporter, is setting up a blockchain hub in Kenya. Dubbed the “Kenyan Opportunity Hub”, the new venture aims to promote blockchain and artificial intelligence, or AI, education. They also hope to provide Kenyans with more work opportunities. First African blockchain hub launched by Akoin and Effect.AI A joint initiative of Akon’s blockchain startup Akoin and EOSIO-powered project Effect.AI, the hub is set to launch in Q4 2020 and will be the first initiative of its kind in Africa, the companies announced to Cointelegraph on July 1. The project will be handled …

Elrond (ERD) believes it has what it takes to overcome the behemoths of the proof-of-stake, or PoS, world. This Romanian PoS blockchain raised $3.25 million in an Initial Exchange Offering, or IEO, in July 2019. Elrond CEO, Beniamin Mincu, told Cointelegraph that Binance’s IEO process was very tough. He explained though that through perseverance, the project was able to raise the necessary funds, and receive significant exposure. Ethereum 2.0 — ahead of schedule Elrond’s technological stack reads very similar to what has been anticipated for Ethereum (ETH) 2.0 — sharding, secure PoS, a virtual machine; however, Mincu drew a number …

Tesla’s market capitalization has surged from about $76 billion at the start of 2020 to $224.18 billion at market close on July 2. This unending rally has also made it the largest car company in terms of market capitalization, even though it produces only a fraction of cars compared to the second-ranked Toyota motors. One of the reasons for the sharp rise in Tesla’s stock is investors’ expectation that the company will disrupt the cars running on fossil fuel. Similarly, Bitcoin (BTC) and altcoins are likely to disrupt fiat currencies and gold over the next few years. However, the current …

Voice, a blockchain-based social media project developed by EOSIO creator Block.One, briefly went live one day before its scheduled launch. Based on the open source EOSIO protocol, Voice aims to use Blockchain technology to create a trusted social experience, free from bots and fake accounts. Revealed in June 2019, the project uses biometric authentication technology to verify every account, limiting accounts to one-per-person and promising to protect user data. Voice briefly shows multiple posts Voice’s main page temporarily displayed several posts from different accounts which featured multiple likes and comments. As of press time, the website is no longer available. …

Results for the second quarter of 2020 show tremendous growth for decentralized applications across all ecosystems, primarily spearheaded by Ethereum (ETH) decentralized finance, or DeFi. Decentralized exchanges were at the frontlines of the rise as Compound token mining activity trickled down to on-chain swapping solutions. According to Our Network, Curve was one of the biggest beneficiaries of yield farming as it helped users switch between different stablecoins to maximize yield. Curve is an automated money market that only supports swaps between different types of stablecoins and wrapped tokens. This limitation allows Curve to provide competitive slippage and fees for exchanging …

Bitcoin (BTC), gold, crude oil, and the US equity markets all rose sharply throughout the second quarter of this year. This shows that investors’ appetites remain strong as they are confident that central banks will continue to keep the money supply flowing. While monetary easing can be a short-term solution, if it is not rolled back at the right time it can destroy the economy in the long-term, as seen in Zimbabwe. Although the top-ranked asset on CoinMarketCap has been stuck in a range for the past few days, the participation from both institutional investors and retail investors has been …

The total crypto market capitalization has been stuck roughly between $240 billion and $280 billion for about two months. This range-bound action suggests that cryptocurrencies are waiting for a trigger to propel the market cap higher. As the saying goes, the longer the consolidation, the stronger the eventual breakout from it will be. Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360 Researchers responsible for the recently published Crypto Research Report have projected a long-term target of $397,727 for Bitcoin (BTC) by 2030. For 2020, the report forecasts a target of $19,044. The researchers believe that the top-ranked asset on CoinMarketCap has penetrated …

Grayscale Investments has been taking in Bitcoin (BTC) at a frantic pace. In the last week alone, the fund gobbled up 19,879 Bitcoin, which is way over the 7,081 Bitcoin mined during the period, according to crypto researcher Kevin Rooke. This shows that demand far exceeds supply at the moment, which is a positive sign. However, Tone Vays believes that if the S&P 500 breaks below 3,000, it could fall another 12%. Due to the strong correlation between the S&P 500 and Bitcoin a crash in the equity markets could drag the top-ranked asset on CoinMarketCap to the $7,000 levels. …

Coronavirus cases are jumping across the world as nations reopen their economies and this raises the risk of a second wave which could slow down the current recovery in major markets. Global debt levels are already at astronomical levels but it seems safe to assume that a resurgence in cases will result in central banks pumping more liquidity into the markets. OKEx CEO Jay Hao recently said that Bitcoin (BTC) rallied about 58% from $6,580 to $10,400 after the first stimulus bill was signed in late March. There are also expectations that the Trump Administration may announce a second $1 …

A wallet associated with alleged crypto Ponzi scheme PlusToken has moved 26,316,339 EOS tokens (worth over $67 million as of press time) to an anonymous crypto wallet created less than 24 hours ago. The transaction was spotted by tracking service Whale Alert earlier today. PlusToken is believed to be one of the largest scams in the cryptocurrency history, as it reportedly held almost $3 billion worth of assets including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and EOS when it went bust in June last year. Launched in May 2018, PlusToken acted as a crypto wallet service and investment program promising high monthly …

The current economic environment has made it difficult for pension funds to sustain their expected rate of return. The U.S. Federal Reserve has continued along the path of cutting rates to zero and it seems likely to keep them there for at least a couple of years. This means pension funds may be forced to explore other strategies to increase their returns. Morgan Creek Digital co-founder Anthony Pompliano has suggested that pension funds allocate a small amount of 1 to 5 percent of their portfolios to Bitcoin (BTC). Such a move “would increase the risk-adjusted returns for a public pension …

Kraken crypto exchange CEO Jesse Powell has said that a large number of both retail and institutional investors have opened accounts with them. This shows that all types of investors are concerned about the current economic condition, hence they have been diversifying their portfolio using cryptocurrencies. The influx of institutional money is a positive sign because it will give confidence to the other institutions to take the plunge. WisdomTree Investments, a New York-based asset manager has sought approval to launch an exchange-traded fund that plans to invest about 5% of its net assets in cash-settled Bitcoin (BTC) futures and the …