A new study has revealed staggering growth in crypto adoption across Nigeria, fueled by limited access to affordable fiat-based financial services in Africa. Crypto exchange KuCoin’s “Into the Cryptoverse Report” highlights that many Nigerian citizens have started using cryptocurrencies as a viable alternative to store and transfer assets. According to the report, 35% of the Nigerian population aged 18 to 60 — or 33.4 million people — have owned or traded cryptocurrencies during the last six months. Out of those people, nearly 17.36 million (or 52% of Nigerian crypto investors) have allocated over half of their assets to cryptocurrencies. One …

Tech venture capital firm White Star Capital has secured $120 million in funding for its second Digital Asset Fund (DAF II) to invest in crypto networks and early-stage blockchain and Web3 businesses. The fund is primarily backed by game publishing giant Ubisoft and will take a particular focus on decentralized finance (DeFi) and gaming. It will invest as much as $7 million in each of 20-25 companies in North America, Europe, and Asia. The firm’s increased attention to DeFi, Web3, and blockchain-based technology suggests that it will begin to support companies that utilize or develop Metaverse solutions as well. This …

Gaming and venture capital firm Animoca Brands has completed its landmark acquisition of Eden Games, publishers of the Gear.Club, Test Drive series, and other popular racing games. Eden Games is a France-based firm that was founded in 1998. Engine Gaming and Media sold its 96% stake in the company to Animoca for $15.3 million on April 7. With the acquisition, Animoca plans to enhance its REVV Motorsport (REVV) ecosystem by taking a “Metaverse first approach” to new and existing gaming titles, as tweeted by Animoca chairman Yat Siu on April 12. It also hopes to introduce new blockchain-based racing games. …

America’s largest crypto exchange, Coinbase, announced a long list of tokens it could potentially list in the second quarter of 2022 in an effort to increase transparency. An April 12 blog post from the exchange includes a list of tokens under consideration, but notes that other tokens may be under consideration but not specifically mentioned. Among those on their radar are 45 ERC-20 tokens on the Ethereum (ETH) network, and five SPL tokens on the Solana (SOL) network. Some of the tokens with a relatively large market cap are Binance USD (BUSD), which is the third-largest stablecoin on the market, …

Popular decentralized exchange (DEX) Uniswap has announced the formation of Uniswap Labs Ventures (ULV), a venture capital fund focused on investing in Web3 companies and projects. The firm will invest at any stage of development into various projects or technologies related to Web3, infrastructure, developer tools, and consumer-facing applications as areas of interest according to the announcement on Monday, April 11. The firm has already invested in 11 companies and Web3 protocols, including decentralized money market Aave, the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) behind the DAI stablecoin, MakerDAO, and blockchain bridging protocol LayerZero. In the announcement, Uniswap expressed what it looked …

While the United States Securities and Exchange Commission has yet to approve a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund, a recent Nasdaq survey suggested that the offering could lead to greater adoption of crypto among financial advisers. According to the results of a Nasdaq survey released on Monday, 72% of 500 financial advisers would be more likely to invest their clients' assets in cryptocurrency should the SEC approve a spot crypto ETF product in the United States. For those already invested in crypto products, 86% of the financial advisers said they planned to increase allocations within a year — roughly half already …

Whitehall Capital, a London-based loan provider, struck a deal with an American digital asset securities marketplace Securitize to enable its investors to hold their units as blockchain tokens. According to an April 11 announcement, Whitehall investors will be able to use buy and sell units in the Whitehall fund via Securitize platform. After registering on Securitize, an investor will see their assets as a number of tokenized units, with the performance markers, investment reports and other valuable information included. They could also trade the units with other investors by posting a bid to buy or sell a certain quantity. According …

Metaverse events at ancient and historical sites could soon shape up to be an alternate future for tourism. Owners of physical castles and villas who have drafted up augmented reality blueprints of their properties think their ambitious plans to attract visitors in the metaverse will work, as virtual events can help them pay the hefty maintenance bills for their aging properties and also offer a chance to change historical narratives. The metaverse tourism model was expedited by downturns in tourism brought about by COVID-19, but the industry may have already been heading that way. Currently, major metaverse platforms are clunky, …

Privacy-focused cryptocurrency Monero (XMR) rallied by nearly 9.5% in the past week compared with the crypto market's decline of 8.5% in the same period. What's more, the XMR/USD pair has broken above a strong, multi-month resistance trendline, hinting at more upside ahead. XMR price action XMR's price was down by a modest 0.87% on April 10 from its two-month-high of $245 established a day before. However, the cryptocurrency still outperformed its top rivals, including Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), on a weekly timeframe. Speculations about entities using Monero to bypass sanctions could have boosted its appeal among investors. Meanwhile, The …

There is no denying the fact that the crypto adoption wave sweeping the globe right now has resulted in a growing list of defunct brands making their way into the digital asset market in recent months. Just two weeks ago, once popular music platform LimeWire announced that it is going to be making a comeback, albeit as a marketplace for nonfungible tokens (NFTs) rather than a file-sharing service. LimeWire’s return seems to largely be hinging on its once-held brand power backed by the company’s belief that its early 2000’s fame will allow it to make its way into the competitive …

At the Bitcoin 2022 conference in Miami on Thursday, Cash App announced a new feature for U.S. customers which will allow them to automatically invest a portion of their direct deposit paychecks into Bitcoin (BTC). The mobile payment service run by Jack Dorsey's Block, formerly known as Square, will enable Cash App Visa Cash Card users to opt into this "Paid in Bitcoin" feature at no cost. Cash App’s Bitcoin Product Lead Miles Suter, who made the announcement Thursday, explained that any percentage from 1% to 100% of their direct deposits can be automatically converted into Bitcoin, and adjusted if …

The U.S. dollar's ability to continue its rally in Q2 could prove fatal for Bitcoin (BTC), which has demonstrated inverse correlation with the dollar since January 2022. Dollar paints "bull flag" The U.S. dollar index (DXY), which measures the greenback's strength against a basket of foreign currencies, reached its 21-month trading high of 99.82 on April 7, the highest level since May 2020. The index now looks poised to continue its upside move further as it breaks out of a classic bullish continuation pattern — called a "bull flag." In detail, bull flags appear when the price consolidates lower inside …