Venmo

Paypal’s Venmo now permits cryptocurrency trading

by with No Comment Businessfinance

Venmo, a mobile payment service owned by PayPal has announced that it has started allowing users to buy, hold and sell cryptocurrencies on its app. Just like PayPal, Venmo will support four different cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin, and users can carry out transactions with as little as $1 on the app

Founded in 2009, Venmo has over 70 million users and it is one of the most popular payment channels in the US. The payment platform processed around $159 billion in payments last year.

Since the app functions like a social network, adding cryptocurrency will offer a more user-friendly feel for people who love buying and selling crypto.

READ: CBN resumes $100m weekly sales for SMEs, school fees

As bigger companies show more interest in cryptocurrency, there will be wider adoption of virtual currencies in future. Venmo is the latest payment app that is offering support for cryptocurrency on its platform.

Paypal, the parent company of Venmo is one of the most active companies in the crypto space as it allows users to buy, sell and hold cryptocurrencies in their digital wallets. Paypal users can also spend their coins at millions of merchants globally.

Crypto on Venmo is enabled through PayPal’s partnership with Paxos Trust Company, a regulated provider of cryptocurrency products and services.

What they are saying

Darrell Esch, Venmo’s Senior Vice President and general manager said “Our goal is to provide our customers with an easy-to-use platform that simplifies the process of buying and selling cryptocurrencies and demystifies some of the common questions and misconceptions that consumers may have.”

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Cryptocurrency

WEEK AHEAD: The great Crypto sell-off, external reserves continue upward trend

by with No Comment Businessfinance

THE GREAT CRYPTO SELL-OFF

The coming week would be accompanied by bearish trend in the crypto-community. The Crypto is under intense selling pressure amid the recent sell-offs in the crypto-verse, as the fast-ever-changing Crypto market lost over $200 billion in value within a few hours.

READ ALSO: Cryptocurrency Ban: Turkey, says risks are too big

The flagship crypto was down by more than 5,000 dollars pulling back below $60,000.

The crypto market has shed much of its stellar gains earlier recorded, as significant selling pressure from crypto investors pushed the value of cryptos lower across the market spectrum amid profit-taking. The global crypto market value was thus put at $2.03 trillion, a 10.42% plunge from its previous position.

Other Crypto assets like XRP, Bitcoin Cash EOS, lost as much as 20% within a twinkle of the eyes. Market pundits argue that a likely factor for such intense drop was the relatively high funding rates for taking long positions on Bitcoin alongside a strong dark cloud built around the $64,000-$65,000 price level.

Adding credence to such bias is Cantering Clark, a popular crypto strategist, who added that recent data points to the market cooling off arbitrarily. “50k and 80k strikes highest contract/notional for $BTC I think these writers will be happy and I am still in the same opinion that the end of April – May begins the shift that makes Bitcoin a less favourable long. No breakout, just range and rotation.”

Crypto pundits are of the opinion that a market correction has long been overdue after the sudden bullish move. The bearish trend prevailing at the bitcoin market is largely attributed to a significant amount of profit-taking in play, on the account that Bitcoin’s realized profits are at record highs and is anticipated to linger in the coming week.

BEARS DOMINATE THE NSE BANKING INDEX

The NSE Banking Index traded bearish at the end of the Friday’s trading session. 6 banks posted Gains and 4 Losses were recorded. The NSE Banking Index finished red with a loss of -0.52% adding to the -0.97% held in the previous trading session. The index dropped to 343.03 index points at the close of trading activities today.

Sterling Bank posted a substantial loss of -9.76% adding to the -0.61% held at the previous trading session pushing the price downwards from N1.70 to N1.49 and leading the top losers in the NSE Banking index.

Zenith Bank also saw another loss of -1.38% adding to the -0.91% held in the previous session pushing the price from N22.00 to N21.80. Jaiz Bank lost some profit from the +6.67% held in the previous trading session by posting a loss of -1.56% settling the price at N0.63.

Fidelity Bank broke the stalemate held at the previous trading session to post a loss of -2.83% settling the price at N2.39 from N2.47. Union Bank posted profits of +2.20% to settle the price at N4.65. UBA also made gains of +2.21% pushing the price downwards to N6.95 from N6.80.

Wema Bank recovered from the decline in the previous session to post gains of (+1.79%) pushing the price to N0.58 from N0.55. GT Bank also posted a profit of +1.39% moving price from 28.75 to N29.15. Access Bank made a decisive move from its stalemate position with gains of +0.66% settling the price at N7.60. Ecobank made profits of (+1.04%) settling the price at N4.90.

Outlook for the coming week look promising as Market sentiment trends towards recovery as 6 companies in the NSE Banking Index made gains as opposed to 4 losses at the end of Friday’s trading session.

GRADUAL RECOVERY IN THE NIGERIAN STOCK EXCHANGE

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Cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency Ban: Turkey, says risks are too big

by with No Comment BusinessfinanceNews

Turkey bans Cryptocurrency payments, says risks are too big

The Turkish central bank banned the use of cryptocurrency as a form of payment from April 30, saying the level of anonymity behind the digital tokens brings the risk of “non-recoverable” losses.

READ ALSO: IMF warns against CBN fiscal deficit financing

The curbs also prohibit companies that handle payments and electronic fund transfers from processing transactions involving cryptocurrency platforms, according to a decree published in the official government gazette on Friday.

A lack of regulation, supervision mechanisms or central regulatory authority, combined with the potential for criminal activity and the high volatility of their market value, mean digital tokens entail “significant risks,” the central bank said in a statement on its website.

In March, the Treasury and Finance Ministry said it shared the “global concern” about the development of cryptocurrencies.

The ministry signaled it was working on regulations in cooperation with the central bank, the banking regulator and Turkey’s capital markets board.

Complaints from Turks mentioning cryptocurrencies soared by 8,616% in February from a year earlier, according to data from consumer forum Sikayetvar.

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Bitcoin

Bitcoin Market Cap Hit $1trn, Above Apple, Amazon

by with No Comment Businessfinance

Bitcoin market capitalisation has notched the $1 trillion mark putting it ahead of Apple and Amazon.

READ ALSO: Counting on in-store transactions, Burger King berths in Nigeria

Data from cryptocurrency trading simulator, Crypto Parrot indicates that it took bitcoin just 12 years to hit the current capitalisation, the least time frame than four leading traditional assets.

Among the overviewed assets, Microsoft (MSFT) took almost half a century at 44 years to hit the $1 trillion valuations, representing 3.6 times more time than bitcoin. Apple (AAPL) required 42 years to hit the milestone, meaning bitcoin hit the mark 3.5 times faster than the electronics giant.

Elsewhere, it took Amazon (AMZN) 24 years to hit the $1 trillion in market capitalization representing double the period than bitcoin. Lastly, bitcoin took at least 1.75 times faster to hit the $1 trillion market cap when compared to Google’s (GOOG) 21 years.

The report explores the nature of growth between bitcoin and the highlighted mainstream assets over the past year.

“Based on bitcoin’s recent market cap rate growth, the asset will potentially surpass the highlighted traditional assets’ value at some point in the future. Although the technology stocks have soared from last year, none has been able to outperform bitcoin”, noted Crypto Parrot

Furthermore, as bitcoin adoption becomes more mainstream, it can amass a higher market cap than the traditional assets, according to the report “

“If bitcoin sustains the growth coupled with increased institutional adoption that will lower volatility, the market cap might surpass some mainstream assets. The achievement is possible considering the bitcoin market cap has exceeded other formidable players like Tesla.”

The adoption of bitcoin by institutions spells good fortunes for the asset in the future.

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Bitcoin

Visa joins cryptocurrency market, now allows crypto transaction, but not bitcoin

by with No Comment financeNews

Visa joins cryptocurrency market, now allows crypto transaction, but not bitcoin

Visa has become the latest payment company to accept cryptocurrency, as the firm made its first cryptocurrency transaction this month.

READ ALSO: 45% of N75bn MSMEs survival fund provided for women owned businesses

The incorporation of crypto into its payment options followed Mastercard plans to accept bitcoin.

Visa partnered with digital asset bank, Anchorage, to conduct its first transaction using Crypto.com to send USDC to Visa’s Ethereum address at Anchorage. Head of crypto at Visa, Cuy Sheffield, said the move was encouraged by consumer demand.

Sheffield said the company experienced an increase in customer demand, prompting the firm to conduct a test at an unspecified date. He stated that the company’s clients want product built in line with the digital asset.

Visa is not going in the same direction as most companies embracing cryptocurrency, as it preferred USD Coin (USDC), which is a stablecoin digital asset with a value pegged directly to the dollar.

READ ALSO: United States to make second bitcoin sales, as CBN refuses to innovate

Speaking on its entry into the crypto market, Sheffield said, “We see increasing demand from consumers across the world to be able to access, hold and use digital currencies and we’re seeing demand from our clients to be able to build products that provide that access for consumers”, he told Reuters on Monday.

Global payment companies are beginning to embrace cryptocurrency as it becomes popular among investors and online shoppers.

Although, in Nigeria, payment companies are still keeping distance due to the Central Bank of Nigeria’s ban on crypto transactions.

Aside from payment firms, manufacturers and service providers are also stepping into the market.

Last week, Tesla founder, Elon Musk had announced that his automaker will now accept cryptocurrency as payment for its vehicles.

Musk said bitcoin is the preferred crypto, as he and the company bet big on bitcoin becoming a traditional payment option in the future.

He said Tesla will remain exposed to crypto through bitcoin, as payment made will not be converted into fiat.

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Cryptocurrency

CBN Denies Placing New Restrictions On Cryptocurrency.

by with No Comment financeNews

The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, (CBN), Gowin Emefiele has denied that the apex bank place new restrictions on the use of cryptocurrency noting that the recent directive was to protect the financial system and generality of Nigeria from the risk inherent in crypto-asset transactions.

READ ALSO: CBN: Digital economy to drive growth, create jobs

CBN in a directive to financial institutions barred banks and other financial institutions in the country from facilitating cryptocurrency. The bank regulator had on February 5, 2021, sent a letter to all local financial institutions to shut down all bank accounts associated with cryptocurrency trading platforms.

This directive generated uproar some quarters and economic analysts who commended the commitment towards building a digital economy.

The CBN Governor in a keynote address at the 30th Seminar for Finance Correspondents and Business Editor over the weekend explained that the directive was not new but only amplified an earlier regulation on the subject of cryptocurrency.

“The recent directive became necessary to protect the financial system and the generality of Nigerian from the risk inherent in crypto-asset transactions, which have escalated in recent time, with consequences on financial stability and implementation of monetary policy.”

He however added, ” our policy does not preclude Nigerian from harnessing the underlying technology that supports crypto transactions, which is distributed ledger, commonly referred to as a blockchain.”

Emefiele disclosed further that there are several examples where blockchain technology has been used to facilitate and improve transparency in the settlement of trade transactions.

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