Skip to main content

MLB Team Washington Nationals Partners With Terra Blockchain Community, Ballpark Plans to Accept UST

On February 9, the American professional baseball team based in Washington, D.C., the Washington Nationals, announced the team has partnered with Terra, the open-source blockchain platform and decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). The Washington Nationals detail that the team is a “leading innovator” and is “consistently introducing new technologies to enhance the fan experience.” Washington Nationals Ink Long-Term Deal With Terra Major League Baseball (MLB) team the Washington Nationals has partnered with the blockchain platform and DAO Terra, according to an announcement published by the team on Wednesday. The deal with Terra follows a slew of sports-related deals with crypto firms, but the MLB team will be the first to partner with an open-source blockchain project. In addition to the partnership, the algorithmic stablecoin UST that’s issued on the Terra blockchain will be “accepted as a payment method at Nationals Park as early as next season.” “The Nationals continue t...

Ghanaian Startup Bitsika Africa Processed $40 Million in Crypto Remittances in 2020, up 3,900% Year-on-Year

Ghanaian Startup Bitsika Africa Processed $40 Million in Crypto Remittances in 2020, up 3,900% Year-on-Year

Bitsika Africa, a crypto startup operating out of Ghana and Nigeria, said Monday that it processed almost $40 million in remittances in 2020, up from just under $1 million the previous year.

Founder and chief executive officer Atsu Davoh said that deposits accounted for $18.87 million of the total volume, with payouts making up $17.89 million. Internal peer-to-peer transfers made up $3.19 million of total volume, he added.

Davoh did not reveal how much of the total volume constituted bitcoin (BTC)-denominated remittances. The CEO had not responded to questions sent to him at Press time.

Bitsika, which allows users to buy and sell bitcoin, as well as to send or receive money in crypto or fiat, reported that revenue soared to $1.03 million in 2020 from just $329 in 2019. That’s a 312,000% increase year-on-year.

To transact on the platform, users can deposit the Ghanaian cedi, Nigerian naira, U.S. dollar or the CFA franc, a currency used by 14 former French colonies in West and Central Africa, into the Bitsika account via bank transfer, cash, and mobile money. Bitcoin and the BUSD stablecoin can also be deposited.

Davoh said about 96,000 people are using the Bitsika app, with 95% of the registered users coming in 2020. Some 16,507 individual users made at least one successful transaction during the year. In total, 268,430 transactions were processed via the platform in 2020.

“These volumes are from self-determined, autonomous [successful] transactions that users initiated and performed themselves. We did not count system transactions that users did not initiate,” Davoh asserted, in a thread on Twitter.

Going forward, Bitsika Africa is planning to raise an undisclosed amount of money in 2021, “get our own licenses in all the markets we operate, start our internship program for the design and tech communities and provide more features in our app to expand our reach in and beyond fintech.”

Crypto-based remittances are booming in Africa mainly because they are considerably cheaper and faster compared to fiat remittances. For example, it costs a fraction of one cent to send any amount of money via the Bitcoin cash network. By comparison, banks will charge an average of 10.89% of the amount being remitted, according to a new World Bank study.

In December, Nigeria’s Yellow Card revealed that it had processed $165 million in crypto remittances during the first 11 months of 2020.

What do you think about the crypto remittance business in Africa? Let us know in the comments section below.

The post Ghanaian Startup Bitsika Africa Processed $40 Million in Crypto Remittances in 2020, up 3,900% Year-on-Year appeared first on Bitcoin News.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

MLB Team Washington Nationals Partners With Terra Blockchain Community, Ballpark Plans to Accept UST

On February 9, the American professional baseball team based in Washington, D.C., the Washington Nationals, announced the team has partnered with Terra, the open-source blockchain platform and decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). The Washington Nationals detail that the team is a “leading innovator” and is “consistently introducing new technologies to enhance the fan experience.” Washington Nationals Ink Long-Term Deal With Terra Major League Baseball (MLB) team the Washington Nationals has partnered with the blockchain platform and DAO Terra, according to an announcement published by the team on Wednesday. The deal with Terra follows a slew of sports-related deals with crypto firms, but the MLB team will be the first to partner with an open-source blockchain project. In addition to the partnership, the algorithmic stablecoin UST that’s issued on the Terra blockchain will be “accepted as a payment method at Nationals Park as early as next season.” “The Nationals continue t...

Year of sponsorships: Celebrities who embraced crypto in 2021

From Matt Damon appearing in a TV spot for Crypto.com to Kim Kardashian shilling EthereumMax, 2021 saw celebrities with higher profiles getting into crypto. Though the crypto space has seemingly moved beyond the endorsements many minor celebrities bestowed on token projects during the 2018 initial coin offering boom, its growing popularity and acceptance now has professional sports players, Hollywood elites and politicians backing major companies dealing with digital assets. In June 2021, Kim Kardashian promoted EthereumMax (EMAX) via an Instagram story shared with  her more than 200 million followers . The token, which was used as payment for online ticket purchases for some pay-per-view events, gained 116,000% in just one week following the celebrity’s activity before falling more than 99% and leaving many investors in the red. Kim Kardashian promoting EthereumMax on Instagram Stories, June 2021. Source: Instagram Though EthereumMax is somewhat of a cautionary tale for cry...

Top 3 Rebase Token Markets Shudder — Stats Show TIME, OHM, BTRFLY Lost Billions Since All-Time Highs

While the crypto economy has shed more than 3% in fiat value during the last 24 hours dropping to $2.09 trillion, the top rebase tokens by market capitalization have seen significant losses this week. At the time of writing, the rebase token economy is valued at over $3.2 billion but has lost more than 10% in value during the last 24 hours. The largest rebase token economies such as Wonderland, Olympus, and Redacted Cartel have shed between 36% to 55% over the last week. Top 3 Rebase Token Protocols Shed Billions in Value Over the Last Week, Wonderland Down 87% Since High On the first day of November 2021, Bitcoin.com News took a deep dive into the Olympus DAO and the reserve-backed asset called OHM . Olympus is a decentralized finance (defi) project that is described as a rebase token and since Olympus started, a myriad of Olympus forks have been born. Essentially, rebase token protocols adjust the token supply in a periodic fashion or when the price fluctuates. Olympus was once ...