Nigeria's Presidential Candidate, Bukola Saraki, Pledges His Support to Digital Currency

The presidential candidate, Bukola Saraki of the People's Democratic Party of Nigeria in an interview voiced his support for Digital currency and thinks the adoption of digital currency in Nigeria could be of huge benefit to the country's economy.

According to the former Senate President of Nigeria, Bukola Saraki, the digital currency has greatly provided opportunities for youths (jobs opportunities) as he said, ”I also think it has helped especially the young generation in creating jobs and opportunities. And anything that creates jobs and an enabling environment for people to do their businesses, I am in support of that. So, yes, I am in support of that...” but he also emphasized the need for regulations on the space to prevent illegal activities such as money laundering and other criminal activities that could be done in the space.

The Unending Rise in Crypto Trading in Nigeria

According to reports, the Nigerian central bank has since February 5, 2021, place a ban on cryptocurrency transactions and restriction was given to financial institutions and financial private sectors from authorizing crypto transactions in the country. And to this effect a fee was passed into law against the act of crypto trading to any financial institute, hence, forcing all financial sectors in Nigeria to shut down all angles of crypto trading.

Nevertheless, this hasn't in any way reduced the trading activities of cryptocurrency to wanned off, but instead, a report has proven that the number of users participating in crypto trading has increased above 2,400% from January 2021 to January 2022 according to Punch Nigeria. While techpoint survey states that over 70 million Nigerians have traded cryptocurrency in the last six months while still ranked as the top crypto trading country in Africa.

Due to the ban, users have resulted in peer-to-peer transactions through trading platforms such as Paxful and Binance exchange, and roughly a trading volume of over $400 million

Meanwhile, in the interview, Saraki believes that regulating the space is what is needed to accommodate adoption in Nigeria rather than the ban placed by CBN.

Thia's Big Bank, Siam Commercial Bank Announces It's Intension to Hugely Invest in DeFi

The venture capital arm of Thailand’s oldest bank, Siam Commercial, announces reinvesting into DeFi, according to a report on Bloomberg

Global Cryptocurrency Bloodbath

It is not news that there has been a bloodbath in the Crypto space with over 50% crash of general crypto price by market cap as the GC/USD Chart on Coinmarket Cap showcases a drop in global crypto price from $2.7 Trillion as of the 16th of November 2021 to $1.2 Trillion today's price. The total value locked (TVL) has more than halved from $252 billion earlier this year to $93 billion yesterday. GMT dropped 37% in 24hrs and Altcoins such as Solana, Avalanche and Polkadot prices crashed as huge as 20%, terra was not left out as it lost over 90% in the general sea of red in the space from $119 to $0.0001 which is next to nothing. It has been all red in the space.

Not regarding any of these factors, the oldest bank in Thailand, Siam Commercial (SCB) reveals the intention to invest hugely in the crypto space.

It was reported by Bloomberg that SCB has previously sustained losses in the space as it was revealed that an undisclosed amount was invested to Compound Treasury which offers a 4% return on deposits. This investment took place a few weeks after the price crash in Terra Network. For this, 

Mukaya Panich, who is the Chief Investment Officer of SCB 10X, sees the possibility that the alliance between both companies and the tight regulations that would be enforced on DeFi would bring about a bullish trend in the space, as Panich said that the crash is likely to invite tighter regulations over DeFi, making the space more palatable for institutional traders. He also disclosed in one of his tweets.

The idea is that Siam Commercial Bank will develop risk monitoring tools that will help to track parameters on Compound in a similar manner to a bank.  Through Compound, it will also explore incorporating DeFi yield generating products into Siam Commercial’s products.

Despite growing crypto adoption, most major trading houses are still hesitant towards DeFi. A lack of regulation over the space, coupled with the need to directly hold crypto are likely the two major factors influencing this.

But with the advent of products such as Compound’s treasuries, this trend could change.