More rains falling in Nigeria: “Zenith Bank has once again surpassed expectations, reporting a record-breaking profit after tax (PAT) of N1.033 trillion for the 2024 financial year, a significant increase of 52.59% from the N677.98 billion posted in 2023…Zenith Bank’s remarkable financial performance in 2024 was largely fueled by the high-interest-rate environment in Nigeria, which significantly boosted earnings from loans and government securities. The Central Bank of Nigeria’s tight monetary policy, aimed at curbing inflation, created a favorable climate for banks to generate substantial interest income.”

The banks operate in Naija while other sectors operate in Nigeria. Move from Nigeria to Naija, and you will collect.

Note: if you do not like the banks’ profits, change your politicians. Yes, the banks will operate in the operating system they are provided with.  Forget the morals of making tons of money in a de-industrializing economy. Nothing new there: Nigeria has been financialized since 1990 when IBB substituted building factories for running financial institutions.

Today, the best business in Nigeria is giving loans provided you will find ways to ensure people pay you back! But since most loans are collateralized in Nigeria, the banks have nothing to lose and that is why it is raining big in the sector. Discover your Naija, and leave Nigeria because Naija has tons of profits and gains! Good luck.

Fidelity Investments officially registered the “Fidelity Solana Fund” as a statutory trust in Delaware on March 20, 2025. This move has sparked speculation about a potential spot Solana exchange-traded fund (ETF), though Fidelity has not confirmed an imminent ETF launch. The registration, filed under Delaware filing #10138042 by CSC Delaware Trust Company (a subsidiary of CSC, a business formation specialist), aligns with steps Fidelity took before launching its successful Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC), which now manages over $16.5 billion in assets. The filing signals Fidelity’s intent to expand its cryptocurrency offerings beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum, targeting Solana—a blockchain known for its high transaction speeds and growing ecosystem. While a Fidelity spokesperson confirmed the registration’s authenticity, they declined to elaborate on whether it’s a definitive precursor to an ETF proposal.

Fidelity also filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to register a tokenized version of its Fidelity Treasury Digital Fund (FYHXX), dubbed the “OnChain” share class. This fund, which primarily holds U.S. Treasury securities and cash, will leverage the Ethereum blockchain for enhanced onchain transparency and transaction tracking. The filing indicates that, pending regulatory approval, the product is expected to become effective on May 30, 2025. This move aligns Fidelity, managing approximately $5.8 trillion in assets, with other financial giants like BlackRock and Franklin Templeton, who are also exploring blockchain tokenization for traditional financial instruments. The OnChain class aims to provide verifiable tracking of share transactions, though Fidelity will maintain traditional book-entry records as the official ownership ledger.

MegaETH’s public testnet officially went live on March 6, 2025, marking a significant step forward for this high-performance Ethereum Layer 2 scaling solution. The rollout has been phased: from March 6 to March 10, the focus was on onboarding applications and infrastructure teams, allowing developers to integrate and adapt to MegaETH’s architecture. Starting March 10, broader user onboarding began, giving the public access to test the network’s capabilities. As of the latest updates, MegaETH’s testnet is delivering impressive performance—20,000 transactions per second (TPS) with 10-millisecond block times and up to 1.7 gigagas per second of single-threaded compute power.

Binance suspended an employee for misconduct involving insider trading related to a Token Generation Event (TGE). According to Binance’s statement, the employee, who previously worked at BNB Chain, allegedly used non-public information to purchase tokens before their public announcement and sold them for a profit afterward. The exact token involved, and the profit amount were not specified in the statement, so it’s unclear if this incident directly involves BNB tokens. Decrypt, confirm Binance’s investigation and suspension of the employee, but they do not provide details on the profit scale or confirm it was specifically BNB tokens traded.

The crypto market is experiencing a dynamic period shaped by macroeconomic shifts, regulatory developments, and industry consolidation including Circle/USDC approval in Japan and Coinbase’s potential acquisition of Deribit, Bitcoin (BTC) is trading around $85,201, 21.2% far from its all-time high of $108,786 set in January 2025. Analysts attribute this to a post-halving rally (April 2024) and renewed institutional interest, with over $4 billion flowing into BTC spot ETFs in the U.S. in Q1 2025 alone. Ethereum (ETH) hovers near $1907, 60.7% far from its all-time high of $4878 set in November 2021, bolstered by staking demand and DeFi growth, while Solana (SOL) and newer tokens like SUI and APT see gains from ecosystem expansions. The total crypto market cap sits at approximately $2.8 trillion, down 15% since January. Daily price swings have increased, with BTC’s 30-day volatility index hitting 60%, driven by leveraged trading in derivatives markets.

BlackRock has launched its first Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Product (ETP) in Europe. The iShares Bitcoin ETP is now trading on major European exchanges, including Xetra in Germany, Euronext Paris in France, and Euronext Amsterdam in the Netherlands. It is listed under the ticker IB1T on Xetra and Euronext Paris, and BTCN on Euronext Amsterdam. This move follows the success of BlackRock’s U.S.-based iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), which has amassed over $50 billion in assets since its launch in January 2024. The European ETP is domiciled in Switzerland and is physically backed by Bitcoin, with Coinbase serving as the custodian and Bank of New York Mellon as the administrator. It offers a temporary fee waiver of 10 basis points, reducing the expense ratio to 0.15% until December 31, 2025, after which it will rise to 0.25%. This launch taps into growing demand for cryptocurrency exposure in Europe, where the ETP market, though established, remains smaller than the U.S., with total assets around $13.6 billion compared to over $116 billion in U.S. Bitcoin ETFs.

Worldcoin (now often referred to as World Network) is reportedly in discussions with Visa to integrate card features into its self-custody crypto wallet, rather than fully “bringing credit card payments to crypto wallets” in the traditional sense. These talks aim to enhance the World Wallet by enabling functionalities such as stablecoin-based payments, fiat on-and-off ramps, and access to Visa’s extensive global merchant network. This would allow users to spend stablecoins at merchants that accept Visa, effectively bridging cryptocurrency with traditional payment systems. The partnership, still in negotiation as of March 25, 2025, is not finalized, and no official confirmation has been announced by either party. The goal appears to be transforming the World Wallet into a versatile financial tool—described as a “mini bank account”—that supports crypto transactions, foreign exchange, and fiat integration, leveraging Visa’s infrastructure.

Custodia Bank and Vantage Bank have launched what they claim to be the first bank-issued stablecoin in the United States, named “Avit.” This milestone was announced on March 25, 2025. The stablecoin will be issued on the Ethereum blockchain using the ERC-20 token standard, marking a significant integration of traditional banking with blockchain technology. The Avit stablecoin is backed by tokenized U.S. dollar demand deposits—funds that customers can withdraw on demand, such as those in checking accounts—held by the banks. This distinguishes it from many existing stablecoins, which are typically issued by non-bank entities and backed by cash equivalents like government debt. The process involved a series of test transactions, including minting, transferring, and redeeming Avit tokens for a bank customer, all conducted in compliance with U.S. banking regulations such as BSA (Bank Secrecy Act), AML (Anti-Money Laundering), and OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control) requirements.