First, this is not being organized by Tekedia Institute. Our learners do these events, including the meetups, hangouts, etc across cities. Many have come together and started companies, deepened their markets, pursued business opportunities together, and more.  I am very happy to share here as they plan to celebrate: Tekedia Mini-MBA Lagos-based members will have a graduation party on Saturday, May 28.

Thousands have noted that Tekedia Institute has transformed their outlooks in business and markets. I am confident that this graduation will extend our mission of providing the best possible business education on entrepreneurial capitalism, with both local and global perspectives.

More people will graduate from Tekedia Institute than any university in Africa this year. Also, we have more students from traditional universities than any institution in Africa. Here, everyone converges because our program truly impacts. Congratulations again. Please remember to apply for your certificate with admin if you have not.

To join the next edition of Tekedia Mini-MBA (Jun 6 – Sept, 2022), click here 

Gravity is pulling bitcoin down to earth. But that may not be the only story here. The biggest news is that Coinbase, the cryptocurrency exchange, is making a point that if it happens to go bankrupt, all the cryptos owned by members can  go: “Coinbase, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, said its users might lose access to their holdings if the company ever went bankrupt.”

A great irony in the world of decentralization where you decentralize on technology but centralize at the exchanges. For exchanges to run, they need bank accounts, and that means they need to be ordered by the ordinance of the fiat governments which register companies before banks can let them in. In other words, governments control exchanges and can have access to assets of those exchanges, including individual bitcoins depending on how courts, run by governments rule.

That discovery is causing panic in the world of Bitcoin. Coinbase has lost 86% of its value since IPO because the veil is being lifted. But of course, there is a way out: people need to go to the Capitol and ask the government to amend the necessary laws to help protect Bitcoin, etc. Hello, even the decentralized world needs a centralized world to have piece. Governments need to save Bitcoin!

“Because custodially held crypto assets may be considered to be the property of a bankruptcy estate, in the event of a bankruptcy, the crypto assets we hold in custody on behalf of our customers could be subject to bankruptcy proceedings and such customers could be treated as our general unsecured creditors,” the company said. That means users would lose access to their balances because they would become Coinbase’s property.

The Wall Street Journal was blunt with a heading – “Coinbase Says Users’ Crypto Assets Lack Bankruptcy Protections”. So, the big prayer is that the court has to protect Bitcoin assets if you expect institutional investors to touch the assets at large.

Finally, please stay calm. It is all coins: do not harm yourself because BTC is falling. A member called off at our school today because he is not happy with the Bitcoin price. That must not happen; do not harm yourself or others, please.

#Luna Issues: this crypto is dead

Worth $119.22 at its peak, LUNA LUNA -99.5%, the sister asset of troubled cryptocurrency TerraUSD UST -51.7%, collapsed to almost $0 overnight.

As of 10:45 a.m. ET, the token is trading at $0.005 with a market capitalization of $56 million, according to CoinMarketCap—a dramatic fall from $28 billion just a week ago. TerraUSD (UST), designed as an algorithmic stablecoin that should always be worth $1, lost its peg to the U.S. dollar last week, dropping to as low as 36 cents. It is currently worth $0.39.

Comment on LinkedIn Feed

Comment 1: Ironic that someone like you is a believer in big government. If coinbase’s stance is making a mockery of decentralisation, expect the market to solve that. There are people who believe in individual freedom and agency devoid of overlords, they have pushed that laudable agenda thus far, and we should hope that they win, for all our sakes. Governments are not needed, and they are not welcome in the crypto space.

My Response: Every crypto exchange is under the care of governments provided that exchange has a bank account. I do not understand how you can avoid that!

Follow up: You say that as if all the crypto assets being traded by millions of users round the globe somehow have their fiat equivalent passing through the exchange’s bank account. With all due respect, that’s not applicable all the time. In fact, it only applies in the rudimentary exchanges who have made the attempt to work round the FGN’s draconian anti-crypto policies. Trades occur between individuals, the exchange is where they meet to transact for a fee. Only those fees could go into the exchange ‘s bank account, if ever. If they close those bank accounts, the exchange does not cease to function. This is a monster that can’t be killed.

My Response to follow up: You made my point without acknowledging it. You can do what you noted with $200 in BTC. But if you want Goldman Sacks or Fidelity to invest $200 billion in BTC, it does not work that way. And without those, the growth will not happen. I can operate without a bank in my village, exchanging in Naira N400, N500, etc for years with kinsmen. But any day I want to do something big, invest or pay for N400 million, a bank account will become necessary. That is what is going on! How would you move $200 billion to someone with no KYC or known by anybody? Sure, BTC people can do that. But it may not be a smart move for any fund or company.

Comment 2: The power of a nation state is collective, not really divided as government vs people, because the people make up the government, so individual rebellion or recalcitrant attitude cannot stop a state from discharging its sacred duties. It is the very reason why suicide is illegal, and a state cannot watch you destroy your own wealth or lifesaving, just because you made them yourself, because if you go insane tomorrow or become a beggar, you will still create one more problem for the state.

Ideally, everyone would want to be left alone, whether in financial freedom or social adventures, unfortunately it’s impossible. As long as your identity is tied to a nation state, the state will always ‘meddle’ in your personal affairs, because you are part of its property, and the government has foremost responsibility of protecting lives and property…

The crypto universe should remain a play ground where young and creative people can try things out, figuring what works, while the state keeps a watch from the towers, even when the players believe that they are invisible; that way, we will all be fine.

My more response: You need to put more efforts to understand contexts. You can do your $100 BTC trading but those that will make BTC popular will not do that if the courts cannot protect their $billions in BTC. Just 30 years ago, email correspondence was not admissible in most global courts, discarding contracts executed via emails. Then govts passed laws and updated. Crypto is not a protected “asset” and serious money is rattled by that SEC update. Why send someone $200billion when you have no protection on it? I am not talking of your $10 in BTC, or $300 in BTC. I am talking of real money. Pay attention and stop the “you don’t understand “.

Comment 3:I understand that Coinbase made this disclosure based on how it accounts for Bitcoin in its financials. One can argue the wisdom of not demarcating customers assets from Coinbase. Or one can accept that SEC regulation is yet to catch up with advancement.

Coinbase chose to work with regulators to attract institutional investors. Hence, the accounting treatment. I’m sure things will eventually be okay seeing as the downturn is not restricted to crypto assets. That said, people should be mindful of so-called stable coins not backed by liquid assets. I’m sure you know what I’m referring to.

My Response: Good point. We need to understand that decades ago, emails were not admissible in courts, voiding contracts executed via emails. Laws were updated to change that. Today, crypto assets are not known by many laws. That is a problem for investors. So, regulators (yes governments) have to work.

The early 1990s defined Nigeria’s banking as the new generation banks were established therein. Those banks are the leading financial institutions in the nation today.

The early 2020s defined Nigeria’s telecommunication sector as the leading telcos of today were created therein. The 2010s saw the shift from voice telephony to data. 

The decade of 2020s will be about application utility where that data will power many sectors like education, logistics, financial services (fintech), etc, as young people build the stacks on the layer.

By 2030, I expect 80% of the richest Nigerians to have made money from technology. Nigeria is having its finest entrepreneurial cambrian moment. However, Nigeria will become super-unequal with pockets of crises everywhere if things are not well managed. The next phase will not create many jobs for the vast majority of the citizens. Yes, most of the citizens are not even trained for the opportunities therein.

Now is the time to plan for that future. Watch this video.

Jambo, a Congo-based startup building a Web 3 user acquisition platform has raised $30 million in Series A funding round led by Paradigm, marking the native crypto investing giant’s first investment in Africa. Additional participation in the round comes from ParaFi Capital, Pantera Capital, Delphi Ventures, Kingsway Capital, Gemini Frontier Fund, BH Digital, Graticule Asset Management Asia, Shima Capital, Morningstar Ventures, and more.

The startup will deploy the funds into boosting its personnel strength by doubling its team across Africa by the end of the year to provide the critical talent required to educate the continent on the potential of Web3 technology. Also, Jambo has expansion plans as it looks to expand into 15+ additional cities by the end of the year to have over 200K active community members, students, and ambassadors affiliated with its educational efforts.

The startup will also look to improve its services as it looks to onboard engineers to build a Web3 super app that will enable Africans to trade crypto, buy and sell NFTs, experience play-to-earn crypto games, and access top-notch global web3 applications.

Founded in 2021 by siblings Zhang James and Zhang Alice, Jambo was created with the mission to onboard the next million (and potentially billion) African people to Web3. The startup is building the Web3 super app that will educate, bank, and entertain the continent. Jambo aims to pioneer the largest, most influential Web3 user acquisition portal across the continent and serve as the bridge between Africa and applications from around the world seeking to tap into the African market.

“As blockchain and fintech enthusiasts ourselves, we’re bullish on Web3’s potential to bring prosperity to every corner of Africa, where we are seeing the youthful, educated and smartphone-savvy population already embracing crypto at a rapid clip — Africa’s crypto market grew 1200% in value in the past year alone. Equipping the continent with the correct tools to better harness this disruptive technology, however, is no simple task,” James noted.

“As Paradigm’s first investment in Africa, we couldn’t be more excited to partner with the Jambo team in this next phase of growth. We see massive Web3 potential in Africa and it’s clear that James and Alice are uniquely positioned to build a durable on-ramp for the continent,” Casey Caruso, Investment Partner at Paradigm said.

Driven by the passion for true Web3 transformation in Africa, Jambo has revealed it will partner with others to launch the AfricaDAO investment fund to empower and invest in startups who share in its vision and mission to positively impact lives of millions across Africa for decades to come.

“We’re hard at work finalizing our ecosystem of Web3 apps and are excited to reveal more when the time comes,” James added.

The investment denotes the increasing acceptance of cryptocurrency, Non-fungible Token (NFT), the meterverse and web3 among African countries. Last month, the Central African Republic passed a bill to adopt bitcoin as a legal tender, making it the second country in the world, after El Salvador, to do so.