TBD, a subsidiary of Block, owned by Jack Dorsey, has formed a partnership with Chipper Cash, an Africa-focused fintech company. This partnership aims to expedite consumer remittances and make them more affordable. According to a statement, Chipper Cash plans to use the decentralized exchange protocol of TBD. This will enable trusted transactions that comply with […]
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Philippine Central Bank Approves Peso-Pegged Stablecoin for Faster Remittances
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the central bank of the Philippines, has approved PHPC, a stablecoin pegged to the Philippine peso, aimed at facilitating cost-effective remittances. Crypto exchange Coins.ph, the stablecoin issuer, plans to attract 20,000 to 30,000 users in the first month. The PHPC will be the first peso-backed stablecoin available for retail use, […]
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Coinbase Introduces New Features For Global Remittances
Coinbase, an American-based cryptocurrency exchange, has revealed its latest wallet features for transferring money internationally without going through the traditional hurdles.
Significance Of Coinbase New Transfer Features
On Tuesday, Coinbase announced its latest feature for its wallet to simplify and hasten global money transfers. The new feature is presented as a user-friendly procedure.
According to the crypto firm, the new initiative is described as “Send money with a link.” Within the Coinbase Wallet, users can generate a link to distribute via their favorite social media platforms.
However, the exchange noted that the wallet must be owned by both the receiver and the sender of the money. Furthermore, users who do not have the wallet, when emailed a link, will be prompted to download it from Apple or Android app stores.
The crypto company further asserted the safety of the new initiative. Coinbase noted that failure to retrieve sent funds within weeks will automatically send the money back to the sender. The company stated:
When your recipient clicks the shared link, it’ll take them into the Coinbase Wallet app to claim or direct them to download the Coinbase Wallet app on iOS or Android and create a new wallet in just 1-click. It’s that simple. And if the funds are not claimed within 2 weeks, they will automatically be returned to the sender.
Coinbase has highlighted several situations where this new feature is “very efficient and helpful.” These include paying off debts with friends, giving last-minute gifts, and tipping tour guides and other service providers.
In addition, the feature sparks a swift money-sending procedure. This eliminates downloading different apps or sorting through many usernames and profiles. Furthermore, the crypto firm asserted that the new feature is vital for people in high-inflation economies.
Latest Feature To Eliminate Payment Irregularities
The procedure eliminates the expenses and complications of using traditional methods to send money globally. Traditionally, sending money globally has required sifting through a complex web of bank account and routing details.
In addition, these transactions take longer to process, mostly up to five working days. However, the Coinbase wallet boasts instantaneous settlement and zero-fee transactions.
Coinbase wallet is supported by over 170 countries worldwide and is available in 20 languages. This guarantees the ability to send and receive money virtually anywhere.
Furthermore, it currently supports local fiat onramps from more than 130 countries. These include top payment processors like Pix in Brazil, Instant P2P Bank in Nigeria, and GCash in the Philippines.
Africa-Focused Remittances Fintech Zazuu Shut Downs After Failing to Secure Additional Funding
An Africa-focused remittances firm, Zazuu, has become the latest fintech startup to close shop after it failed to raise extra funding. Zazuu and other African fintechs’ funding problems are said to be linked to the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in the U.S.
Zazuu Shuts Down Just Over a Year After Raising Million
Zazuu, an Africa-focused cross-border remittances fintech startup, recently said its inability to secure additional funding had forced it to shut down. The startup’s decision to close shop come just over a year after it raised million from investors that included Launch Africa, Founders Factory, and rapper Tinie Tempah.
In a Linkedin post explaining the “difficult news,” Zazuu said it had worked hard to make cross-border money transfers “fair.” However, the funding climate ultimately made it impossible for the startup to continue operating.
“With the support of our investors and team, we made huge strides – securing regulatory approvals, building our products, and laying the groundwork for future growth.
However, due to a tough funding climate, we failed to secure [a] growth funding
round. We explored every option before making this decision,” Zazuu said in a statement.
According to a Techcabal report, Zazuu is the latest fintech startup in 2023 to cite funding challenges as the primary reason for closing shop. Lazerpay, Paystack, and Vibra are some of the fintech firms which have either shut down or scaled down operations due to funding challenges.
African Fintechs ‘Need Favourable Funding’
Meanwhile, in his reaction to Zazuu’s announcement, Linkedin user and entrepreneur Ogar Phil Blaize suggested that the closure could be linked to the demise of the Silicon Valley Bank. Before its collapse, the bank had primarily focused on supporting tech businesses both in and outside the U.S. However, in his Nov. 20 post, the Linkedin user implied that there has been no bank focused on supporting African fintechs since Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse.
Therefore, in order to end the cycle of African fintechs shutting down due to lack of funding, Blaize said:
“Many startups affected with this dilemma, especially African startups will need favourable funding again to stand up else now or later we will be hearing more shut down.”
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Africa-Focused Remittances Fintech Lemfi Raises $33 Million in Series A Funding Round
An Africa-focused remittances platform, Lemfi, recently said it has raised million in a Series A round led by Left Lane Capital. Lemfi said it will use the capital raise to “expand its product offering to the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.”
Making Remittances Less Complicated
Lemfi, an Africa-focused remittances platform, recently raised a million in a Series A round which was led by Left Lane Capital. In a press statement, Lemfi, which has a presence in Canada and the U.K., said it will use the capital raise to “expand its product offering to the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.”
In comments accompanying the capital raise announcement, Ridwan Olalere, a co-founder and CEO of Lemfi, seemingly characterized the successful round as an endorsement of the company’s objective of making financial services more accessible to immigrants. Olalere, who claims to have seen first-hand the challenges faced by migrants, also spoke of how Lemfi’s product offering has already made things less complicated for more than half a million people.
We’ve already made life easier for over half a million people, but we’re only just getting started. Our product is a game changer for users since traditional banks and other leading neo-banks have always steered clear of less common or more volatile currencies.
Olalere also suggested that before startups like Lemfi came along, many migrants were forced to use unsafe and informal channels when sending funds to their loved ones.
Launched in 2020 to enable low-cost remittance payments to Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya, Lemfi has since added 10 new African remittance corridors. The addition followed the fintech startup’s acquisition of the licensed U.K.-based Rightcard Payment Services in late 2021. According to a press statement, Rightcard Payment Services has also secured an International Money Transfer Operator (IMTO) license from the Nigerian central bank.
Matthew Miller, principal at Left Lane Capital, lauded Lemfi’s willingness to build a “robust network of financial institution partners to facilitate cross-border payments for immigrants.” Miller added that his organization is happy to support Lemfi’s future endeavours.
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World Wide Web Inventor Tim Berners-Lee Says Crypto Is ‘Really Dangerous’ but Can Be Useful for Remittances
World Wide Web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee says cryptocurrency is “really dangerous” and “only speculative.” While claiming that crypto is for those who “want to have a kick out of gambling,” he noted that it could be useful for remittances.
Sir Tim Berners-Lee on Crypto
Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the British computer scientist who is widely credited with the invention of the World Wide Web, shared his thoughts about cryptocurrency on CNBC’s “Beyond the Valley” podcast, published last week.
Berners-Lee called cryptocurrency “dangerous” and likened it to gambling. Claiming that “cryptocurrency can be 100% speculative” and “not linked to anything at all,” he opined:
It’s only speculative. Obviously, that’s really dangerous.
He asserted that crypto is for “if you want to have a kick out of gambling, basically.” He also compared cryptocurrency to the dot-com bubble, noting that people were valuing various internet stocks “because of what they imagined other people will value them in the future, so in other words it wasn’t based on revenue or anything real so the bubble came.” He further stressed: “Investing in certain things, which is purely speculative, isn’t what, where I want to spend my time.”
However, Berners-Lee said cryptocurrencies could be useful for remittances. He shared:
Having been using it for remittances, that seems to be the most useful thing, if you transfer stuff into blockchain because you can get that immediately to your family.
The British computer scientist emphasized: “Just don’t keep the currency … get rid of it, put it back into USD.”
What do you think about Tim Berners-Lee’s view on crypto? Let us know in the comments section below.
Global Remittances and CoinZoom’s ZoomMe Feature
The coronavirus pandemic has painted a different picture of our world when it comes to international money transfers, especially the kinds that come from employed migrant workers.
The World Bank reveals that global remittances have declined 20% over the year 2020, with a 19.7% drop in remittances to low and middle-income countries. Part of that involves changes in policy by host nations, and other aspects relate to changes in the migration habits of populations dealing with fear and uncertainty around the virus.
It’s unfortunate, because global remittances are a vital source of income for developing countries, and the trend also represents different kinds of economic decline linked to a lower volume of transactions in individual markets. Global remittances are important for families, too; they are a major way that breadwinners provide for others in their households, often calculating a “season” of foreign work and an eventual return home.
However, although global remittance volumes are down, there are some bright spots on the horizon. One of them is the revolutionary replacement of traditional technologies with new frictionless banking verification systems that can help make global remittances cheaper and easier overall.
CoinZoom and ZoomMe
The CoinZoom “ZoomMe” feature is a peer-to-peer fiat and crypto remittance system that allows users to send money in the form of fiat currency, or cryptocurrency, internationally without some of the trouble involved in prior transaction models. Some people have called ZoomMe a “Venmo for crypto,” which combines the frictionless technology of money platforms like PayPal, Venmo and Zelle with cryptocurrency-first philosophy and build that unlocks opportunity for a large population of unbanked or bank-averse citizens, or others who just want the security and convenience of cryptocurrency solutions.
Even in fairly recent times, those wanting to send money internationally had to use the outdated SWIFT protocol, or line up at Western Union to allow third-party stakeholders to manage these transactions. Now it’s as easy as utilizing resources like CoinZoom Visa cards to perform global remittances without traditional barriers. A series of five Visa card options, Select, Preferred, Gold, Platinum and Black cards, have their own ZoomMe global remittance limitations per day: for example, Select cardholders can send up to 0 per day, and other classes of cardholders can send more.
What’s Behind ZoomMe?
The CoinZoom platform is a new fully secure and regulated U.S. exchange that’s bringing confidence to traders, in a time when regulatory problems are spreading fear in the market.
It’s important to have accessibility to fiat and crypto assets, and excellent features for transactional flow. But compliance is also a core requirement for all stakeholders, from the leaders who take on the responsibility of “owning” platform functionality, to the rank and file investors who are putting their hard-earned capital to work.
With its Ethereum ERC20 utility token, trading ecosystem and global remittance engine, CoinZoom has the processes in place to bring it into full regulatory compliance with agencies around the world. The platform has qualified as an approved MSB (money services business) in all 50 U.S. states, showing that leaders have done the work in meeting standards set by government officials.
It’s an exciting time in crypto, and much of the best opportunity arrives on platforms that have made regulatory compliance the first priority. Take a look at all of the features and functionality, including global remittance potential and trading assistance, that are built into the CoinZoom virtual community platform, new ways of doing things that can open doors and pave the way to a brighter financial future.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
National Bank of Egypt Joins RippleNet for Blockchain Remittances
The post National Bank of Egypt Joins RippleNet for Blockchain Remittances appeared first on DCEBrief.
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