Author: Elan

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Japan’s House of Councilors approved Cabinet Bill 57 by majority vote on July 15, completing Diet passage of legislation that will move regulated crypto activity into the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act.The legal framework is now in place, but traders may still wait until 2027 or 2028 for the new market rules and 20% tax rate to take effect.The official upper-house record says the core crypto provisions take effect on a date set by Cabinet order within one year of promulgation. Enforcement during 2026 would start the tax rules on Jan. 1, 2027; enforcement during 2027 would move that start…

Oluwatobi Ajayi built Ivorypay, a stablecoin payment infrastructure provider, on the conviction that Africa’s payment challenge is not simply the lack of another consumer-facing app but the absence of reliable infrastructure for businesses to receive, convert, hold, and settle value across markets. His view is that African businesses can already find customers beyond their home markets. What is unresolved is how they can receive payment quickly, cheaply, and scalably.  Consumer payments have advanced. Cross-border business settlement still lags. Africa’s consumer payments story has largely been told already. Mobile money turned phones into bank accounts for hundreds of millions of people;…

While it’s convenient to pay for things with a tap of your phone, there’s still a bit of a dance that you have to go through before the actual payment happens. If you use Google Wallet, there are a few tweaks you can make to save a few seconds every time you have to pay. Depending on your spending patterns, that can end up saving you quite a bit of time, and the person in line behind you will certainly appreciate it. Make sure Google Wallet is your default payment method Get the basics right There’s a good chance that…

We highlight five West African private capital transactions, as featured in our Dealmaker’s Log, a database of reported investment deals, exits, and fundraising milestones. View the latest issue here1. Helios to acquire Nigerian glass businessFrigoglass Group has agreed to sell its entire shareholding in Frigoinvest Nigeria Holdings to Helios Investment Partners for up to €100 million. The Nigerian holding company owns Beta Glass and Frigoglass Industries Nigeria, which manufacture glass containers, plastic crates and metal crowns2. Mediterrania Capital Partners leads €100m co-investment in banking groupPrivate equity firm Mediterrania Capital Partners has announced a €100-million co-investment in Coris Holding, the second…

Francis Fukuyama’s 1990s end-of-history thesis was the last big narrative that united the liberal-democratic West. Western liberal-democratic welfare-state capitalism, he argued, was the best possible social system. The only remaining question was empirical: Precisely when and how would other parts of the world arrive at the same model? This narrative disintegrated after 2001, and we gradually entered the era of brutal pragmatism. The only consistent narrative was provided by Trumpian and European racist nationalists: The developed Christian West is an historical exception, a wealthy, freedom-loving civilization whose survival is under permanent threat from immigrants, “cultural Marxists,” LGBT+ partisans, and self-blaming…

Beyond the terror inflicted on non-nationals, people forced to leave mid-treatment have lost access to critical treatment, carrying clinical risks that will outlast the processing centres. On 29 June, public health professionals warned that the unlawful “30 June” deadline set by anti-migrant groups risked triggering a public health emergency. That warning has materialised: in just over a week, the government processed tens of thousands of people – driven from their homes by violence or the threat of it – through the Musina Temporary Repatriation Processing Centre and the Beitbridge border post. This process has been blind to people’s humanity, reducing…

Researchers at Stanford University and Singapore Management University found that Polymarket’s five-minute Bitcoin prediction markets create incentives for traders to manipulate spot prices around settlement, allowing sophisticated participants to profit at the expense of retail traders.The study examined contracts in which traders bet on whether Bitcoin’s price would end above or below a predetermined level after five minutes. Because the contracts settle using Chainlink price feeds based on Bitcoin’s price at the end of each trading window, traders have an incentive to influence the spot market immediately before settlement.Analyzing trading activity before and after Polymarket introduced the contracts in July…

In a bid to accelerate Nigeria’s clean energy transition, Sterling Bank and StarTimes Nigeria have launched Sterling Solar Financing Hubs inside StarTimes retail outlets. This initiative embeds on-the-spot solar financing at the point of purchase, with a joint target of reaching ₦2 billion in renewable energy financing by the end of 2026. The initiative builds on an existing partnership that has already facilitated over ₦600 million in solar financing transactions over the past year. The new 2026 target represents more than a threefold expansion, aimed at enabling thousands of Nigerian households and small businesses to transition to reliable, affordable, and…

Many companies assume everyone craves new AI features. But the reality is that most people don’t want more AI — at least not in the way most AI leaders envision it. Brought to you by Design Patterns For AI Interfaces, friendly video courses on UX and design patterns by Vitaly.Many companies silently assume that everybody wants more AI in their lives. That people are craving new AI features, new AI products, new AI workflows — that would all magically replace all existing outdated practices and broken ways of working.But in reality, it seems like people don’t want more AI at…