Cryptocurrency is still on the rise, especially the most notable of them all: Bitcoin. AfroTech previously reported on the basics of digital currency and debunked some myths about the growing market, and we’ll even explore this topic further at AfroTech 2021. View this post on Instagram A post shared by AfroTech (@afro.tech) Cryptocurrency expert Isaiah Jackson, author of “Bitcoin & Black America” and co-host of “The Gentlemen of Crypto,” is a huge advocate for bitcoin education, especially in the Black community. With nearly 19,000 subscribers, his YouTube show is a daily live stream that discusses Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency market from the lens of two Black men who are Certified Bitcoin Professionals. One of “The Gentlemen of Crypto’s” core values is bridging cryptocurrency and the community, its website reads. “We cannot miss, in my opinion, the biggest financial revolution of our lifetime,” Jackson told AT about Black people getting educated on bitcoin. “And we can’t be left...

The spurious offspring of Twitch and Slack, Trading.TV recently announced the closing of a $6.1 million seed. The round was led by Tribe Capital, Navy Capital, L Catterton Growth, and Activant, Benzinga previously reported. A portion of the revenue will open a $1 million creator fund which will prioritize the monetization and growth of creative platforms before the fall projections for public availability. Founder and CEO Tobias Heaslip recognized a shift in lucrative revenue for the emerging creative economy during his decade tenure as a trader and analyst. His previous roles involved contributions for Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and Barclays. “It was sort of the golden age of investment banking as it relates to TMT deals and social media was just becoming an investable asset class,” Heaslip revealed in a statement.

When Quidax first launched in 2018, the African crypto exchange was entering a market that was nothing if not volatile. But with the explosion in popularity of such cryptocurrencies as Dogecoin and Bitcoin, the world of cryptocurrency is a very different one in 2021. And with this in mind, Quidax — which has already processed more than $3 billion in transactions, as of this writing — is ready to take the exchange global. In a press release announcement, it was revealed that the African crypto exchange first started thinking about its growth back in February of this year. They noted that they started with 50 customers in 2018, and exponentially exploded to over 400,000 customers in 2021. “We are set to become the global home of BEP20 tokens. This means that anyone in the world can trade over 100 cryptocurrencies in the Binance Smart Chain ecosystem on Quidax,” said Buchi Okoro, the CEO of Quidax, in the press release announcement. The African crypto exchange has also announced that...

Rapper Lil Yachty is making a splash in the cryptocurrency world with his own personal venture. This week, the Grammy-nominated artist became the latest celebrity to try his hand at the $509.5 billion-valued global crypto market with the launch of his very own self-named currency, the “YachtyCoin,” Forbes reports . According to Complex, the newly-introduced currency will act as a “social token” in his name, popularity, and influence that will be offered up as leverage to purchase his work through the coin. Lil Yachty’s Ethereum-based token will reportedly debut on Fyooz — a “fully compliant, Swiss regulated, global platform where celebrities and influencers can issue their own cryptocurrency via the process of tokenization on the blockchain,” according to a statement from Fyooz. https://twitter.com/fyooz_io/status/1333888278135795717?s=20 The global pandemic has placed a huge strain on the music industry this year. Social distancing rules has forced it to pivot to creative tactics...

Black Girls Code has partnered with blockchain software technology company, ConsenSys, to launch an international training program aimed at helping young Black girls learn about cryptocurrency and the foundations of blockchain technology. Students in the program will get the opportunity to participate in blockchain developer conferences, including a hackathon sponsored by ConsenSys. “The ConsenSys team has consistently impressed me with their commitment to creating pathways for access and inclusion within the blockchain ecosystem and their passion for introducing these tools to the next generation of coders,” said Kimberly Bryant, Black Girls Code’s CEO to Forbes. The curriculum will reach Black Girls Code chapters all over the world, from Oakland, New York City, Atlanta and Johannesburg, South Africa, according to  Forbes. Black Girls Code has introduced 60 young women of color to blockchain technology since last August, educating students on how to make their own smart contracts...

The price of Bitcoin dropped significantly over the weekend and continued to fall Monday marking a new low in the cryptocurrency’s value. Bitcoin fell as low as $3,520 reflecting a 36 percent drop from Monday’s opening price of $5,553, according to Coindesk. At press time, it crept back up and hovered around $3,700 on Bitstamp. After recently celebrating ten years, this becomes the worst drop the best-known digital currency has ever experienced. In April 2013 prices dropped from $165  to $91. The price of the cryptocurrency hit an all-time high almost a year ago reaching $20,000 in December 2017 , bringing the decline to 80 percent. The performance of the virtual currency has struggled this year as the price of one bitcoin has dropped $15,000 since its 2017 high with a loss of $700 billion, according to CNBC . Investors say they predict the cryptocurrency will continue to decline to 85 percent from its peak.    

As cryptocurrency and blockchain gain traction across the world, more Black women are entering the space, building companies and even creating their own coin. However, Black women thriving in this growing sector say their work is going unseen. The cryptocurrency market is fairly new and coins like Bitcoin , Ethereum and Litecoin have become the most popular, but anyone can create a cryptocurrency. “ Bitcoin set a precedent for how you popularize a currency and how to add value to it,” said Tavonia Evans, creator of Guap Coin . “ A lot of people don’t have the understanding that cryptocurrency is real money. You can really use it, you can cash it out.” Evans created Guap Coin as a way to support Black-owned businesses and philanthropic initiatives. “It’s one thing to support Black businesses and to buy Black, but if you don’t have a platform to be able to see how it’s growing and how it has an impact, then it becomes a movement that dies,” Evans said. Guap Coin was originally built...