FEATURES

Court declines arraignment of Mercy Chinwo’s ex-manager

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Justice Alexander Owoeye of the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos on Thursday halted the hearing of the charge filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, against Ezekiel Onyedikachi also known as Eezee Tee over what he described as an ‘Administrative’ procedure.

The EFCC had filed a four-count charge against Onyedikachi over alleged fraudulent conversion.

During the hearing on Thursday, Chikaosolu Ojukwu, SAN along with Dr Monday Ubani, SAN, announced appearance for Onyedikachi while Bilikisu Buhari announced appearance for the EFCC.

The defendant, Onyedikachi who had been absent at the last court hearing was however present in court.

After the parties announced their appearances, Justice Owoeye informed them of an ongoing administrative procedure in respect of the matter and that he would not be able to make any pronouncement in the case.

“There is an administrative procedure going on in this case, and until it is completed, I cannot make any pronouncement on it,” he said.

The judge also declined to grant the request by Mr Ojukwu that parties should maintain the status quo pending the completion of the administrative procedure.

He subsequently adjourned the matter till May 14.

[Vanguard]

Women’s History Month: Flora Nwapa, matriarch of contemporary African literature

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In 1966, a young Nigerian woman did what no African woman had done before. She published a novel with an international press company. The book, Efuru, was as much a milestone as it was a disruption.

At a time when African literature was dominated by male voices — Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o — Flora Nwapa insisted on something different. She put an African woman at the centre of the story.

Make no mistake. Nwapa didn’t just write literature. She carved out a space for African women in politics, publishing, storytelling, and history. More than 50 years later, her name is still mentioned with reverence, carrying the same weight as her male contemporaries.

A WOMAN OF MANY FIRSTS

NWAPA, THE WOMAN WHO CHANGED THE GAME FOR AFRICAN WOMEN IN LITERATURE

Born Flora Nwanzuruahu Nkiru Nwapa on January 13, 1931, in Oguta, present-day Imo state, she was the eldest of six children. Her father, Christopher Nwapa, was an agent for the United Africa Company (UAC), and her mother, Martha Nwapa, was a teacher. Education was non-negotiable in their home, and Flora excelled.

She attended Archdeacon Crowther Memorial Girls’ School before enrolling at the University of Ibadan, where she studied English, history, and geography. After graduating in 1957, she earned a diploma in education from the University of Edinburgh. She worked as a women’s education officer in Calabar, Cross River state, taught at Queen’s School, Enugu, and later became an assistant registrar at the University of Lagos.

During this time, Efuru took shape. The manuscript landed in the hands of Chinua Achebe, then an editor at Heinemann’s African Writers Series. He saw its promise and recommended its publication. That decision made history. Efuru became the first internationally published novel by a black African woman.

WRITING WOMEN BACK INTO THE STORY

EFURU BECAME THE FIRST INTERNATIONALLY PUBLISHED NOVEL BY A BLACK AFRICAN WOMAN

Before Nwapa, female characters in African fiction were background figures; wives, daughters, mothers, or seductionists were rarely the protagonists of their own narratives. Efuru changed that.

The novel’s titular character, Efuru, is an independent Igbo woman who defies societal expectations. She leaves an unhappy marriage, takes charge of her own life, and remains strong despite personal losses. Most strikingly, the novel doesn’t force her into the conventional “happy ending” of marriage and children. Instead, she follows a spiritual path, becoming a worshipper of the goddess Uhamiri.

This was radical for the time. Nwapa wasn’t writing about women as victims; she was writing about women who made choices — flawed, unconventional, but theirs to make.

As Marie Umeh, a scholar and expert on African literature, highlighted in “The Poetics of Economic Independence for Female Empowerment”, Nwapa achieved something remarkable with Efuru. She laid the foundation for a new literary movement that defied conventional portrayals of Nigerian women, challenging their reduction to mere roles or rebellious figures.

Nwapa continued to challenge norms with Idu (1970), Never Again (1975), This is Lagos and Other Stories (1971), and Emeka, Driver’s Guard (1972), among others.

REBUILDING AFTER WAR

By the late 1960s, Nigeria was in turmoil. Following the Biafran War, Nwapa fled Lagos. In 1970, after the war, she was appointed minister of health and social welfare in Nigeria’s former east central state — the first person to hold the post.

Her role was critical. She worked to reunite children displaced by the war with their families and oversaw the return of those evacuated to other countries. In 1971, she became minister for land, survey, urban development, and establishment, leading efforts to rebuild war-torn communities.

For her service, she was awarded the national honour of Officer of the Order of the Niger in 1982.

BEYOND WRITING: THE BUSINESS OF REPRESENTATION

NWAPA WAS AWARDED THE NATIONAL HONOUR OF OFFICER OF THE ORDER OF THE NIGER IN 1982 | PHOTO CREDIT: NEUSROOM.COM

Nwapa decided that it wasn’t enough to just tell stories; she changed how they were published. In 1974, she launched Tana Press, becoming the first African woman to own a publishing house.

Through Tana Press, she published her later works, including One is Enough (1981) and Women Are Different (1986). More importantly, she gave other African women a platform, ensuring their voices weren’t silenced.

Despite the government’s talk of supporting indigenous publishing, she received little financial backing, and so her publishing house fell apart. But for Nwapa, it was more about giving Africans control over their narratives than commercial success.

A PROUD LEGACY

While her male contemporaries won Nobel Prizes and international accolades, Nwapa’s work was sometimes dismissed as “domestic” or “feminine”. But she wasn’t writing for the Western literary elite. She was writing for Africa and Africans.

She once said, “The European conquest of Africa radically altered this state of affairs with devastating consequences for women and, by extension, the society as a whole.”

She remained a force beyond literature, advocating for women’s economic and educational empowerment, especially in rural areas.

Nwapa passed away in 1993, but her legacy is undeniable. Without her, there is no Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, no Buchi Emecheta, no new wave of African women writers reclaiming their narratives.

This Women’s History Month, her story deserves to be told loud, proud, and unforgettable.

Two dead, six injured as three-storey building collapses in Lagos

AFOLABI

Two persons have been confirmed dead and six seriously injured after a three-storey building collapsed in the Odoriwu estate at the Elf Bus stop area of Lagos.

The Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) said it activated the state’s emergency response plans and response team from the Lekki and Cappa Bases after receiving distress calls concerning the incident at about 2:25 pm on Wednesday.

Olufemi Damilola Oke-Osanyintolu, the permanent secretary of LASEMA, stated in an update that the bodies of two male casualties were removed from the debris of the collapsed building.

He added that injured victims received initial medical care from the LRU pre-hospital care unit before being taken to the Marian General Hospital for further treatment.

Oke-Osanyintolu said LASEMA deployed light and heavy-duty equipment to the incident scene for the search and rescue operation.

He noted that the immediate cause of the incident is yet to be ascertained, adding that further investigations will be conducted.

According to him, other operatives of agencies at the scene of the incident for the search and rescue operation include the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA), Nigeria Police Force (NPF), Rapid Response Squad (RRS), Lagos State Ambulance Service (LASAMBUS), the Lagos State Fire and Rescue Service, the LRU Pre-Hospital Care Unit, and ITEC personnel

Court orders interim forfeiture of N1.37bn ‘diverted’ from Kaduna rail project

AFOLABI

A federal high court in Kaduna has ordered an interim forfeiture of N1.37 billion allegedly diverted from the Kaduna state government into a private account.

The money, originally allocated for Kaduna state’s abandoned light rail project, was allegedly diverted during the administration of Nasir el-Rufai, who served as governor from 2015 to 2023.

In an ex parte motion filed on February 14, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences (ICPC) claimed the el-Rufai administration never executed the project and depriving the people of the benefits of rail transport system.

The commission accused some officials of diverting the money through Indo Kaduna MRTS JV Nig. Ltd, a joint venture entity set up in 2016 by the state government and Indian business people.

Hauwa Buhari, the presiding judge, granted the application moved by E.O. Akponimisingha, the ICPC lawyer, on February 28.

The judge ordered the interim forfeiture of the money and also directed the ICPC to publish a notice in any two national newspapers, requesting any person with interest in the property to present their claim and show cause in court why the asset should not be permanently forfeited to the federal government.

The matter was adjourned to April 8, 2025, for interested persons who may want to claim the money to make their case before the court.

BACKGROUND

The Kaduna state government, under el-Rufai, entered into a joint venture agreement with Indo Kaduna MRTS JV Nig. Ltd. in October 2016 for the construction of a light rail transport system.

However, the ICPC revealed that payments for the project began before the company was officially registered.

Despite its lack of formal incorporation by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) until May 10, 2017, el-Rufai’s administration reportedly approved payments to the entity as early as December 2016.

Between December 2016 and January 2017, the then-governor was said to have authorised a total payment of N11.1 billion to the company’s account domiciled with Sterling Bank.

Out of this amount, N1.373 billion was allegedly diverted into a private account, which was later traced by the ICPC.

Open Defecation: Ogun Launches 'One House, One Toilet' Campaign In Ijebu-North Council

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The Ogun State Government has kicked off the ‘One House, One Toilet’ campaign in Ijebu-North Local Government Council, as part of efforts to eradicate open defecation in the council and state at large.

The campaign was kicked-off through the Ogun State Rural Water Supply and Sanitation (RUWATSAN) Agency, in partnership with United Nation Children Fund (UNICEF), with the theme: The Implementation of NTD-WASH Based Community-led To Sanitation (CLTS), Activities, held at Ijebu-North LGA Secretariat.

The campaign which would cover 167 Communities within Mamu, Omen, Ojowo-Japara and Osun wards in Ijebu-North Local Government Area of the state.

Commissioner for Rural Development, Mrs. Olufemi Ilori-Oduntan said the campaign seeks to promote the use of toilets and good hygiene practices in every community across the state and Nigeria.

Ilori-Oduntan said, “The federal’s mandate to eradicate Open Defecation is embedded and signed an Executive Order 009 in considering its prevalence and havoc, and the immediately keyed into the order and had since being providing needed support to the anchor Agency, Ogun RUWATSAN for her to drive the community Led Total Sanitation approach.

"As one of the major strategies for scaling up sanitation; the result of which was that Ikenne LGA being declared into ODF status in December, 2023, And the journey towards making Ijebu-North the second LGA wide Open Defecation Free starts today because we are sure that the remaining 7 wards will also be considered soon."

Also, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Rural Development, Mr. Seyi Sokoya said; “It is my hope, in view of the importance of this campaign to our national development process and meeting the goal of eradicating open defecation Nigeria, that, this campaign and other initiatives of this present administration will contribute to the success of the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector.

“Sensitisation is a driving tool in achieving an Open Defecation Free Ogun, and so the campaign must be people-centered and community-based. That is why community engagement, especially in the vulnerable and underserved communities, is priority to us. We also seek the support of local governments to cascade the policy to the people who are the direct beneficiaries.”

In his opening remarks, the Project Manager, Mr. Sola Ogunbo said that the practice of open defecation is a menace that has plagued the communities for too long, noting that it posed significant risks to the health, environment and economic development.

"Indeed, it is unacceptable that in this day and age, many of our citizens are still forced to defacate in the open, exposing themselves and their loved ones to the dangers of water-borne diseases, malnutrition, and dignity-denying conditions and the future of the children."

He noted that it also contributes to high health costs, reduced productivity, and even loss of lives, noting that national statistics indicates that waterborne diseases claim thousands of lives every year, yet they are preventable.

Also speaking, the UNICEF representative, Mr. Monday Johnson, said that it was imperative to eradicate open defecation through collective sensation of the stakeholders in the state, as the state deed in the Ikenne Local Government Area two year ago.

He said person hygiene needs to apply in combating open defecation and the provision and availability of water, applaudding the state government in the provision of water for the state at large.

Chairman of Ijebu-North Local Government, Mr. Bolaji Odusanya, represented by his Secretary, Mr. Sojinrin Adeniyi, lamented that it was discovered that truck drivers, motor boys and street traders were the main offenders of this nefarious act.

He urged stakeholders to implement decisions taken at the meeting to ensure open defecation is totally eradicated in the council and in the state at large.

Solana bounces back to $144 after 15% crash

Admin

Solana (SOL) has demonstrated resilience, rebounding to trade at approximately $144 on Wednesday, signifying a nearly 7% recovery in just 24 hours.

This upward movement follows a steep 15% drop from recent highs, underscoring the inherent volatility of the cryptocurrency market.

Contributing factors include large-scale profit-taking, macroeconomic fluctuations, and developments within the Solana ecosystem.

Profit-Taking Triggers a 15% Decline

On-chain data points to a significant profit-taking event as the primary catalyst for the recent price drop. Glassnode analytics reveals that Solana’s “Realized Profit” indicator spiked on Monday, reaching an hourly value of $257 million.

This surge coincided with Bitcoin’s climb toward $180, prompted by President Trump’s announcement of a Crypto Strategic Reserve incorporating SOL. Investors swiftly liquidated their SOL holdings, securing short-term profits.
Interestingly, Glassnode’s findings highlight that 99% of the $255 million profit-taking originated from investors holding SOL for merely one day to one week. This indicates that opportunistic, short-term traders capitalized on the price surge induced by the announcement, leading to substantial downward pressure and a correction to around $136.
Despite price fluctuations and a cooling memecoin market, Solana’s Decentralized Exchanges (DEXs) continue to thrive. According to DeFiLlama, Solana has maintained its leading position in DEX volume for five consecutive months, generating $109 billion in February—24% more than Ethereum and nearly 300% higher than Arbitrum. Key contributors include Raydium ($41 billion), Meteora ($25 billion), and Orca ($22 billion).

While memecoin platform volumes, such as Pump.fun, saw a sharp 63% decline from January to February, overall trade activity remains robust. This shift toward stablecoins and renewed DeFi activity positions Solana as a dominant force within the decentralized finance landscape. Notably, Solana accounts for 54% of market activity and has generated $285 million in app revenue, surpassing all other blockchain platforms combined.

What you should know

Looking ahead, Solana is poised to implement critical protocol upgrades aimed at enhancing network sustainability.

Two Solana Improvement Documents (SIMDs), 0123 and 0228, are scheduled for validator voting in March. SIMD 0123 proposes prioritizing stakers with fee incentives to improve on-chain transaction performance and boost staking rewards.
Meanwhile, SIMD 0228 focuses on adjusting SOL’s inflation rate to inversely correlate with the staked supply, potentially reducing token dilution and selling pressure.

However, these developments have sparked debate. Asset manager VanEck warns that these changes could diminish validator income by up to 95%, potentially impacting smaller operations and raising concerns about network security and decentralization.

While reducing inflation aligns with long-term goals of sustainability, the trade-off may pose challenges in the short to medium term.

[Nairametrics]

Natasha shuns Senate probe hearing

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The lawmaker representing Kogi Central Senatorial District, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, failed to appear before the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges, and Public Petitions on Wednesday, which is investigating her conduct during last week’s plenary session.

The female lawmaker had previously engaged in a heated exchange with Senate President Godswill Akpabio over seat allocation.

Akpoti-Uduaghan also accused Akpabio of publicly humiliating her and obstructing her motions and bills on the Senate floor.

Her refusal to accept the new seating arrangement led to the Senate President denying her the opportunity to speak during the session.
In response, the Senate referred the matter to its Committee on Ethics, Privileges, and Public Petitions.

At the committee meeting, the Chairman, Senator Neda Imasuen (PDP, Edo South), expressed disappointment over Akpoti-Uduaghan’s absence, stating, “Senator Natasha was duly invited to this meeting. We hope she will join us as we continue.”

As of the time of filing this report, the Kogi lawmaker had yet to arrive for the hearing.

Details later…

[Punch]

Newcastle striker Isak lost car, cash worth $87,000 in home raid, court hears

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Newcastle striker Alexander Isak’s home was raided by a “professional group of travelling burglars” who stole his car and jewellery worth £68,000 ($87,000), a court heard on Wednesday.

The Sweden international was not in his house in Northumberland, in northeast England, when the gang broke in through a glass door last April, Newcastle Crown Court was told.

The thieves had already stolen jewellery and clothes worth more than £1 million from a businesswoman and designer goods worth £100,000 from another woman in the previous days.

Three members of the same family, living in Italy, have admitted conspiracy to commit burglary, the court heard.

A fourth family member, Valentino Nikolov, 32, denies the charge.

Dan Cordey, prosecuting, said Isak left his home between 4:00 pm and 10:00 pm on April 4, and he discovered the break-in when he returned.

The gang broke into his TV room and “inside an untidy search took place”, Cordey said.

Cash between £5,000 and £10,000 was taken, along with jewellery worth about £68,000 and Isak’s Audi car, which a member of the public later found abandoned, jurors were told.

CCTV images of the break-in were recorded.

“This was a professional group of travelling burglars,” said Cordey. “It contained one female and three men — all related. Two of those men and one female have admitted their part in pleading guilty.”

Cordey said the fourth man was the defendant Valentino Nikolov.

The gang arrived in Britain via a ferry from Calais to Dover last March, using a motor-home as their base, the court heard.

Nikolov, of Birmingham, is representing himself at the trial and requires an Italian interpreter.

Jurors have been told his brother Giacomo Nikolov, 28, his sister Jela Jovanovic, 43, and her son Charlie Jovanovic, 23, who all live in Italy, have admitted conspiracy to commit burglary.

Isak has enjoyed a standout season for Newcastle, scoring 22 goals in all competitions for Eddie Howe’s team, who face Liverpool in the League Cup final at Wembley on March 16.

[Vanguard]

Why AAVE is rallying even as Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP lag

Admin

AAVE gains nearly 8% on Wednesday as crypto traders digest Bitcoin’s return above $87,000 after the flash crash.
Crypto market capitalization is back above $2.9 trillion, even as institutional traders slowly lose appetite for risk assets.
Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP lag and observe a slow recovery from Monday’s market crash.

Aave (AAVE), the native token of the Aave lending protocol, is rallying on Wednesday as the crypto market recovers from Monday’s bloodbath. Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and XRP note small gains on the day as traders maintain a risk-averse stance in crypto, grappling with volatility concerns this week ahead of the White House Crypto Summit on Friday.

While the crypto community prepares for the first White House Crypto Summit of its kind, enthusiasm among traders is capped. The crypto Fear & Greed Index on alternative.io shows that traders remain fearful as the indicator reads 20 on a scale from 0 to 100.

AAVE yields nearly 8% gains for traders on the day, while the top 3 cryptocurrencies, BTC, ETH, and XRP, lag behind at the time of writing.

Why AAVE is rallying?

AAVE recently deployed its lending markets on Sonic, a blockchain that evolved from Fantom. This marked the DeFi lending platform’s first Layer 1 expansion in 2025, part of the project’s roadmap.

AAVE’s version 3 was deployed following the approval of the governance proposal, and the launch on Sonic Labs was followed by a gain of $33 million in total value locked (TVL) within 24 hours.

Data from Lookonchain, an on-chain intelligence tracker, shows that large wallet investors like izebel.eth(@izebel_eth) purchased AAVE tokens worth $4.25 million on Wednesday.

Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP post 1.21%, 3.15%, and 1.85% gains, respectively, on the day. The addition of XRP to the US Crypto Strategic Reserve raised concerns among traders across X, sparking debates over the relevance of the altcoin. However, the token is holding its seven-day gains of nearly 8% and continues to recover slowly.

Ethereum hovers around the $2,100 level, and Bitcoin is inching close to resistance at the $90,000 level on Wednesday.

AAVE eyes double-digit rally

AAVE’s Relative Strength Index (RSI) key momentum indicator in the daily chart is sloping upwards and reads 47, close to the neutral level of 50. Meanwhile, the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) shows a bullish crossover, suggesting there is underlying positive momentum in AAVE’s price trend, albeit relatively small compared to the last week of February.

AAVE trades at $224 at the time of writing on Wednesday and steadily climbs towards the 10-day and 50-day Exponential Moving Averages (EMAs) at $251.77 and $254.04, respectively. A re-test of resistance at the 50-day EMA at $254.04 would mark over 13% gains in AAVE price.

On the downside, the DeFi token could find support at the lower boundary of the Fair Value Gap (FVG) on the daily chart at $213.

AAVE/USDT daily price chart

Expert comments on crypto market recovery and impact of proposed tariffs

After the steep decline in crypto prices on Monday, crypto traders are digesting the impact of the pump and dump that followed US President Donald Trump’s strategic reserve announcement. Though Bitcoin rallied to its all-time high in January, the token recorded a 17.39% decline in February, the largest drop since 2014.

While the market reels from over $1 billion in liquidations across derivatives exchanges, traders are fearful.

Uldis Teraudklans, Chief Revenue Officer at Paybis, discussed the state of the market with FXStreet and what to expect.

Teraudklans said, “Thus far this year, Bitcoin has proven more reactive to macroeconomic trends, including trade wars and interest rate trends. With large Wall Street firms now exposed to the coin, it is more susceptible to significant liquidity flows, thus contributing to its volatility. This [negative 17.39% monthly return in February] decline can be attributed to a loss of institutional appetite for risk assets, driven by the trade and tariff tensions initiated by the Trump administration. Bitcoin's correlation with the S&P 500 has further contributed to the decline.

Bitcoin has never been a safe-haven asset—only an aspirational one. Yet, the promise remains, and with every cycle, critics revisit this so-called "failure." My perspective is that Bitcoin has consistently been a risk asset, following a long-term trajectory toward becoming a safe-haven, risk-off asset. This was true in previous cycles and remains true today.”

The expert says, “Only when Bitcoin reaches the market capitalization of gold can we seriously evaluate whether it can replace it as a safe-haven asset.”

[fxstreet]

Russian finance ministry, central bank weigh crypto trading pilot for top-tier investors

Admin

Russia mulls experimental cryptocurrency trading for top-tier investors, with a $250,000 minimum asset holding.

Russia is exploring the idea of launching experimental cryptocurrency trading for top-tier investors, a move that would allow a select group to participate in the cryptocurrency market, state-controlled news agency Interfax reports, citing Aleksey Yakovlev, the Ministry of Finance’s financial policy department head.

Per the report, the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Russia are leading talks on the project, which aims to create a safe space for crypto trading. However, the plan is still in its early stages, Yakovlev added without elaborating on the details.

It’s understood that the pilot would be open only for top-tier investors — professional market participants and individual investors — with personal holdings at least at 24 million rubles ($250,000).

While owning crypto is allowed in Russia, using it as a legal tender is banned. Officially, the country has no centralized exchange for cryptocurrencies. This means that individuals can trade crypto only on foreign platforms.

However, as crypto.news reported earlier, Garantex, a crypto exchange sanctioned by the U.S. and the European Union, seems to be one of the largest Russia-based exchanges operating within the Kremlin’s purview. The exchange has offices in Moscow’s Federation Tower and allows deposits and withdrawals in rubles to Russian bank cards, including those from Sberbank, Tinkoff, and Alfa-Bank.

[Crypto News]

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Bitcoin Could Swing Back to $95K Amid Signs of BTC Bear Exhaustion

Admin

Technical charts, particularly the shape of candlesticks, often reflect the psychology behind the market, highlighting trader sentiment and behavior. Since Friday, at least two bitcoin (BTC) candles have indicated bullish undercurrents at multi-month lows, providing a glimmer of hope for crypto bulls.

The chart below shows that BTC's price decline has stalled at the 200-day simple moving average support level since last Wednesday. Daily candles for Tuesday and Friday are of particular interest, as both have small bodies with long lower wicks, hinting at bear failures below the 200-day SMA.

In other words, on both days, sellers initially pushed prices below the key average but failed to establish a foothold there, likely due to buyers stepping in to protect the support level.

Such candles appearing after a notable downtrend, which is the case in BTC, signal a potential bullish reversal. Traders usually see it as evidence of weakening selling pressure that might translate into a renewed bullish phase.

So, BTC could bounce back to Sunday's high of around $95,000, above which traders may once again set sights on the $100,000 mark. On the flip side, a downside break of the 200-day SMA could deeper losses.

Sygnum Bank Expands Custody to Include Leading Crypto Options Exchange Deribit

Deribit CEO Luuk Strijers (Extreme right) at Consensus Hong Kong (CoinDesk) · CoinDesk

Crypto bank Sygnum has expanded its custody platform to include the world's leading options exchange Deribit.

Sygnum and Deribit are now leveraging crypto custodian Fireblocks' "Off Exchange" service, which allows traders to essentially "mirror" their assets held in custody on a trading platform.

This will allow traders to hold their assets in a regulated bank while continuing to access the deep liquidity of Deribit, according to an announcement shared with CoinDesk on Wednesday.

Traders received an unwelcome reminder of the dangers in keeping their assets on an exchange last month with the $1.4 billion hack of Bybit by North Korean Group Lazarus.

"Counterparty risk awareness in crypto comes in cycles, and the recent major cyber-attack has triggered one of the largest waves of exchange derisking since FTX," Sygnum's chief product officer, Dominic Lohberger, said.

Zurich-based Sygnum, which acquired a valuation of over $1 billion following a $58 million funding round in January, is licensed in its native Switzerland as well as Luxembourg and Singapore.

Deribit is among the world's leading derivatives exchanges, with trading volume surpassing $1 trillion in 2024. Its options volume alone reached $743 billion.

[CoinDesk]

March 7 Will Be a Big Day for Cryptocurrency. Here's Why

Admin

As you may have heard, this has already been a big week for cryptocurrency. With the announcement from President Donald Trump on March 2 for plans to create a national cryptocurrency reserve, which is set to include Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC), XRP (CRYPTO: XRP), Solana (CRYPTO: SOL), and a couple of others, it's hard to see how there could be other big developments on the docket.

Nonetheless, there's a major catalyst event slated for March 7. Here's what investors should be looking out for, and why it matters for the coins you hold.

Regulators and industry will get a chance to mingle

March 7 will see the very first crypto summit to be hosted by the president, at the White House. Major investors, CEOs, politicians, and other notable members of the public will be in attendance, perhaps including financial regulators. The president will be making an address with prepared remarks.

This kind of event is fully unprecedented in the history of cryptocurrency, and it will doubtlessly move the crypto markets promptly and significantly if any major policies are announced or clarified. What's more, while volatility is guaranteed, it is very likely that new policy announcements will imply meaty changes to the industry's potential to grow. Of particular importance will be any elaboration on the size, distribution, or actual purpose of the cryptocurrency reserve, not to mention the legal or regulatory basis for implementing it as a policy. There will also be a back-and-forth process of determining how realistic the proposed reserve is in terms of the political aspects of its implementation.

One older proposal for the reserve calls for purchasing 5% of all outstanding Bitcoin supply over the next five years. Per that proposal, the coins would be held for at least 20 years. Such a proposal being implemented for Bitcoin, or a similar one being implemented for Solana or XRP, would likely result in a gargantuan move upward in the prices of these coins. And there isn't any guarantee such a move would be retraced, as the expectation would be that the government would hold for as long as it specified at a minimum.

In other words, these policies could easily become part of the investment thesis for why these assets are worth buying and holding forever.

There may be moments during the summit (or afterward) that tempt you to dump everything. Alternatively, there will probably be moments where you want to slam all of your remaining cash into buying coins. Resisting both of these temptations is important to preserving your portfolio's value over the long term, so prepare for it. This isn't the time to be actively watching the prices of your coins move from minute to minute. In fact, there is never such a time.

The long-term implications are positive, but far from fully clear

The fact that there's a crypto summit at the White House at all is a bullish sign for the industry. It supports the idea that Bitcoin, XRP, Solana, and the other assets that could be included in the reserve are serious investments that are worthy of getting some exposure to.

At the same time, it is very difficult for investors to plan around policies that haven't been elaborated on yet. And it's clear that many regulatory bodies overseeing the crypto sector are being shaken up right now, which makes the planning process even harder. Likewise, there is a real possibility that the new regulations will not be received well by financial institutions. If that happens, they may not buy as much of these coins as they would have otherwise.

Still, there's not much point in speculating at the moment, either in the financial sense or the narrative sense. Nor is there much reason to sell your holdings. It might even be acceptable to load up on a bit more of the smaller coins under consideration for the reserve, particularly Solana. After all, the leadership of fairly centralized chains like Solana and XRP will have a chance to talk directly to policymakers and senior administration leaders at the summit, which could influence any subsequent regulations significantly in their favor.

Keep a close watch for announcements coming out of this summit, as well as in the days leading up to it. Even if the summit doesn't trigger the melt-up that investors are hoping for, there will certainly be a lot of discussion about the future of cryptocurrency, and that'll affect your holdings, as well as your intuitions about where to invest in the future.

[[The Motley Fool ]

Amazon Moves To Make Alexa Smart

Admin

When we started with digital assistants, Microsoft potentially had the inside track. Its Cortana effort was named after the Halo AI character, which gave it far more potential than the others.

Apple had a decent shot, too. It marketed Siri very well but didn’t seem to want to fund its advancement, while Amazon just shipped product after product that used Alexa.

Google was no slouch either, pivoting hard to its Gemini product (which I use a lot) for Pixel smartphones.

What I find fascinating is that Panos Panay, the guy who pretty much made the Microsoft Surface line a thing and drove my favorite phone, the Surface Duo, is now at Amazon and apparently doing there what should have happened at Microsoft with Cortana.

Let’s discuss how we got here, what to expect, and why this move from Amazon will be a game-changer. We’ll close with my Product of the Week: AMD’s new RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT graphics cards.

Microsoft’s Cortana Failure

Microsoft was one of the first to introduce a believable AI assistant. What made it believable was that it was named after a character in the Halo video game. To make it work, Microsoft needed to advance this technology and make it look like it did in the game.

You might have thought this was a stretch, but an engineer working on his own created exactly what this would have looked like, and it worked. Imagine how this would have set the stage and provided a huge competitive advantage for the company once generative AI was driving into the market years later. It would have been the centerpiece of any tech-forward home, particularly for those of us who got hooked on Halo back in the day.

Then, instead of becoming the digital assistant that would rule them all, Microsoft did what it so often does these days: it underfunded and under-executed the effort with virtually no help from marketing and eventually pulled the plug on it years before generative AI became a thing.

Apple’s Siri Misstep

Apple also had a shot at this race with Siri, which was, compared to Microsoft, far better marketed and executed even though, like Cortana, it really wasn’t AI so much as a text-to-speech, speech-to-text interface for the web. Apple had more people using Siri than any of the alternatives, but the promise of Siri that the ads tended to convey was well short of Siri’s reality.

Even today, when I’m on a panel discussing AI, someone almost always points to Siri and argues that it isn’t AI because it sets such a bad example.

Apple had the opportunity as part of its now failed partnership with IBM (who saw that coming?) to have Siri be the front-end for IBM’s watsonx, which would have made Siri into the first digital assistant that was a true AI. But that partnership was virtually dead on arrival, largely because Apple just doesn’t work well with partners. While IBM has a far better partnership skill set, even IBM couldn’t save the thing.

Siri remains in use — though that may change now that Apple can spell AI — but it’s still the disappointment it has always been.

Alexa Surprise

Amazon has lost billions on Alexa. However, arguing that Alexa is a failure is unfounded mainly because many users order products from Amazon using Alexa. Unlike the others, Amazon saw the potential to create a front end for the retail business and use the digital assistant to remind and help people to order stuff and become a trusted part of their day.

I know we often start our day asking Alexa about the weather and end the day asking Alexa about actors in shows (for those not using Amazon X-Ray, which is a truly handy feature available with Amazon streaming content) or getting color on the limited information we’re watching on TV.

Even though, just like Cortana was, and Siri is, Alexa is more of a web front end than true AI and has proven far more useful. The only thing we use almost as much is Google’s digital assistant, which, for some reason, doesn’t have a cute name.

What will change in the coming weeks is that Alexa moves to generative AI. Granted, that move was promised in 2023, but this turned out to be more difficult than they thought. Still, it is better to do something well than quickly — and while this feature will only be for Prime members, so it is not truly free, the result should be a huge improvement in this technology class.

The generative AI assistant will be called Alexa+. It will work on most Alexa devices, a smartphone app, and the Amazon website. So, although Amazon wasn’t first, didn’t have a game to connect to, and was more of a retailer than a tech company, it out-executed Apple, Google, and Microsoft.

Google is arguably a distant second with its planned implementation in Pixel phones, which may be a problem for me because I carry a Pixel phone, and I might prefer Alexa+.

Wrapping Up: Alexa+

If you aren’t working with AI, you should start because you’ll need that skill set to do many things in the second half of this decade. AI can handle complex questions with detailed answers, generate content, offer nuanced advice, and even assist with productivity.

Alexa+ will let up jump to scenes in movies you own or rent on Amazon’s video service, ask for unique playlists on Amazon Music, and get far better answers than just a reading of a web page that Alexa would have previously defaulted to.

You’ll be able to use natural language rather than the Alexa commands you need to learn, and you’ll be able to give it complex, multi-step directions based on historical knowledge. For example, you can ask it to book the same place for your anniversary that you booked last year, purchase tickets at specified prices, or even recommend and contact repair services for something broken.

With the Rink security cameras — and this is huge — you could ask Alexa+ to show you any images of people who have been frequenting your property, how often your kids are actually walking the dog, or to figure out where your cat is (assuming a camera has or can see it).

There will likely be some quality problems because AI developers aren’t focusing enough on quality yet, which I think is a huge mistake. So you’ll want to be careful about taking everything Alexa+ says as fact. There will likely be some issues with third-party applications until they become fully integrated, but this is huge, and I think it will change how we look at digital assistants going forward.

Panos Panay wasn’t able to execute at Microsoft, though I know he tried — so it’s great to see Amazon give him what he needed to perform there. Maybe a future Amazon device will be able to do what that Cortana prototype did and give Alexa+ a face. We’ll see.

[technewsworld]

Qualcomm CEO says its new modem creates a ‘huge delta’ in performance versus Apple

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KEY POINTS

Qualcomm announced the X85, its latest high-end modem.
It has taken some time for Apple to release its first modem and it did so quietly with the launch of the iPhone 16e last month. The cellular modem is called the C1.
In an interview with CNBC on Tuesday, Amon touted the improved performance of the modem, suggesting it would create a big gulf between it and Apple.

Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon told CNBC its latest modem will create a big distance in performance versus Apple, which has made its first foray into the technology.

Modems are a key component of smartphones that connect the device to the mobile network. Qualcomm is one of the biggest modem suppliers in the world and for years has been the go-to company for Apple’s iPhones.

But in 2019, Apple bought Intel’s modem business with the view of designing its own modem in-house, much like it does with its smartphone processors.

It has taken some time for Apple to release its first modem and it did so quietly with the launch of the iPhone 16e last month. The cellular modem is called the C1.

This week, Qualcomm announced the X85, its latest high-end modem. In an interview with CNBC on Tuesday, Amon touted the improved performance of the modem, suggesting it would create a big gulf between it and Apple.

“It’s the first modem that has so much AI, it actually increases the range of performance of the modem so the modem can deal with weaker signals,” Amon told CNBC.

“What that will do will set a huge delta between the performance of premium Android devices, and iOS devices, when you compare what Qualcomm can do versus what Apple is doing.”

The iPhone 16e is Apple’s cheapest smartphone on the latest range. Several reports suggest Apple is working on modems for its higher end iPhones.

Amon reiterated a statement he has made previously that he expects Qualcomm will not supply Apple with modems in 2027.

Addressing potential technology advances with Apple’s modem, Amon said the components will be key for AI and Qualcomm will be able to address that.

“If modem is relevant there’s always a place for Qualcomm technology,” Amon said.

“In the age of AI, modems are going to be more important than they have ever been. And I think that’s going to drive consumer preference about do they want the best possible modem in the computer that’s in their hand all the time,” Amon added.

[CNBC]