coronavirus pandemic

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro Leverages Coronavirus Pandemic for National Petro Adoption

Venezuela’s president, Nicolas Maduro has announced a new campaign aiming to help the medical staff in his nation by airdropping one Petro to each actively working doctor amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The Venezuelan government is determined to take the coronavirus pandemic as an opportunity to boost the adoption of its national cryptocurrency in the country. The government announced this new campaign through its social media accounts, as a token of appreciation of efforts of the nation’s doctors to combat COVID-19.

The Patria System, introduced by the government, will be used to distribute the special bonus of a Petro for the “Doctors of the Motherland.” The platform was created to support the socio-economic conditions of the population and distribute subsidies and bonuses with its cryptographic token without going through the traditional banking system.

As a part of the measures to keep Venezuelan citizens safe, Maduro previously approved benefits for citizens who were unable to work due to self-isolation.

Venezuela crisis

According to an economist for the American Institute for Economic Research, Venezuela’s Petro could help stimulate the country’s economy. William Luther, the director of the Sound Money Project of the American Institute for Economic Research believes that while it might marginally improve the country’s economy, there may be consequences of strengthening an authoritarian regime.

Venezuelan hospitals have been reportedly ill-equipped to cope with the coronavirus pandemic. At the Caracas University Hospital, soap and disinfectants have been described as “luxuries,” and the facility has been facing shortages of personal protective equipment, signaling that Maduro could have supported Venezuelan hospitals directly, rather than boosting the adoption of its crypto system.

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Making a Difference in Africa: Paxful Unveils Bitcoin Donation Fund to Overcome Coronavirus Pandemic

The global peer-to-peer Bitcoin marketplace Paxful has announced its mission to launch the “Africa Fund” that seeks to utilize Bitcoin donations to enable Africa to overcome the current COVID-19 crisis. The fund will utilize Bitcoin donations to buy essential resources for the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

In other words, the company is expanding its #BuiltWithBitcoin charitable initiative in Africa with the launch of the “Africa Fund.”

Paxful Leading Through the Crisis

With coronavirus on the increase in Africa and cases rising at a high rate, the #BuiltWithBitcoin Africa Fund aims to offer a solution to mitigate the supply gap of necessities provided to the Africans. The “Africa Fund” campaign seeks to use Bitcoin donations to buy food packs, personal protective equipment (PPE), and even provide high-risk individuals with handwashing and groceries.

Paxful is kickstarting the “Africa Fund” with an initial donation of $15,000 and seeks to match other future crypto donations by up to $15,000 in Bitcoin. With such an initial injection of funds, the company intends to focus on the most crucial problems facing Africa that include medical supplies, water, and food.

Paxful intends to provide 8,400 meals across South Africa, with GROW EDUCARE Centres facilitating the donation program. It will also organize the delivery of 6,100 masks for frontline workers in Kenya’s Kibera slums by SHOFCO.

Zam Zam Water, which is a humanitarian organization committed to poverty eradication, is also a partner to the #BuiltWithBitcoin Africa fund. The humanitarian organization plans to provide supplies including carrier bags, face masks, sanitizers, vitamin C, diapers, and food to over 1000 people in various states of Nigeria. This includes Lagos, Kano, Abuja, Adamawa, Kwara, Kaduna, and Enugu.

Zam Zam Water is also assisting the 341 families in Rwanda whose children attend Paxful’s #BuiltWithBitcoin schools. The initiative seeks to benefit a total of 1,873 people with access to clean water, health insurance, and provide school supplies and books to continue learning through the COVID-19 epidemic.

Yusuf Nessary, the executive director of Zam Zam Water, identified these as a direct response to the pandemic and by using the power of Bitcoin, the humanitarian organization sets to serve thousands on the ground in a positive manner.

Ray Youssef, co-founder and CEO of Paxful, said that the company established #BuiltWithBitcoin around creating positive social change. He stated that Paxful was the first to look at Africa and saw the opportunity to make a difference through Bitcoin. He identified the “Africa Fund” as the latest initiative in an ongoing commitment to offer relief and serve resilient communities in Africa during the present time of their need.

Kennedy Odede, the founder and CEO of SHOFCO, mentioned that with Paxul’s assistance, his organization is able to offer essential services and protection, which set the firm to assist in saving lives among most vulnerable urban slum communities in Kenya.

Paxful Ready to Build on Its African Market Success

Paxful believes that the world has a lot to learn from Africa about the future of the crypto economy. The US-based company is actively looking to join forces with African-born cryptocurrency players as it seeks to grow market share on the continent. The company is very bullish on the continent. It believes that Africa has tremendous potential. The company sees people of Africa as teaching the rest of the world about the true use cases of Bitcoin. According to Paxful, the continent presents an opportunity for greater financial inclusion of the unbanked and underbanked.

Apart from Africa, India is another targetted market for Paxful as Paxful has recorded over $3 million in trade volume in India this January. Recently, Paxful’s initiatives to reach the unbanked has faced a new challenge, as Cyberreason detected an Android malware dubbed EventBot. This malware can harvest crucial information and intercept SMS messages sent to a victim’s phone using the two-factor authentication (2FA) method, and Paxful is among the list of Android cryptocurrency wallets targetted by EventBot.

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Justin Sun's TRON to Receive $2 Million from US Government Aid Coronavirus Relief

Justin Sun’s Tron platform has reportedly obtained US government aid of more than $2 million in coronavirus relief. The ongoing coronavirus crisis has wreaked havoc in the US financial markets. Particularly small-sized businesses are suffering from the economic shutdown meant to slow down the spread of coronavirus. With hundreds of thousands of employees in danger of losing their jobs, the US government created the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) to help small businesses stay afloat. The money does not need to be repaid.

Prominent figures question Justin Sun’s relief loan

But the small business loan program has had some serious issues to ensure that these funds are distributed properly. For example, many people seem to question the grounds for giving Tron government aid. Even key personalities in the crypto community have questioned the basis at which the controversial 28-year-old entrepreneur could get the aid.

Some blockchain startups have been denied grants. It was reported that ConsenSys, which was founded by one of the Ethereum co-founders also applied for the small business relief money, but could not get it. Zach Herring, program director at ConsenSys said that while several hard-working Americans are struggling with the complicated application process to get a loan and face rejection without a valid reason, Sun is walking away with a lot of money.

Furthermore, the US Federal Reserve has also been accused of engaging in dubious practices by allowing companies, which had used the widely-abused accounting techniques in the past, to get loans.

Critics argue that Justin Sun is a wealthy individual who does not appear like he needs the aid to survive the crisis, especially when putting into consideration of his multi-million-dollar acquisitions of crypto-related firms like Steemit, Poloniex, and BitTorrent. He recently had paid $4.5 million to have lunch with Warren Buffet.

Sun’s wealth is considered to be valued at $200 million. He shifted business operations of Tron to San Francisco after Beijing banned local cryptocurrency exchanges and all ICOs in 2017 to keep a tighter rein in the financial system.

Recently the US Attorney’s Office for The District of Rhode charged two men for attempting to take advantage of the Small Business Loan Program meant for the coronavirus relief. It remains to see whether Justin Sun will face such similar scrutiny.

Sun’s $4.57 million lunch with Warren Buffet

While Tron remains one of the leading blockchain platforms by user activity and market capitalization, its founder Justin Sun has continued attracting controversies. He has become one of the most controversial personalities in the blockchain space. More recently, he paid $4.57 million in a charity auction to have lunch with Warren Buffet, one of the most successful investors in modern history.

Before Sun revealed to his Twitter followers that he had won a lunch event with Warren, he created suspense by making many pre-announcements, saying that something big was about to take place. But just a few days before the lunch meeting, Sun posted on social media that he was suffering from sudden health complications. He, therefore, mentioned that he would not be able to attend the meeting with Buffet. Soon after he cancelled the meeting, many sources reported that Sun was accused of alleged money laundering and involvement in pornography. The reports also claimed that the Tron founder had been barred from leaving China because of his involvement in gambling and illegal fundraising activities.

While it could be difficult to confirm everything, which occurs in the crypto space, Sun has become famously known for his marketing and publicity stunts. In the past few years, Tron has attracted several controversies, mainly because of its CEO’s excessive hype and marketing. Tron has several vocal supporters who are adamant that the company is gaining market share, and active users are rising. Many people know Justin Sun for his controversial headlines and keen to follow his activities.

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Billionaire Paul Tudor Jones Looks to Buy Bitcoin as A Portfolio Hedge Against Inflation – Here's Why

According to a Bloomberg report, billionaire hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones is buying Bitcoin to hedge against inflation as central banks across the world print money to relieve economies affected by coronavirus pandemic.

Jones is one of Wall Street’s most seasoned and successful hedge fund managers. He is the CEO and founder of Tudor Investment Corp, which is a hedge fund company that managed $8.4 billion as of March 30, based on data from the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission).

Looking to insulate assets from the market downturn

In a market outlook note, Jones told his clients that he thinks Bitcoin will serve as a potential hedge against a rise in inflation he believes is coming because of central banks sharply expanding their balance sheets and printing money amid the COVID-19 epidemic.

According to the report, Jones compared Bitcoin to gold by saying that the leading cryptocurrency reminds him of the role that gold played in the 1970s.

In the client note, Jones said, “The best profit-maximizing strategy is to own the fastest horse. If I am forced to forecast, my bet is it will be Bitcoin.”

The hedge fund manager commented that one of his funds, Tudor BVI, holds a low single-digit percentage of its assets in Bitcoin futures to assist in protecting against an increase in inflation. Bitcoin (BTC) traded up more by 6.5% to $9,911 on Thursday.

Interest in Bitcoin has increased amid trillion-dollar rescue packages from central banks around the globe as nations seek to improve economies, which are experiencing tremendous GDP contraction because of the coronavirus outbreak.

Jones has achieved legendary status on Wall Street after making the correct prediction of the 1987 economic crash and correctly predicted shorting Japanese equities several years later before Japan’s economy crashed.

Jones told CNBC in March that he believed the stock market could be back higher by June if COVID-19 cases started to peak. He commented that at the time when he expected stocks to endure a choppy April, saying that these equities would eventually climb again.

His current announcement came when central banks, including the US Federal Reserve, begin working on significant monetary policy initiatives aimed to help businesses keep lights during the coronavirus crisis. The Fed already has created two emergency interest cuts, which lowered borrowing costs to near zero like they were during the 2008 financial crisis. But some investors are worried by the Fed’s move to print money and inject it into the US economy as this would zoom higher prices in the future.

Bitcoin price and the global financial crisis: Everybody’s looking at the wrong markets

While everyone obsesses over unemployment, inflation, bailouts, and stock markets, the biggest global financial risk comes from debt markets. Such opaque and complicated markets hold trillions of dollars worth of household, government, and corporate debt, including all the derivative financial products based on such debt. Since September last year, the US federal reserve has supported banks with overnight loans to cover a shortfall in cash. A collapse in the debt market is likely to ruin the global financial system.

Currently, people have so many problems in such markets, and it is difficult to figure out where to begin solving the problems. No amount of money printing could fix these problems. While the financial system of the world teeters on the edge of collapse and deflationary depression, the crypto sphere is hyping Bitcoin as a way to capitalize on inflation from all the money that governments are printing in response. Many people increasingly see Bitcoin as a safe haven in the financial crisis. People appear to flee the sinking fiat currency in favor of the digital currency with no central control.

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