One of the world’s leading crypto exchanges Binance has partnered with global payment giant Mastercard, to launch a prepaid crypto card in Brazil.

This move is part of Binance’s efforts to broaden the connection between traditional finance and crypto. The card which will be available to Brazilians with a valid national ID will enable them to make payments with 14 different crypto-approved assets such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, etc.

Users of this card will be charged a 0.9% fee per transaction involving crypto, and they will get up to 8% in cashback with crypto and allow ATM withdrawal without fees.

Cardholders will also be able to manage their cards through the card dashboard on the Binance app and website, as well as view their transaction history and access customer support via the card dashboard.

Commenting on Binance’s launch of a crypto card in Brazil, General Manager at Binance for Brazil Guilherme Nazar said;

“Brazil is an extremely relevant market for Binance and we will continue to invest in new services for local users, as well as contribute to the development of the blockchain and crypto ecosystem in the country.

“Payments is one of the first and most obvious use cases for crypto, yet adoption has a lot of room to grow. We believe the Binance Card is a significant step in encouraging wider crypto use and global adoption, and the openness of Brazilians to innovation makes the country a great market for this release”.

Investors King understands that Brazil is among the top 10 markets for Binance globally, which has seen it become the second country in Latin America to have the Binance crypto card.

Before its launch in Brazil, Binance in partnership with Mastercard on August 2022, launched the prepaid Binance card in Argentina to bridge the gap between cryptocurrencies and everyday purchases.

The crypto exchange plans to continue expanding in new markets as well as providing support for additional cryptocurrencies.

On the other hand, payment giant Mastercard has been getting increasingly involved in crypto over the past year. Last year October, the payment giant partnered with blockchain technology company Paxos to develop a trading program geared towards financial institutions.

Lawyers of FTX former CEO Sam Bankman-fried have urged a U.S. judge to grant their client access to former employees as part of his bail condition.

SBF lawyers were responding to a request by federal prosecutors that their client will not be allowed to discuss with employees at FTX or his hedge fund Alameda research, without lawyers present or the use of an encrypted messaging app, Signal.

Investors King understands that federal prosecutors of the Southern District of New York overseeing the current case against Sam Bankman-Fried, chose to impose a tighter bail condition on him after they disclosed that the former FTX CEO tried to influence witnesses by messaging the general counsel of FTX U.S, Miller via signal, a messaging app similar to WhatsApp.

These investigators further disclosed that the messages sent to the general counsel of FTX U.S., an individual who can be a potential witness in the ongoing criminal case against SBF, were suggestive of an effort to influence a witness’s potential testimony.

Prosecutors say, “SBF messaged the general counsel asking if they could recommend and if there is a way for them to have a constructive relationship with each other as resources”.

The message reads,

“I would really love to reconnect and see if there’s a way for us to have a constructive relationship, use each other resources when possible, or at least vet things with each other”, Bankman-Fried wrote to Miller.

The federal prosecutors further claim that Bankman-Fried directed Alameda and FTX through slack and signal, and ordered his employees set communications to auto-delete after 30 days or less.

This spurred federal investigators to urge the presiding judge to prevent SBF from communicating with former employees considering the nature of the investigation, citing efforts that may constitute “witness tampering”.

Meanwhile, Sam Bankman-fried has pleaded not guilty to eight charges in connection with the collapse of his multibillion-dollar crypto company FTX.

He was however granted bail on a $250 million bond which was secured by the equity in his family home and by the signatures of his parents and two other individuals with “considerable assets”.

The world’s most dominant cryptocurrency, Bitcoin is currently being sold at a 63% premium in Nigeria as foreign exchange scarcity amid the new cap on banks’ withdrawals increased demand for the unregulated virtual currency.

Bitcoin price skyrocketed to N17.8 million or $38,630 a coin on Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange platform mostly used by retail traders in Africa’s largest economy.

In the global market, Bitcoin price stood at $23,656 per coin at about 9:37 am Nigerian time on Monday, January 30, 2023. Indicating that the digital currency is being sold at $14,974 or a 63% premium over the current price of the commodity, Investors King research has shown.

Chronic foreign exchange scarcity due to a series of weak fundamental factors has plunged the Nigerian Naira against its global counterparts since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

The Nigerian Naira is presently trading at N460 to a United States Dollar on the interbank forex section while at the parallel or black market, the local currency traded at N750 to a US$1 in the early hours of Monday.

Cryptocurrency traders and businesses in Nigeria mainly traded using the black market rate because of the inaccessibility of N460/$1. Therefore, it is the rate quoted and used on Binance Peer2Peer (p2p) platform and other foreign exchange segments where the dollar is readily available.

This wide foreign exchange rate coupled with the new Naira policy that restricted withdrawals to N500,000 per week for individuals and N5 million for corporate entities bolstered demand for digital assets.

Bitcoin price plunged from $68,990 to $15,480 in 2022 after Luna declined from $119 a coin or over $40 billion market capitalisation to zero.

Shortly after, other cryptocurrency assets like Solana, Ethereum, BNB, etc lost substantial value and kick-started cryptocurrency’s largest bearish trend since 2009.

Solana dropped from around $200 a coin to $12, currently trading at $25. Ethereum dipped from almost $5,000 to $800 per coin while BNB halted its decline at $196 before pulling back to $300 at the time of writing, still below the $600 attain in 2022.

Bitcoin is the most capitalised cryptocurrency at $448.92 billion. Year-to-date, the digital asset has returned 40.17%.