Weekly Blockchain News, September 6, 2021

Welcome back in the weekly summary of leading developments in the crypto/blockchain space, presented from Billon's point of view. Check what happened in the last days when it comes to CBDC and other enterprise uses of blockchain. Enjoy the read!

Afghanistan is now the perfect test case for bitcoin and other cryptos.  For many Afghans last weeks laid bare the worst-case scenario for a country running on legacy financial rails: a nationwide cash shortage, closed borders, a plunging currency, and rapidly rising prices of basic goods. This is a good opportunity to examine Afghanistan’s cryptocurrency underground as the country plunges into turmoil

Deloitte survey: crypto will rival or replace fiat within 10 years. Big Four accounting firm Deloitte surveyed finance professionals about their views on blockchain and digital assets. The majority of finance professionals thought that blockchain has a lot of potential in their businesses. But many said there are major obstacles, such as old infrastructure, patchy regulatory frameworks, and glaring cybersecurity risks.

Europe has now created more $1bn ‘unicorn’ companies than China. Europe’s unicorn herd has outgrown China’s, following a bumper year of VC investments into the region. Since 1990, Europe has created 296 unicorn companies, worth more than $1bn in total, whereas China’s created a total of 276. According to new data from Dealroom, Europe has produced 72 new unicorns in 2021 — more than 3x that of China’s 22. Europe is also the fastest-growing region for VC investment globally, having attracted €49bn of investments so far in 2021 — exceeding China, the US and all of Asia. 

Donald Trump says cryptocurrencies are a disaster waiting to happen - and slams the 'fake' money for hurting the dollar. Trump told Fox Business he isn't a big fan of digital currencies because they're hurting the dollar. "They certainly are something that people don't know very much about," he commented.

Nigeria engages British fintech to develop digital currency. The Central Bank of Nigeria announced the formal engagement of a global fintech company, Bitt Inc., as the technical partner for its digital currency 'eNaira’, which would be unveiled before the end of this year.

And that's it for now. See you next week!