This is an historic moment for South Africa:

Today the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) declared a crypto asset as a financial product under the FAIS Act.

This Declaration was published in the Government Gazette as well as the FSCA website. The reason for the declaration was cited as being due to the "mounting risk in the crypto asset environment" but it also looks this action was done to comply with a Financial Action Task Force (FATF) deadline for remediation of recommendations for South Africa:

Yesterday the CEO of the Prudential Authority (PA) - the main regulator of banks in South Africa - sent out a note to all financial institutions in the country.

In my own words they said: "It's time to bank crypto companies."

Here's a summary of the note 🧵 At first glance the Guidance Note doesn't appear to have anything to do with crypto as it's entitled:

"Supervisory guidelines for matters related to the prevention of unlawful activities"

Central banks are in a tough position in their fight against inflation 🧵 Inflation is at levels not seen in advanced economies for decades

US: 8.6% (highest in 40 years)
Europe: 8.1% (hitting record high for 7th month in a row)

Reminder that US and Europe inflation targets are 2%

Other countries also experiencing high inflation across the board

BTC is down ~70% from its peak in November. ETH is down ~80%. Other cryptos are down even further.

The volatility has taken out some big protocols, companies & funds.

Several crypto companies that haven't been taken out are cutting staff numbers.

Some thoughts: First off, many are hurting (jobs lost, portfolios down/gone, dreams dashed) and that's never easy. And as difficult as this is, there may be more pain to come... in the last cycle, Bitcoin went down 85% from peak, and even further down in previous cycles.

VALR has raised $55m to date.
Some reflections on raising funds 🧵 To date, we’ve raised 3 rounds:

Seed - $1.5m (July 2018)
Series A - $3.4m (July 2020)
Series B - $50m (March 2022)

Our most recent announcement 👇
coindesk.com/business/2022/…

1/ Been getting many calls about #Bitcoin and whether now is a good time to buy. I'm not a financial advisor and these are my personal thoughts not financial advice. Do your own research before deciding what to do. 2/ There isn't a one size fits all answer here. It depends on
A) Your time horizon
B) Your ability to stomach volatility
C) Your discretionary income

What started as a health crisis is likely to lead to an economic crisis the likes of which humanity may not have experienced for nearly a century, rivalling the Great Depression.

In the US, 17m unemployment claims in the last 3 weeks, the highest in history, looks like this: Closer to home, I was speaking to @VALRdotcom's accountants who serve hundreds of clients in SA and the CEO said "People don't understand what's coming. March was fine because companies just made payroll. But wait til April, 80% of my clients are going to have difficulty.

1/ There is a socio-financial transition taking place in the world. 2/ The organisation of our world into nation-states no longer ministers to the needs of humanity.