Let’s face it, the whole alluring crypto pitch was about liberation. Liberation from unelected bureaucratic control, reduced costs, increased velocity of money. For small businesses, the promised reality of crypto payroll as a convenient alternative has frequently missed the mark. Ethereum gas fees on their own can make a simple...
Imagine a world where sending money across borders is as simple as sending a text, and where your savings aren't eroded by runaway inflation. For millions in the Global South, this isn’t a futuristic fantasy; it’s an urgent necessity. Visa’s recent deep foray into stablecoins is more than a tech...
Decentralized finance (DeFi) has promised a very alluring vision. It opens up a future in which anyone, anywhere, has access to financial services, without the need to use or trust traditional institutions. If we’re being real, what’s actually been delivered sometimes hasn’t lived up to that promise. This ecosystem fragmentation...
The very mention of the word brings to mind visions of overnight millionaires, meme coins, and stomach-churning swings. It’s understandable to be overwhelmed by all the noise, writing off the whole space as a speculative bubble. Under the radar, a handful of projects are making noise that promises to change...
Meet Amina, a single mother living on the outskirts of Lagos, Nigeria. She owns a small street food cart and struggles to even afford the food she needs to feed her kids. For people like Nadia, traditional banking is inaccessible – the fees prohibitive, the forms overwhelming. DeFi, with its...
As the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) recently put it. Their new report on crypto and DeFi released this week. As it relates to the industry, it’s making quite a splash, sending shock waves and possibly Shapiro throughout. Is this genuine, clear-eyed warning, or is NIMBYism just failing to see...
Imagine this: Fatima, a mother in Sana'a, Yemen, struggles to feed her children. US sanctions, originally designed to destroy the Houthi rebel group, have instead asphyxiated the country’s already precarious banking sector. With her brother working in Saudi Arabia and sending remittances—their family’s lifeline—to her family. Unfortunately, these funds are...
As TRM Labs explains, Yemeni citizens are turning to decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols more than ever. They are using these tools to help them get by as US sanctions squeeze the Houthi authorities. The US government has recently designated the Houthi movement as a terrorist organization. Unfortunately, this designation led...
I remember Sarah. A smart, bright-eyed single mom I met at a community workshop on financial literacy. Eager to learn and explore, she jumped into the deep end of DeFi. The lure of one click away high returns and financial independence was a fire in her belly. She envisioned it...
