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Quick Take

• The Aragon Network recently lost more than a dozen key employees including Jorge Izquierdo, the CEO of the firm Aragon One.
• The Block spoke with key players on both sides of the dispute to make sense of the break-up — and what comes next for Aragon.

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Miller Opportunity Trust — a value fund overseen by Miller Value Funds, founded by noted investor and manager Bill Miller — said in a Friday regulatory filing that it “may seek investment exposure to bitcoin indirectly by investing in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust.”

The disclosure, included in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, comes soon after Bill Miller penned an extended exploration and defense of bitcoin in a letter to investors, as The Block previously reported. 

Here’s the full quote from Friday’s filing by Miller Opportunity Trust (emphasis added):

“The Fund may seek investment exposure to bitcoin indirectly by investing in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, an entity that holds bitcoin. Grayscale Bitcoin Trust is a privately offered investment vehicle, the shares of which are also available over-the-counter. Bitcoin is a digital commodity that is not issued by a government, bank, or central organization. Bitcoin exists on an online, peer-to-peer computer network that hosts a public transaction ledger where bitcoin transfers are recorded (the “Blockchain”). Bitcoin has no physical existence beyond the record of transactions on the Blockchain. The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust invests principally in bitcoin. The Fund will not make any additional investments in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust if, as a result of the investment, its aggregate investment in bitcoin exposure would be more than 15% of its assets at the time of investment.”

According to information from Miller Value Funds’ website, the fund had $2.25 billion in assets under management as of December 31, 2020. Bill Miller, along with Samantha McLemore, serve as managers of the fund. 

As of December 31, its largest holdings were Uber, Fartech Ltd, DXC Technology Co. and Amazon.

Hat tip Macroscope17/Twitter

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has issued a letter urging regulated financial institutions in the country to “immediately” close accounts connected to cryptocurrency-related activities. 

The letter, dated February 5, states that “the Bank wishes to remind regulated institutions that dealing in crypto currencies [sic] or payments for cryptocurrency exchanges is prohibited.”

“Accordingly, all DMBs, NBFIs, and OFIs are directed to identify persons and/or entities transacting in or operating crypto currency [sic] exchanges within their systems and ensure that such accounts are closed immediately. Please note that breaches of this directive will attract severe regulatory sanctions,” the letter continued.

Companies that offer exchange services in the country reacted to the news, though the practical responses differed from firm to firm.

Changpeng Zhao, CEO of crypto exchange Binance, said on Twitter that the exchange “[r]eceived notice from our channel partners that NGN deposits and withdrawals will be affected. Still confirming details on when/how. “Please withdraw your NGN as early as possible to avoid potential channel issues. Will share more details as they become available,” he wrote.

“It is likely that the Nigeria banks will stop working with exchanges,” Zhao said in a separate tweet, predicting that peer-tp-peer exchanges will grow as a result.

Binance elaborated on the situation in a formal announcement post, explaining: “From 7PM (GMT+1) on Feb 5th 2021, Binance will temporarily suspend NGN deposits through our fiat partner channels. Withdrawal services remain normal and will continue to be processed but might take slightly longer time than usual. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.”

Other exchange services say they plan to continue operating.

BuyCoins, a Nigeria-based exchange, wrote on Twitter that: “We are fully aware of the newest CBN circular and are going to be working with regulators to ensure our services are compliant. All trading on our platforms continues as usual, and all user funds are safe.”

Luno, a London-based exchange, announced that it too will proceed normally until receiving further information from authorities. “Some Naira deposit methods are currently affected, please check the status page for updates. Withdrawals are unaffected and will continue to be processed, but may take longer than usual. All customer funds are completely safe.”

The CBN’s announcement today expands on 2017 guidelines the Nigeria Central Bank issued regarding virtual currencies, warning that they could be used for illicit activity, terrorist funding, or financial crimes. Nigerian financial institutions were forbidden from holding or transacting with digital currencies and were ordered to ensure any party who dealt with digital currency had ample anti-money laundering and know-your-customer measures in place.

Sub-Saharan Africa is currently home to the second-largest peer-to-peer Bitcoin transaction volume in the world behind North America, according to data from Paxful.

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Morgan Beller, a former co-creator of Libra — now known as Diem — has joined the stablecoin project Celo as an advisor.

Beller quit Diem last September and joined venture capital firm NFX as a general partner. In her advisory role at Celo, Beller aims to help the project on initiatives like adoption and developer strategies, she told The Block in an interview.

“I love Celo’s mobile-first global approach,” Beller told The Block. “It’s really like Venmo for crypto.”

Venmo is a mobile payment service owned by PayPal and allows people to transfer funds within the U.S. Celo, on the other hand, helps users share Celo dollars (cUSD), each pegged to track one U.S. dollar.

Celo is a decentralized stablecoin project focused on payments as a use case, especially for the unbanked and underbanked communities. The project was launched in March last year and helps exchange money via a mobile phone. According to Coinbase, the Celo Dollar possess a market capitalization of around $33 million, with roughly $104,000 in volume during the past 24 hours.

Beller’s new advisory role comes as the ecosystem for stablecoins — and the outstanding supply of said coins — continues to grow. It remains an ecosystem dominated by USDT, the stablecoin issued by Tether, though stablecoins such as USDC, BUSD and DAI have expanded their market share.

The conversation around privately-issued stablecoins arguably exploded into public view when the now-renamed Libra made its public debut. Introduced in June 2019 and backed by Facebook and other firms, Diem has yet to launch, having faced significant regulatory scrutiny in the wake of its unveiling. The project has since revised its initial approach, brought in a range of traditional finance veterans to guide the association that oversees its development, and, to some extent, turned its gaze to the nascent world of central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs (Beller declined to talk about the project in the interview).

‘Grasroots stablecoin movement’

The potential for stablecoins to solve real problems for people is what attracts Beller to the industry the most, Beller said. That includes people in countries where their national currencies suffer from “tremendous inflation,” and are a “terrible store value,” as well as jurisdictions in which governments can seize accounts and the money inside them, said Beller.

Beller said she sees Celo more than Venmo for crypto because beyond just sending and receiving funds, it also acts as a “store of value.” “It’s giving them a savings account, and it’s giving them security,” she said.

Still, most stablecoins today are used for trading arbitrage, said Beller.

“So it’s in the hands of a few people, but really big volumes, so this is like top-down. I see Celo really as the bottom-up, grassroots stablecoin movement where it’s small balances by a lot of people.”

Stablecoin growth and looking ahead

Beller also spoke to the general timing of the emergence of stablecoin platforms like Celo and the broader global context within which this growth is occurring.

“I think that their timing was a blessing to the people who need it the most and that we’re in a global pandemic, remittances are very expensive, both as far as cost and as far as time is considered,” said Beller. “So Celo has been helping people send remittances for less than one cent fees during the pandemic, which you know, it gives you goosebumps.”

Looking ahead, Beller said that “Celo has big future plans, really big plans,” though she did not disclose specific details. In the interview, she highlighted a new euro-pegged stablecoin that Celo is planning to launch.

Both Diem and Celo have some common investors, like Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Coinbase Ventures. Beller previously worked for a16z.

When asked if NFX has invested in or has plans to invest in Celo, Beller said since NFX invests in early-stage startups, Celo is “just outside of the investment criteria of the fund.”

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.