The Markets

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – The price of bitcoin may be down, compared with last year’s meteoric heights. But industry officials aren’t waiting for the next spike in investor demand to launch a charm offensive targeting federal lawmakers and regulators who’ve taken an interest in cryptocurrencies. Tech veterans and a number of high-profile cryptocurrency companies on Tuesday said they are forming the Blockchain Association, the first fully fledged lobbying group in Washington representing entrepreneurs…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – China’s push for blue skies has caused an obscure steelmaking ingredient to fuel gains of as much as 2,600 percent since the start of 2017 for the few companies that supply it, minting at least one new billionaire. The material is graphite, a form of carbon that has seen demand soar because of its use in electric-vehicle batteries and the lower-pollution steel mills that China is favoring to clean up its…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Bitcoin isn’t treated as currency by the Danish tax authority. Danish tax subsidies can be applied to losses from speculation on bitcoin, Denmark’s tax authority told a taxpayer who lost nearly 24,000 kroner ($3,722) trading the cryptocurrency. That means bitcoin investments are covered by laws on speculation and assumed to be a commodity purchased for the purposes of speculation only, and therefore aren’t treated as currency, the tax authority…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – The South African government must provide policy certainty and tackle its problems one at a time if it is to pull the country out of its economic malaise, according to Sanlam Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Ian Kirk. Africa’s most industrialized economy tipped into its first recession in nine years in the second quarter as President Cyril Ramaphosa tries to restore confidence battered by almost nine years of misrule by his predecessor. It also comes…