Johannesburg, South Africa, June 10th, 2025, Chainwire

VALR, Africa’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trade volume, and MoonPay, the global leader in crypto payments, today announced their integration to streamline fiat on- and off-ramps for users in over 180 countries. This partnership enables VALR to support 34 fiat currencies, including KES (Kenyan Shilling), NGN (Nigerian Naira), IDR (Indonesian Rupiah), TRY (Turkish Lira), BRL (Brazilian Real), and TWD (Taiwan Dollar), across payment methods such as Credit and Debit Cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, and Venmo.

The integration strengthens VALR’s mission to expand its global footprint and provide seamless access to cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and stablecoins. With a user base exceeding 1.3 million and over 1,300 corporate and institutional clients, VALR continues to lead the development of a more inclusive global financial system.

“We are thrilled to partner with MoonPay to enhance our platform’s accessibility for users worldwide,” said Farzam Ehsani, Co-Founder and CEO of VALR. “This integration empowers our global community with efficient access to cryptocurrencies, aligning with VALR’s vision of building a financial system that reflects the oneness of humanity.”

“We believe the future of money is crypto, and our goal is to make it easy for everyone to participate in this new digital economy,” said Ivan Soto-Wright, co-founder and CEO at MoonPay. “Partnering with VALR to broaden access to stablecoins and other tokens is an exciting step toward our shared mission of global crypto adoption, empowering users in Africa and beyond to hold value on-chain.” 

Founded in 2018 and headquartered in Johannesburg, VALR offers a comprehensive suite of crypto services, including Spot Trading, Futures, Staking, Lending, OTC Trading, VALR Pay, and a world-class API for businesses to build on and high-frequency traders. Licensed by South Africa’s FSCA, with regulatory approvals in Europe and initial approval from Dubai’s VARA, VALR has raised $55 million from investors such as Pantera Capital, Fidelity’s F-Prime, and Coinbase Ventures. MoonPay, trusted by over 30 million users, provides end-to-end solutions to simplify crypto access across 180+ countries.

About VALR

VALR is Africa’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trade volume, serving over 1.3 million users and 1,300 corporate clients. Founded in 2018, VALR offers products including Spot Trading, Futures, Staking, Lending, OTC Trading, VALR Pay, and a world-class API for businesses to build on and high-frequency traders. Headquartered in Johannesburg, VALR is licensed by the FSCA in South Africa, with approvals in Europe and initial approval from Dubai’s VARA. The company has raised $55 million from investors like Pantera Capital, Coinbase Ventures, and F-Prime. For more, visit valr.com

About MoonPay

MoonPay creates a world where you own your digital future, giving you control of your identity, money, property, and data.

We are the market leader in end-to-end solutions simplifying access to the crypto economy for 30M+ verified accounts across 180+ countries, and trusted by iconic global brands to power the creation and movement of digital value. 

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Contact

VALR
press@VALR.com

Study shows that Total Value Locked (TVL) is a poor metric for building crypto portfolios and making investment decisions

SINGAPORE, June 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — A new study from the Algorand Foundation’s tokenomics team challenges one of the cryptocurrency sector’s most widely cited metrics: Total Value Locked. The report provides some of the strongest evidence to date that TVL, despite its prominence across dashboards, headlines, and investor materials, has no bearing on a token’s financial performance.

A recent analysis of over 300 cryptocurrencies (excluding bitcoin and stablecoins) from 2023-2024, led by Dr. Matthew Brigida, Associate Professor of Finance at SUNY Polytechnic Institute and Chief Economist at the Algorand Foundation, revealed no evidence that TVL predicts token performance.

The research team constructed weekly portfolios that ranked tokens by TVL, holding the top 25% and shorting the bottom 25%, to test whether high-minus-low TVL portfolios generated alpha. They did not.

“TVL is often used to project credibility or potential upside, but our results show it fails as an investment signal,” said Brigida. “Even after adjusting for known issues like double-counting, TVL-based portfolios didn’t deliver abnormal returns.”

TVL remains common in crypto media headlines, but it can mislead investors and analysts, according to a study. Platforms like Messari, Artemis, and Token Terminal now consider TVL a secondary metric, while Blockworks has introduced REV (Real Economic Value). Community analytics tools like Dune and L2BEAT are either decentralizing TVL interpretation or using metrics like Total Value Secured (TVS). Nansen adds context to TVL through wallet behavior and smart money flows, while Flipside Crypto emphasizes the value of high-quality users over TVL.

As crypto integrates more deeply with global finance, the Algorand Foundation encourages platforms, researchers, investors, and media to adopt metrics that reflect actual usage and economic demand. This research supports Algorand’s role in evolving the crypto market by combining academic rigor with real-time blockchain insights for data-driven innovation in Web3.

Read the full press release here. 

The full whitepaper is available here.

About Algorand Foundation

Algorand’s mission is to power a world where information has integrity and innovative ideas can scale. The Algorand Foundation supports Algorand’s rapidly growing ecosystem by providing a best-in-class developer environment, supporting key infrastructure and setting technical standards, offering comprehensive support to builders and entrepreneurs, and providing the framework for decentralized governance. To learn more, visit algorand.co.

DUBLIN, June 7, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — On June 7, 2025 at 14:00 (UTC+8), AB DAO announced that its native token $AB is now officially trading on Binance Alpha—Binance’s early-access, exclusive listing platform.

As a high-performance, modular heterogeneous blockchain network, the AB Core mainnet has been fully deployed, and—through the AB IoT sidechain and AB Connect cross-chain protocol—multi-chain interoperability is enabled; AB Wallet now supports BSC – AB cross-chain transactions and multi-asset management; the AB Foundation has launched global philanthropic projects, leveraging on-chain transparent donations and community governance to advance decentralized charity. This listing on Binance Alpha will offer global users more convenient and efficient asset mobility and participation opportunities.

Trading Highlights

$AB Live on Binance Alpha: Global users can deposit and trade $AB immediately, enjoying premium liquidity.

Airdrop Event: Eligible Binance users can claim 9,882 AB tokens on the Alpha Events page.

Trading Competition: Coming soon, with a prize pool of 115,000,000 $AB.

Details: See the official Binance announcement:
https://x.com/binance/status/1931229650543583317

This listing will significantly enhance $AB’s market depth and liquidity, and by leveraging Binance’s custody and risk-management framework, users will enjoy major improvements in security and trading experience.

About AB

AB is a high-performance, modular heterogeneous blockchain network whose native token $AB is deployed across chains via AB Connect, realizing the “AB Anywhere” vision. AB is dedicated to driving stablecoin issuance, building payment-network infrastructure, and facilitating decentralized philanthropy, thereby constructing an open, trusted global value infrastructure.

Website: https://ab.org
Global Community: https://www.ab.org/community