South African investment firm Altvest Capital has made history by becoming the first publicly listed company in Africa to buy bitcoin as a strategic treasury asset. The company recently bought one bitcoin and plans to increase its holdings significantly.

Altvest Capital, based in Johannesburg, is taking a big step into the Bitcoin space by adding the scarce digital asset to its treasury.

The company sees Bitcoin as a hedge against economic volatility, saying it believes bitcoin is a valuable asset that protects its holders from inflation and the depreciation of the fiat currencies. CEO Warren Wheatley said:

“Bitcoin is fundamentally different from other digital assets….

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Franklin Templeton has launched an initiative to establish a Solana-based Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) featuring unique staking options. This new filing builds on the Solana Trust application from earlier this month signaling a bold move in the ETF space. With this development the company seeks to enhance its innovative stance by enabling a part of the fund’s assets to be staked through trusted providers potentially increasing Solana token rewards.

Political and regulatory climates appear more accommodating in 2025 as the SEC’s Crypto Task Force engages with industry leaders to discuss Exchange Traded Products (ETP) staking. Last week’s discussions though broad still indicate a favorable tilt towards such financial products. Moreover with Task Force leader Hester Peirce calling for additional industry feedback today the pathway for approval seems likely to be smoother than in previous years.

Should the SEC green-light Franklin Templeton’s proposal it could mark a significant advancement for cryptocurrency integration into mainstream financial products. While no approval is guaranteed the political and industry context of 2025 along with ongoing dialogues suggest a promising horizon for the Solana ETF. This could potentially revitalize SOL’s market presence after a challenging period.

SEC Filing

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In a report released this Wednesday, Fidelity Digital Assets in collaboration with Lightning payment provider Voltage released a report on the state of the Lightning Network.

The report details the many ways in which the Lightning Network has grown since its launch in 2018.

It also illustrates how more businesses have begun incorporating Lightning in 2024 than any year prior, that larger channels are forming on the network and that more…

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