Jay-Z and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey have started a fund for the adoption of Bitcoin in India and nations in Africa. The moguls invested 500 Bitcoin (about $24 million) in the project, according to a tweet from Dorsey.
Dorsey went on to say he and Hov will not be involved in the running of the trust, which aims to encourage the use and acceptance of the cryptocurrency in India and (thus far unspecified) African countries.
The announcement of the fund comes at the end of a banner week for Bitcoin. BNY Mellon, the oldest bank in the U.S., announced it will begin handling the currency in its role as a custodial bank. Other major banks like JPMorgan Chase are talking about taking on the cryptocurrency as well.
The fund is far from Dorsey’s first foray into Bitcoin. His payment company Square has long accepted the digital currency and the company bought $50 million worth of BTC this fall. While Dorsey is clearly open to the idea, pushing acceptance of the currency in India is a tall order. Financial regulators in that country were considering banning BTC within the country, in favor of their own state-sanctioned digital currency. –
