Latest opinions that Nkahiseng Ralepeli has shared on Finextra

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Nkahiseng Ralepeli

VP of Product: Digital Assets

Absa Bank, CIB.

Member since

24 Oct 2024

Location

Joburg

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Nkahiseng's opinions

The (Kinda) Never-Closing Bell: A Re-imagined World

For generations, stock markets have operated on a schedule as routine as sunrise and sunset. Exchanges open in the morning with a ringing bell and close in the afternoon with another, giving traders nights and weekends off. A new world beckons though, one where the closing bell never truly rings—where trading continues through the dead of night an...

28 July 2025 /crypto /markets

Tokenised Stocks: What They Are, What They Aren't, and Why They Matter

Tokenised stocks are making headlines as the finance world flirts with the blockchain revolution. From Wall Street to Hong Kong, everyone seems to be talking about bringing equities on-chain. But as exciting as it sounds to have Apple or Tesla in your crypto wallet, it's important to understand what tokenised stocks really are – and equally import...

07 July 2025 /crypto /markets

GENIUS Act Clears the Way for Stablecoin-Powered Embedded Finance

For years, stablecoins existed in a regulatory grey zone – popular as “digital cash” but lacking official oversight. The GENIUS Act changes that virtually overnight. By passing this law, U.S. policymakers have sketched out the first federal framework for payment stablecoins. Under the Act, only approved and well-supervised issuers (think insured b...

23 June 2025 /payments /crypto

From Open Banking to Open Finance to DeFi: The Open Evolution of Finance

Open Banking has moved from regulatory idea to industry reality, driving transformation by enabling secure, permissioned data sharing between financial institutions and third-party fintechs. In practice, this means banks expose certain data (like account balances or transaction history) through open APIs, but only when you, the customer, give con...

02 June 2025 /crypto /predictions

No FDIC for You: What the GENIUS Act Means for the Future of Crypto Payments

The U.S. Congress is flirting with crypto’s version of a “ChatGPT moment.” A new bipartisan bill – cheekily named the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act (GENIUS Act) – promises to catapult dollar-backed stablecoins from the fringes of online trading into the mainstream of payments. Having just cleared the Senate ...

27 May 2025 /regulation /crypto

From Fringe to Foundation: Coinbase’s Debut Signals Crypto’s Coming of Age

For years, digital assets carried a whiff of skepticism in traditional finance circles – a perceived “taboo stain” that serious institutions were hesitant to touch. Many remembered the early days of Bitcoin’s wild price swings, high-profile exchange hacks, and regulators sounding alarms. Crypto companies struggled for mainstream respect; a large p...

14 May 2025 /wealth /crypto

Agentic Payments and Stablecoins: From iKota in Hammanskraal to Beluga Caviar in Clifton

What would it look like if Visa and Mastercard rolled out AI-powered, “agentic” payment systems across Africa, backed by stablecoin settlement? In this deep dive, I explore that question—blending current initiatives with realistic speculation about an agentic payment ecosystem on the continent. From Visa’s Intelligent Commerce to Mastercard’s Agen...

12 May 2025 /ai /crypto

The Degen Banker: When Wall Street Meets Crypto Twitter

Once upon a time, calling yourself a “degen” was financial heresy. It meant you YOLO’d into dog coins, aped into DeFi yield farms with 6,000% APRs, and spent more time in Discord than on Bloomberg. You were a creature of chaos, allergic to compliance decks and powered by memes and Metamask. But times have changed. Today, the degen banker is no lon...

05 May 2025 /crypto /markets

Fractional Dreams: How Tokenisation is Unlocking Assets in Emerging Markets

Imagine a young professional in Nairobi buying a digital slice of a new apartment building, a cattle farmer in Bolivia selling tokens backed by his herd, or a street vendor in Mumbai investing in a fraction of a tech company’s stock – all through a smartphone. This isn’t sci‑fi finance; it’s the promise of fractionalisation and tokenisation. These...

31 March 2025 /inclusion /crypto

Stablecoins at the Checkout: How Mobile-First Markets Are Embracing a New Way to Pay

When you tap your card or phone to pay for a coffee, a lot happens in the blink of an eye. A tiny point-of-sale (PoS) terminal beeps approval, but behind the scenes, a complex dance unfolds between your bank, the merchant’s bank, and the card network. In mobile-first regions like Africa and Asia, this familiar routine is on the cusp of transformat...

24 March 2025 /payments /crypto

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