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The 88Minds Blog

Plain-spoken guides to crypto, forex, payments and property — written by people who build the products, reviewed by the people accountable for them.

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News

When governments get desperate, they try to tax unrealised gains

Here’s a shocker: Australia’s “Unrealised Capital Gains Tax” now taxes unrealised gains on pension funds, which could potentially force investors into asset sales (simply to…

80eight Team3 min read
News

Who are the best traders in the world?

US politicians, of course. “It’s interesting to note that the one group of investors with astonishing predictive powers is US senators, who outperformed equity markets by 12…

80eight Team4 min read
Crypto

XRP breaks through $3, bitcoin hits R2m

What a week it was. Bitcoin smashed R2 million (where it is currently hovering) and XRP broke through R57 ($3).

80eight Team2 min read
Crypto

Bitcoin hits R2 million – next target R3 million

Source: Google Bitcoin (BTC) hit R2 million over the weekend. The next target is R3 million. For context, BTC broke R1 million in November 2021 and then dropped 70%.

80eight Team1 min read
News

Flying taxis, humanoid robots and AI-powered cures for cancer – a look into the near future

Never mind the distant future – the near future looks both fascinating and terrifying. We are at the start of a massive acceleration in innovation and growth that will power…

80eight Team2 min read
Crypto

The long view favours stocks (that is, until bitcoin arrived)

At this time of year everyone is focused on last year’s asset returns. Let’s take a step back – a really big step back – and see what the long-term picture looks like.

80eight Team1 min read
Forex

The rand as a global “powerhouse”

The chart below shows the rand losing just 3% against the USD in 2024, a shade behind the Indian rupee and Chinese yuan. The list is astonishing in many ways.

80eight Team2 min read
News

The rand weakens on US tariffs shock (and lower interest rates)

As we predicted at 80eight, the ZAR shot back above R18.20 to the USD on two developments over the last week – the imposition of 30% tariffs on US imports from SA, and the 25…

80eight Team2 min read
News

What the future looks like with AI

“By the time the decade is out, we’ll have billions of vastly superhuman AI agents running around.

80eight Team3 min read
Trading

What’s the biggest opportunity of the next decade?

Renowned bitcoin analyst Willy Woo explains it thus: “The biggest fintech opportunity in the next decade is not DeFi.

80eight Team2 min read
Crypto

Why Ethereum’s Pectra upgrade matters

Ethereum’s new Pectra upgrade was supposed to drop this month—March 2025—but, surprise, it’s late again. No shock there; it’s practically tradition.

80eight Team2 min read
News

Why foreigners don’t love us anymore

The chart below is depressing as hell. It shows outflows from SA equities tanking since 2020, with just small outflows of bonds.

80eight Team2 min read