💱 Crypto exchanges & Africa
We are hosting our 1st intimate roundtable session with African crypto thought leaders. Ahead of this here is a high-level overview of exchanges in Africa.
We are rolling out our virtual intimate roundtables with African leaders such as Yele Bademosi (CEO Nestcoin, ex-Binance Africa Director), Marius Reitz (Head of Africa, Luno), Nelly Chatue-Dipo (CEO Ejara) + African allies such as Jesse Pollak (Base by Coinbase). In the future we will be opening up a few spaces to our followers so stay tuned!
Africa Overview
African crypto adoption has continued to grow despite the bear market. According to Chainalysis' 2022 World Crypto Adoption Index, Nigeria, Morocco and Kenya ranked overall 11th, 14th and 19th respectively.
Centralised exchanges represent the key avenue through which most of these African engage with crypto. Emerging Onchain’s deal database found that centralised exchanges have also dominated the African crypto funding environment accounting for 38.7%($129m) of funding (2019 - Q1 2023).
Key data
Peer-to-peer (P2P) and Africa
P2P is the primary way in which most crypto users on/offramp on the continent. There are numerous reasons for this including:
Regulation: Some African countries (e.g. Nigeria) have laws that prevent traditional financial institutions from engaging/ enabling their customers to use crypto making it impossible to on/offramp using cards or bank transfers.
User behaviour: Beyond cash, mobile money, bank transfers and transfers between mobile wallets are common ways to pay and send money in different countries on the continent. P2P arguably mimics existing payment methods and user behaviour that we see when buying services/ goods.
P2P on/offramps can be structured in numerous ways. Here’s an example of how Binance P2P works, a user can choose a peer to trade with, and the funds are escrowed until a seller or buyer confirm. Binance customer support will serve as arbitrators in case of conflict.
You can learn more about on/offramps in Africa here:
Crypto Exchanges in Africa
Here is a list of some of the key exchanges in Africa:
Luno:
Luno is a South African crypto exchange with operations in over 30 countries. Founded in 2013 by Marcus Swanepoel and Timothy Stranex, Luno was one of the first exchanges to have real presence and focus in Africa. Luno is an independent subsidiary of DCG and has processed over $14 Billion in volume since its inception.
Binance:
The biggest exchange by market share (accounting for 62%) globally, Binance is also believed to be the biggest exchange in Africa. It was early to invest in ensuring localised on/offramping capabilities with Naira being the first fiat it supported globally. This early investment continues to pay dividends with Binance P2P being one of the key ways to convert crypto into fiat and vice versa on the continent. Through its Labs, Binance was also an early investor in a number of African crypto projects.
Yellow Card:
Yellow Card was founded by Chris Maurice and Justin Poiroux in 2016 and has a presence in over 16 African countries. In its early days Yellow Card offered gift cards that people could buy in selected stores and redeem online and use to buy crypto.Yellow Card has come very far since then raising over $55million to date.
🗞️ In the news: Yellow Card partners with TBD
💰 Fundraising data: Check out our deal database
Quidax:
Quidax was founded by Buchi Okoro and Morris Ebieroma in 2018. In its first 3 years of existence Quidax grew to process over $3.2 billion worth of transactions and serve customers in over 72 countries. As well as its exchange and OTC desk, Quidax offers APIs enabling other companies to build their own crypto projects.
💰 Fundraising data: Check out our deal database
Ejara:
Ejara is an investment app that enables users to buy crypto and save through decentralised wallets with the additional ability to make cross-border transactions using stablecoins. Co-founded by Nelly Chatue-Diop and with users across 9 different Francophone African countries, Ejara secured an $8mill Series A raise co-led by Dragonfly Capital.
💰 Fundraising data: Check out our deal database
VALR:
VALR is a South African exchange with over 250,000 retail customers and institutional clients and has raised over $54.9 million in funding with investors including Coinbase. VALR, is present in a number of countries including South Africa and Zambia and has over 800 corporate and institutional clients using its APIs to over crypto to their own customers.
💰 Fundraising data: Check out our deal database
Buycoins:
Buycoins is a Nigerian-based exchange founded by Timi Ajiboye, Ire Aderinokun, and Tomiwa Lasebikan. Beginning its life as a simple website for peer-to-peer Bitcoin trading, Buycoins has since evolved to include a portfolio of companies housed under Helicarrier. A YC company, Buycoins exchange still continues to thrive.
💰 Fundraising data: Check out our deal database
Busha:
Founded by Moyo Sodipo and Michael Adeyeri in 2018, Busha scaled to over 200,000 users in its first 3 years. The wallet and exchange has raised over $4.2million to date and continues to scale its product offering supporting business needs with an OTC desk (called Prime) and enabling businesses to accept crypto payments.
🗞️ In the news: Kenya launch, Commerce product launch
💰 Fundraising data: Check out our deal database
Bitmama:
Founded by Ruth Iselema in 2019, and has raised over $2mill to date. As well as its exchange, P2P and staking functionalities, Bitmama also has Changera, a social payments solution that uses stablecoins. Bitmama’s user base more than trebled in the first 9 months of 2022, to over 70,000 users.
💰 Fundraising data: Check out our deal database