My wife got me a coffee subscription as a birthday gift last year.
Every month, ground coffee from a different country arrives in my mailbox.
And so far the best coffee has been from African countries such as Burundi, Kenya and Tanzania.
This shouldn’t be a surprise to any fellow coffee connoisseurs reading this.
After all, Africa is known for growing amazing coffee.
But did you know that the continent is also a hot spot for blockchain startups?
Swiss firm CV VC published its first African Blockchain Report on Monday.
The report calls Africa a “crypto continent.”
Read on to find out why the report says blockchain is at the forefront of African innovation…
Blockchain Tech Is Surging in Africa
The first quarter was huge for African blockchain startups.
These companies raised a total of $91 million.
To put that in perspective, over the same time period last year, those firms only raised about $5 million.
That’s 1,668% year-over-year growth!
Some of the hottest African blockchain companies include:
- Valr (South Africa), one of Africa’s biggest crypto exchanges.
- Aza Finance (Kenya), a foreign exchange and payments platform.
- Jambo (Liberia), a software developer building the Web3 ecosystem.
- DeFiHorse (Seychelles), which makes a metaverse game that has NFTs.
- Wicrypt (Nigeria), which lets users share their Wi-Fi in exchange for cryptos.
And keep in mind that less than half of Africa’s 1.2 billion people have internet access.
But as you can see in the chart below, that number is growing rapidly.
Internet Users in Africa (in Millions): 2010 to 2025
(Source: Statista.)
As internet usage continues to surge, so will the demand for blockchain-based services.
CV VC expects we’ll see African blockchain unicorns — startups valued at $1 billion or more — emerge within two to three years.
Africa’s Crypto Policies Will Do a 180
Government regulations have been a problem for African blockchain adoption.
Many countries, such as Ghana and Nigeria, have banned financial institutions from trading cryptos.
Other countries, such as Egypt, made it illegal for anyone to trade or own cryptos.
The chart below gives you a general idea of crypto legislation in Africa.
They’re fully legal in the countries in black. Meanwhile, the countries in purple have partially or fully banned cryptos.
The countries in gray are still uncertain about crypto regulations.
(Source: CV VC.)
But Africa’s rules could quickly change.
Keep in mind that it has the youngest population of any continent.
Around 60% of Africans are under the age of 25.
Many of them are tech-savvy individuals with smartphones. And they’re eager for better access to financial services.
We saw this play out in the Central African Republic recently.
In April, it became the second country in the world to adopt bitcoin as legal tender.
I believe this is a sign of what to expect from African governments going forward.
The Key to Building Generational Wealth
Today, many Africans still don’t have a bank account or credit card.
So being able to exchange cash for cryptos is a game-changer for the African economy.
But it’s not the only continent that’s being disrupted by crypto.
The entire $100 trillion global financial industry is being overhauled right now.
And one crypto — the Next Gen Coin — is at the forefront of it all.
Ian King believes it will be 20 times bigger than bitcoin.
In his new presentation, Ian explains why this crypto is the key to building generational wealth.
You can watch it now by clicking here.
Regards,
Assistant Managing Editor, Banyan Hill Publishing
Morning Movers
From open till noon Eastern time.
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