DEAL: American company PowerDFI acquires Nigerian blockchain startup, Naijacrypto
PowerDFI, a recently founded Wyoming-based Blockchain financial startup, has acquired Naijacrypto, a Nigerian-owned cryptocurrency exchange focused initially on the African markets.
Naijacrypto, which recently expanded its offering to include several African countries and the UK, is one of the few exchanges with some presence in the Caribbean and has indicated interest in expanding to other Latin American countries.
Despite Naijacrypto’s growing geographic scope, PowerDFI’s main interest in Naijacrypto appears to be its vastly growing technical infrastructure that has been streamlined to meet not only retail needs but also B2B usage.
What they say
Commenting on the acquisition, Tim Webb, CEO of PowerDFI said: “Adding the work done by Naijacrypto to what we are building in PowerDFI completes our technology suite to handle trillions in assets over the next decade.”
“We are set to lead the transition of the $57 trillion shadow banking market to the blockchain to improve transparency and security,” he added.
In an email to users, the CEO of Naijacrypto, Chiagozie Iwu, explained that the exchange was transitioning to a business model set to disrupt the financial markets while maintaining aspects that have made users stick with them for years.
According to him, although many structured products will be made available on the exchange, stablecoin-based remittance instruments will continue to serve their original purposes and even be enhanced by the support PowerDFI can leverage.
He added that Naijacrypto was set to leverage its already massive B2B networks to offer hedging instruments to businesses and individuals exposed to exchange rate risk.
What you should know
- While there have been a couple of platforms currently aiding the tokenization of physical assets, PowerDFI takes these a step further by enabling lending secured by already tokenized assets, staking such physical assets, and derivative creation against tokenized assets.
- The Naijacrypto infrastructure will help provide exposures to tools created on PowerDFI and also add liquidity to such tools. A quick look at the beta version of PowerDFI shows that it leverages the Ethereum network to build out its services. This comes as Ethereum transitions to a more sustainable technological and validation method.
- Collaboration between Nigerian and American Fintechs is not new. Even partnerships via acquisitions have been seen between both countries.
- These collaborations have been largely successful and we hope that Naijacrypto sets a new precedent and opens the doors for even more cross-border Fintech mergers.
