By Dipo Olowookere
The sum of $23 million has been invested in a pan-African crypto exchange, MARA, in order to boost the crypto economy in Africa.
To achieve this goal, the company has partnered with the Central African Republic to become the country’s official crypto partner and an advisor to the President on crypto strategy and planning.
Recently, the nation passed a bill to legalise Bitcoin as legal tender, following the footstep of El Salvador, which adopted the digital coin as a legal tender last September.
MARA intends to become the portal to the crypto economy for the African population and seeing the prospects for this, investors quickly took a position in the organisation, parting with funds to help achieve this ambition.
Some of those who invested in the dream include Coinbase Ventures, Alameda Research (FTX), Distributed Global, TQ Ventures, DIGITAL, Nexo, Huobi Ventures, Day One Ventures, Infinite Capital, DAO Jones (investment DAO backed by Mike Shinoda, Steve Aoki and Disclosure), and others.
“MARA’s mission is to facilitate a more equitable distribution of capital by providing a decentralized alternative that spans across tribes, class, cultures, and countries,” the co-founder/CEO of MARA, Chi Nnadi, stated, adding that, “Our goal is to close the gap in opportunities for Sub-Saharan individuals and establish a financial infrastructure that they can build their lives upon.”
One of the investors, Schuster Tanger, co-founder of TQ Ventures, expressed satisfaction with the business transaction with MARA, noting that, “With the right resources, this region has potential for mass adoption of cryptocurrency. To that end, the local knowledge and specialized skills of the MARA team are quite promising.”
Business Post learned that MARA will initially launch in Kenya, Nigeria, and surrounding regions and its app will be available in the App Store and Google Play stores.
Pre-registered users will join a queue to enable early access on a first-come, first-served basis. Users can jump up the queue by referring others, and earn crypto rewards by doing so while increasing their odds of winning additional prizes and rewards in the process.
Once onboarded, the MARA Wallet app will enable users to invest in crypto and send money to their family members in real time, without processing times or delays.
The MARA Wallet is the brokerage app offering the crypto-curious user a friendly, distilled experience through which they can buy, send, sell and withdraw both fiat and crypto assets instantly and without any prior crypto knowledge.
The company also has another product called the pro-exchange, which is a full-feature cryptocurrency platform focused on experienced users that offers a comprehensive suite of trading options and technical analysis tools.
In addition, it has the MARA Chain, a layer-1 blockchain, powered by the native MARA token that gives savvy developers a place to build decentralized applications that will help shape the future of the African crypto economy.
The launch of MARA comes at a critical inflection point in Sub-Saharan Africa, when political and economic instability has led to devaluation of currencies across the region.
