How FTX Drew Over 100,000 African Customers to its Platform

The crypto stock exchange, ftx, has attracted African clients to use its platform promising that Africans could use stablecoins to protect their wealth against the effects of devaluation.

This is according to a Wall Street Journal report which indicates that the exchange pitched itself to customers with the idea that its dollar-pegged stablecoins would never lose their value, and therefore represent a safe haven in economies that have been continually hit by inflation and dollar strength.

Additionally, ftx has organized glamorous events for Nigerian youth and offered all new customers a $5 bonus.

As we previously reported, the Sam Bankman-Fried led organization was already processing billions of dollars monthly in Africa and was going to set up an office in Nigeria on its way to increase activities on the continent ahead of its collapse.

A few days before declaring bankruptcy, Bankman-Fried announced on Twitter that the stock market had begun accepting deposits in West African CFA francs.

Good afternoon, Western Africa!

XOF deposits are up and running.https://t.co/sXsXgpUE5mpic.twitter.com/cT3Lnp0TNY

— SBF (@SBF_FTX) November 3, 2022

FTX had also managed to acquire over 100,000 customers in Africa, many of whom were trading on the platform while other customers used the platform to convert their local currencies to dollars and gain yield on savings.

Some Africans using the platform for their economies have been let to ruin their confidence in the crypto society, and crypto in general.“All my UK ISA Individual Savings Account, which I saved for the past 15 years was what I lost,” said Victor Asemota, a popular opinion leader in the Nigerian tech industry and strong advocate for FTX in Africa.

Devaluation continues to be a real concern for Africans who hold wealth in local currencies, while inflation pushes up the cost of goods. The United States dollar is guilty here, with the majority of African currencies, including the Nigerian dwarf, Ghana's cedi, and the Malawian kwacha, which lost a great deal of value against the dollar in 2022 due to the aggressive monetary tightening of the Federal Reserve, which fueled capital outflows from developing markets.

Until the collapse of ftx, confidence was building in the cryptocurrency's ability to protect itself from such a loss of wealth.

___________________________________