Binance, the world’s leading cryptocurrency and blockchain infrastructure provider, and Women in Tech, rolled out the drums to celebrate 2022 crypto-year in Nigeria and Africa in general.
For some exchanges, year 2022 was very turbulent; this is the year an exchanged collapsed, another filed for bankruptcy. Binance witnessed many positives but not without its own challenges.
Changpeng Zhao (“CZ”) Binance CEO said (virtually), however, during the end of the year party in Lagos, has seen an impressive growth. The exchange also intensified its penetration in Africa and commitment to developing communities.
For instance, Binance Charity, its philanthropic arm announced a flagship global partnership to provide blockchain educational courses to 2,800 women from vulnerable communities across Brazil and Africa.
Binance Charity donated $250,000 BUSD for a six-month pilot project to empower women with the knowledge and skills to thrive in a Web3 future, with the first courses taking place in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, and Cape Town, South Africa, in October, this year.
Meanwhile, the size of the global blockchain market is expected to grow from $4.93 billion in 2021 to more than $200 billion by 2028, showing that the future is here for the industry.
Nadeem Anjarwalla, Binance Director for East Africa told TechEconomy that 2022 is a very instructive year for the crypto industry.
“We have seen a lot of progress happen regards regulation, especially as the governments (in Africa) are beginning to talk about the blockchain ecosystem”, he said.
Nadeem‘s optimisms were heightened by the South African government’s pronouncement in October declaring crypto assets to be a financial product to make it easier for regulators to monitor the market and help to safeguard consumers.
South Africa ranks 30th worldwide for cryptocurrency adoption, according to the Chainalysis 2022 Global Crypto Adoption Index, published in September. It is estimated that about 10-13% of the South African population are crypto holders.
Crypto adoption among South African Business Owners and CEOs is at an all-time high of 59.7%, almost 50% higher when compared to the average US citizen.
Bitcoin remains the popular choice for South African Business Owners with more than 85% of crypto owner respondents possessing Bitcoin.
Nadeem further told TechEconomy that cryptocurrency would become more adopted on the Continent through improved awareness.
“Technology becomes more adopted when awareness spreads. Secondly, as a first-mover in Africa, we hope that other governments will be able to adopt the digital currency. In essence, the surest thing is to make sure that security is advanced and Binance takes that very seriously.
Moving to 2023, he said that Binance would increase its efforts towards building formidable community. We have also realised that education and awareness is very important to drive adoption.
“In addition to that, we need to build consensus among the stakeholders. One of the key stakeholders in this respect is the regulator.
Binance 2022 in Numbers:
- 300 women graduated from Binance bootcamp
- 50,000 Africans are currently being educated under Binance Charity-Utiva partnership
- Binance achieved 117 key affliates
- 60 Binance Angels are now in Africa. Binance Angels are self-motivated representatives of the Binance community. They are passionate volunteers whose belief in the transformative power of blockchain technology ignited their passion to contribute to Binance’s vision: to increase the freedom of money around the world.
- Binance celebrated the first-ever crypto-sponsored vacation – i.e. ‘cryptotourism’ to Lagos, Nigeria, in order to show the world how efficient, secure and simple travel is in a web3 world.
- Nigeria’s Ibukun Awosika joined new Global Advisory Board for Binance
- In the face of FTX Collapse, Binance launched a number of initiatives to reassure users of transparency. READ HERE.
The Binance End of the Year Part attracted crème de crème players, influencers, communities and others in the country.
You can watch a video clip of the Binance end of the year part on YouTube.
