The African crypto ecosystem sees more advancement as Nairobi-based financial technology company Mara announced the launch of a cryptocurrency wallet called Mara Wallet. Mara Wallet is backed by several crypto industry juggernauts including Sam Bankman-Fried FTX affiliated company Alameda Research and Coinbase Ventures.
With this brokerage app, over two million subscribed users in Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya can buy, send, sell, and withdraw fiat currency, and the top 30 cryptocurrencies by volume with Bitcoin (BTC) at the peak of the list.
The rollout of the wallet started in Nigeria, then the onboarding of a portion of the waitlist through an invite-only strategy in Kenya and Ghana commenced on Thursday.
Back in May, as it ventured into the East Africa region, Mara secured $23 million in funding from household names in the industry like Coinbase Ventures, Huobi, and Alameda Research amongst other industry heavyweights.
The funding round ushered the digital finance company with its crypto trading services into Nigeria and Kenya as well with plans to launch in other countries in the future.
Mara Targets the African Region
During an interview, Chi Nnadi, Mara’s Chief Executive Officer explained that Mara was specifically set attune to suit the African crypto ecosystem through money transfer services and plans for a broader suite of financial products. The CEO claims that these features set the platform apart from other existing global exchanges and brokerages.
“Many times, when people think about crypto, they think about it purely from a Western perspective, and they think about it purely as a consumer tool for investment. I came to crypto because I wanted to solve a real problem that existed in Nigeria” Nnadi added
In addition to trading cryptocurrencies and withdrawing fiat, the Mara Wallet will provide users with access to crypto-inclined educational resources and other personal finance management topics. The empowerment arm of the company, Mara Foundation will also be launched to push further blockchain adoption and sustainable development in Africa.
For the foundation project, the firm is partnered with the issuers of United States dollar-pegged stablecoin USD Coin (USDC) and Euro Coin (EUROC) to push the growth and penetration of the stablecoins.
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