from OKORO CHINEDU in Lagos, Nigeria
Nigeria Bureau
LAGOS, (CAJ News) – BOOM, the blockchain-based e-commerce ecosystem and digital payments platform, is investing €500 million (R10.5 billion) in its expansion and to create a stable liquidity pool for tokenised currencies.
The firm disclosed it had secured funding from a “private family office” to launch Boomswap, a decentralised digital asset exchange, where all world currencies are tokenised and traded against the Boomcoin ($BMC).
Boomswap utilises smart contracts that run on the Boom blockchain and an automated market maker model instead of traditional order-book- based models.
Boomswap has been created to foster cross-border trades, especially in emerging markets where 90 percent of all transactions are settled in cash.
To achieve this, Boom has tokenised the world’s currencies, beginning with all African and Middle Eastern currencies, into stablecoins backed and redeemable 1-to-1 by deposits in each country.
This ensures seamless fiat off-ramp at scale because Boomswap’s liquidity is backed by cash.
Peter Alfred-Adekeye, CEO and Founder of Boom, said Boomswap made commerce more equitable by enabling Africans and citizens of other emerging economies to pay cross-border in their local currencies.
This while extending the utility of local currencies beyond borders into DeFi, which injects international liquidity, reduces settlement costs and enhances transaction transparency.
“Boomswap also enables foreign multinationals that sell into African markets to repatriate their earnings instantly,” he said from Lagos.
Alfred-Adekeye said before now, the inability of African countries to settle cross-border trade in local currencies had limited intra-African trade to only 15 percent of all imports and exports as compared to 70 percent for European countries.
“Boomswap will boost intra- African cross-border trades, which will translate into a growth in GDP and socio-economic well- being of all Africans,” he pledged.
Boom stated the investment from a private family office would enable it to initiate the creation of liquidity pools and the expansion of its ecosystem in the Middle East and North Africa region, with plans for global extension.
The ecosystem pledges to connect over 1,3 billion users in Africa who have faced financial displacement, paving the way for their participation in the global digital economy.
– CAJ News