Xend Finance, a decentralized finance project backed by Binance and Google, is launching a platform in Africa to offer tokenized access to global real estate and stock markets.
Partners in the launch include Risevest, a digital wealth management platform that offers individual and institutional investors exposure to global markets. The company recently acquired a broker-dealer license in the United States.
According to a May 30 announcement, the new platform will allow users to invest in international real estate and stock markets by purchasing fractional shares via tokenization. The entry barrier is low, starting at $5 when investors use stablecoins such as USDt (USDT) and USDC (USDC).
“This partnership with Xend Finance allows us to offer fractional, dollar-based assets like real estate and US stocks in a seamless, blockchain-powered format,” Risevest CEO Eke Urum said in a statement. “It’s a game-changer for young Africans looking to build wealth securely, transparently, and without barriers.”
The platform’s launch comes as Web3 projects are increasingly looking at Africa as a key market for real-world tokenization (RWA).
Some of the ongoing RWA projects on the continent are LIDO NATION’s attempt to tokenize and verify goods, Empowa using the Cardano blockchain to tokenize financial instruments in Kenya, and the development of the Africa Tokenization Council.
Xend Finance, founded in 2019 and based in Nigeria, built its DeFi platform on the BNB Smart Chain.
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Crypto in Africa: a growing market
According to Chainalysis’s 2024 Geography of Crypto Report, Nigeria, where both Xend Finance and Risevest are based, ranks No. 2 out of all countries in crypto adoption. Other Sub-Saharan countries — Ethiopia, Kenya, and South Africa — made the top 30.
The report shows that Africans are adopting crypto for a variety of reasons, including business payments, as a hedge against inflation, and for smaller transactions. The continent may benefit from crypto’s practical use cases.
Stablecoins, especially those pegged to a major fiat currency like the US dollar, might be one such use case. Stablecoins act as a hedge against inflation and allow businesses to transact with other businesses and even customers at a lower cost. Stablecoins account for 43% of all crypto volume in Sub-Saharan Africa.
RWA tokenization is another use case that may spur crypto adoption in Africa, allowing individuals to access the global financial system.
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