Zimbabwe’s most popular cryptocurrency exchange had an eventful month in May. From planning their ICO to having to contend with the RBZs ban of Crypto and then dealing with customers after their fall from favour, it’s safe to say the last month was chaos-ridden for the exchange.
Now it seems they are trying their best to put their troubles past them; the exchange is expanding to Uganda and Kenya. They sent out a press release to this effect:
African Fintech Startup Raises $32m To Introduce Cryptocurrencies To Africa
Zimbabwe’s digital currencies pioneer Golix, is raising $32 million through a Token Sale in a bid to finance the establishment of cryptocurrency infrastructure across the entire African continent.
Simultaneously the exchange, which has been operational for the past 3 years, processing transactions worth $20 million, announced that it has launched its services in Kenya, South Africa and Uganda as of Friday 1 June 2018. “As part of our strategy commencing Friday 1 June, people in Kenya, South Africa and Uganda will be able to start transacting on Golix. This is one of our plans to be the leading cryptocurrency exchange in Africa, inspired by our vision of providing financial autonomy on the continent, ” said Head of Growth Panashe Tapera.
Out of 54 countries in Africa only 3 have cryptocurrency exchanges, short-changing a host of businesses and individuals from the potential held by blockchain technology.
Thus Golix has set its target to avail its services across the entire African continent to address the cryptocurrency infrastructure shortage which has slowed down the adoption of digital currencies.
Golix Lead of Special Projects William Chui stated that the Token Sale was an initiative they set afoot to enable instant remittances and international payments through cryptocurrencies.
“From the onset our main agenda has been to provide financial autonomy in Africa to Africans. The GLX token is going to be used to facilitate and realise this agenda. The GLX token will be used to trade with other altcoins on the Exchange, all this will be done at zero transaction fees.
“The GLX token will also be used to facilitate remittances and international payments at lesser fees, compared to current banking methods. This cascades immensely towards the contribution of GDP growth in African countries” said Chui.
The GLX token, an Ethereum ERC20 token, will be available for purchase from Friday 1 June 2018 10:00 HRS UTM on the Golix token sale website, tokensale.golix.com
Potential buyers can use their bitcoin (BTC) and/or ethereum (ETH) to buy the GLX token which has been priced at $0.05612.
1,274,240, 097 tokens will be minted/created, while the Token Sale will afford the public the opportunity to purchase 50% of them, i.e. 637,120,049 tokens until 25 July 2018.
Surprise! Surprise!
This is a surprising turn of events that I had not anticipated. Back in April, Golix also announced they would be expanding to South Africa. This most recent announcement is a clear signal that regardless of what ends up happening in here in Zimbabwe, Golix have a solid plan and will continue trading.
The ICO
Golix is also moving their ICO plans forward. They had announced the ICO just after it became public knowledge (on the 15th of May) that the central bank was going to ban cryptos. Golix had to suspend the ICO probably due to the fact that the ban would negatively affect their plans. It seems now that they will be going forward with the ICO and probably marketing it to the new areas they are expanding into.
What reception will the GLX Token get in Uganda and Kenya
It will be interesting to see how the people in these countries react to Golix’s entry into their territory. From the discussions and meetings we’ve had with many different people who are in the blockchain field, they are really excited about Uganda and how they have embraced the technology. Going off of that assumption, Golix will probably fare better in Uganda than they will in Kenya.
In Kenya, I’m not exactly sure what the reception to crypto and blockchain has been but generally, Kenya is known for their forward-looking stance when it comes to technology so they may also make strides there.
As pointed out in their press release, there are only a handful of countries that have crypto exchanges, so there is room for them to grow. It will be interesting to see how the story unfolds in these new territories and if regulation remains lax.
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5 comments
This is the real test… With no premium… Let’s see how it goes… Good luck
To attack the competition they have juiced up themselves with this new remittances attraction. They know a lot of Africans have relatives who send money home from diaspora. They need to be careful coz they will need a money transferred license from European and American regulators otherwise you facing heavy fines….
Kenya actually banned Crytos
This is kindof like a classic example of what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger. Lets see how it goes. Good job Golix
““The GLX token will also be used to facilitate remittances and international payments at lesser fees, compared to current banking methods. This cascade immensely towards contribution of GDP growth in African countries” said Chui.”
I like how this new announced additional objective of the GLX token being mentioned now in press statement after issues with RBZ and Banks. Are you now in direct competition with BitMari?
I think Techzim needs to dig deeper into this, it was never included in the whitepaper before