Asset Chain, a Nigerian blockchain infrastructure firm, has launched its eponymous blockchain, a Layer-1 (L1) community constructed to supply a safer and sooner approach for Nigerians to commerce digital property and real-world property—like property or commodities—instantly with one another, with out counting on middlemen or conventional banks.
The launch introduces a brand new decentralised change (DEX) the place customers can commerce between USDT, a dollar-backed stablecoin issued by Tether, and cNGN, a Naira-backed stablecoin. The corporate says its DEX is “gasless,” which means customers don’t pay transaction charges.
“Merchants will purchase USDT with cNGN with out speaking to anybody, and settlement is immediate. Additionally, merchants don’t pay fuel charges. It is freed from cost (sponsored) on Asset Chain,” mentioned Ugochukwu Aronu, the corporate’s CEO and co-founder.
Nigeria’s crypto market accounted for $59 billion in transactions in 2024. A great chunk of those transactions occur on peer-to-peer (P2P) crypto exchanges, which are sometimes untraceable attributable to their casual nature. Asset Chain goes after the P2P crypto market to resolve frequent points like fraud.
Asset Chain’s DEX makes use of sensible contracts to automate trades, so consumers and sellers don’t should belief one another or depend on a 3rd get together. When a person needs to commerce, the sensible contract checks the main points and matches a purchaser to a vendor primarily based on their pre-set circumstances, then completes the change mechanically.
At the moment, 200 merchants and liquidity suppliers have joined the DEX platform, and the corporate says lots of extra customers are expressing curiosity. Asset Chain targets ₦100 billion ($65 million) in buying and selling quantity inside its first 60 days.
An Asset Chain spokesperson advised TechCabal that the platform is designed to be straightforward to make use of and “gives a seamless expertise just like fashionable P2P exchanges however with added safety and privateness, making certain customers management their funds always.”
The blockchain is presently invite-only, which the corporate says is to make sure that solely critical customers be part of at first, present liquidity, and assist take a look at the system earlier than opening it to everybody.
“It’s invite-only, not due to the blockchain’s efficiency—that has been [tested and] verified already. It could possibly deal with over 20,000 transactions per second,” Aronu mentioned.
Asset Chain has been testing its blockchain for years; in 2024, it launched its testnet and has been in beta. The permissionless blockchain is constructed to draw builders, becoming a member of different initiatives like Bantu that purpose to seize worth from preserving funds circulating inside Africa. But, Asset Chain will want extra crypto initiatives to construct on its blockchain if it hopes to achieve the dimensions and native influence it goals for.
The corporate needs to maintain extra fee worth inside Nigeria and Africa, fairly than sending it to international platforms. When individuals put their cryptocurrencies and stablecoins into decentralised finance (DeFi) apps on blockchains like Base, Solana, or Ethereum, for instance, by staking or including to liquidity swimming pools, the worth of these property is counted as complete worth locked (TVL) on the platform. TVL reveals how a lot cash is being utilized in these apps, and when it grows, it helps carry in additional customers and liquidity suppliers to those networks.
“Nearly nothing involves Nigeria, and it should change,” mentioned Aronu. “We will’t simply maintain contributing to different blockchains and platforms with out getting any worth in return. We should have our personal infrastructure that draws and captures worth globally.”
Past digital currencies, Asset Chain plans to permit customers to purchase and promote tokenised variations of real-world property, corresponding to Nigerian actual property, agricultural merchandise, and authorities bonds. This implies individuals may personal a fraction of an condominium or spend money on crops, with all transactions recorded on the blockchain.
“We have now a partnership with Risevest to permit on a regular basis individuals in Nigeria or diaspora to take a position and earn as much as 15% yield yearly,” Aronu mentioned. To make sure these digital tokens match real-world property, Asset Chain requires asset issuers to undergo strict identification checks, insurance coverage, and compliance. “We have now an organization referred to as Assetbase that’s already constructing this with the Asset Chain [blockchain],” he added.
If Asset Chain and its DEX platform unlock the sort of scale it envisions, it may carry extra security, transparency, and native management to Nigeria’s giant, under-the-hood P2P buying and selling market, whereas additionally opening the door for extraordinary individuals to spend money on property that have been beforehand out of attain.
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