From Dorm Room to $1.75 Billion: 26-Year-Old's Crypto Exchange Takes Africa by Storm
Cryptocurrency exchange Yellow Card has grown to be the largest centralized exchange in Africa since its launch in 2019, with $1.75 billion in transactions facilitated so far.
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Chris Maurice and Justin Poiroux are the co-founders of Yellow Card, who launched the platform from their dorm room in Auburn, Alabama, in 2019.
Yellow Card offers an experience similar to Block’s Cash App, allowing users to buy cryptocurrencies using fiat currencies, which they can then send across a border.
However, in contrast to centralized exchanges like Coinbase, where many customers store their tokens for an extended period of time hoping that their digital assets will appreciate in value, the average customer on Maurice’s exchange keeps money on the platform for under five minutes.
“It’s literally like, I deposit a million Francs in Cameroon, I buy USDT or BTC, and then I send it off,” explained the company's co-founder Maurice in an interview with CNBC.
The exchange lets users send money to 16 countries on the continent. More importantly, the platform has streamlined the process of converting crypto back to local currencies at the other end of that transaction.
The platform has now grown to become the largest centralized cryptocurrency exchange in Africa. With about 220 employees, Yellow Card currently boasts 1.4 million users across the continent.
Furthermore, the exchange has facilitated $1.75 billion in transactions since its launch in 2019. According to Maurice, the platform usually facilitates around $5 million in transactions on a good day. On a slow day, it is closer to $1 million.
With all its success, Yellow Card currently has a valuation of $200 million. The company has also raised $57 million in funding from investors including Jack Dorsey’s Block and Valar Ventures, a venture capital firm co-founded by Peter Thiel.
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