Oluwaseyi Falola is the CEO of Liquid Ramp and a leading crypto market analyst with extensive experience in the Nigerian digital asset ecosystem. He has been at the forefront of building infrastructure to facilitate secure, compliant transactions and pioneering stablecoin development in Africa. In this interview with GIFT WADA, Falola brings insight into the persistent perception of cryptocurrency as a scam, the mechanics of blockchain and stablecoins, and the systemic challenges and risks facing everyday investors in the Nigerian market. He stresses the importance of financial literacy, asserting that thorough education must come before capital commitment to prevent devastating financial losses. Excerpts:
What specific misconceptions surrounding crypto led to the general perception that blockchain and digital assets are synonymous with scams or fraud in Nigeria?
It’s fair to an extent based on how people get to know about the blockchain. Most people in Nigeria generally get to know about the blockchain through Ponzi schemes like MMM, CBEX, and the likes. Because these platforms are Ponzi schemes, they end up crashing. There’s a general perception that anything crypto is a scam because most people don’t even understand what blockchain actually is. That is the general narrative. That is one of the reasons why I always say that you must learn before you earn. Most people want to go through the route of making money quickly, so they jump into scams, jump into Ponzi schemes, and mostly end up burnt.
For those who still find the space complex, how would you simply define blockchain and cryptocurrency, and how do volatile and stable assets differ?
Blockchain powers crypto. It is a decentralized technology, more like a book, we call it a ledger that is publicly available, and whatever has been written on that book can never be changed. It is immutable and final. Blockchain can be used in agriculture, manufacturing, and several other industries. When you talk about the money side of it, that is where cryptocurrency comes into place. Within crypto, we have volatile assets like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana, which can go up or down. On the other side, we have stablecoins like USDT, USDC, and CGN, the Nigerian stablecoin I managed the development of, which is pegged one-to-one to the Naira. If you hold a stablecoin, you own an asset pegged to a local fiat currency, giving you a reliable hedge against market volatility.
Beyond trading, what are some of the practical, real-world utility benefits of blockchain and crypto in everyday African commerce?
In terms of benefits, there are many ways to gain aside from buying volatile assets. For instance, during the Russia-Ukraine conflict, someone needed to send funds to a cousin over there. Through our liquidity aggregation platform, Liquid Ramp, she bought USDT with Naira, sent it across, and her cousin converted it to local currency to use. Beyond that, you can benefit from the ecosystem without buying an asset. We have people earning through content creation, community management, carbon credits, and applying blockchain to agriculture and real estate. In real estate, tokenization allows properties and land plots to be visually represented on-chain, bringing transparency and eliminating situations where multiple people unknowingly buy the same plot of land.
In terms of benefits, there are many ways to gain aside from buying volatile assets. For instance, during the Russia-Ukraine conflict, someone needed to send funds to a cousin over there. Through our liquidity aggregation platform, Liquid Ramp, she bought USDT with Naira, sent it across, and her cousin converted it to local currency to use. Beyond that, you can benefit from the ecosystem without buying an asset. We have people earning through content creation, community management, carbon credits, and applying blockchain to agriculture and real estate. In real estate, tokenization allows properties and land plots to be visually represented on-chain, bringing transparency and eliminating situations where multiple people unknowingly buy the same plot of land.
With high-yield promises frequently trapping unsuspecting individuals, what are the primary red flags people should look out for to identify legitimate opportunities versus scams?
The only reason you get scammed is because you are looking out for how to make money quickly. If that is your goal, the probability of getting scammed is about ninety percent. Most scam platforms have red flags like guaranteed returns such as promising twenty to fifty percent profit in a month, which is unsustainable. You want to ask who the people behind the project are, how long they have been in the system, and crucially, how the platform makes money. If they do not have a proper business model, it is a scam. Furthermore, any platform selling an exaggerated lifestyle of driving exotic cars is a major warning sign. Always check the project’s utility and fundamentals.
Considering market volatility and the emotional toll of trading, why should anyone still consider investing in the digital asset space?
The skepticism should be about aligning with your personal financial goals. If you want to invest long-term, I always say buy Bitcoin and forget about it. However, you must also understand how to store your assets securely. We have non-custodial wallets that give you total control over your private keys, meaning you are responsible for keeping them safe. If you misplace them, no one can recover them. When looking to invest in assets, you should check coin marketplaces to look at the top twenty assets with high market capitalization, high liquidity, and proven use cases-such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP. Diversification is also important; do not put all your eggs in one basket, but spread your capital across stocks, real estate, and crypto.
What is your take on regulatory developments in Nigeria, particularly concerning policies like the recent tax and stamp duty frameworks on digital transactions?
The Nigerian government is doing a very good job trying to regulate the space and make it safer. Adoption in Nigeria has grown rapidly because people want a fast method to hedge against currency instability and execute cross-border transactions. However, when you introduce policies like a 1.5% stamp duty on transactions, it creates friction. For instance, if you charge that on stablecoins meant to remain pegged one-to-one, it de-pegs the asset and forces users to pay extra fees to the government, which does not make economic sense. If policies make the business environment unfavorable, startups will migrate to more welcoming economies. Policymakers need to focus on how to grow the space and attract global compliance rather than driving innovators away.
How is Liquid Ramp addressing market friction, and what final piece of advice do you have for aspiring participants?
Liquid Ramp started in 2020 out of the challenges within the P2P space, because sending money globally should be as easy as sending a text message. We aggregate liquidity from different P2P platforms and people who want to buy and sell, connecting buyers and sellers securely as a business-to-business network without holding user funds, while actively blocking bad actors. My final advice is simple: the best investment you can make is knowledge. Before you make any financial decision, you need the right knowledge to navigate the market safely, understand the risks involved, and avoid getting unnecessarily burnt.