Bitcoin treasury companies are in vogue, and Africa has its first trading on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. While the launch of Africa Bitcoin Corporation promises to attract billions of South African rand from capital markets, its founders believe Bitcoin’s impact on the continent remains in grassroots, retail adoption.
South Africa’s Altvest Capital grabbed headlines as it rebranded to Africa Bitcoin Corporation (ABC), the first publicly-listed company actively building a Bitcoin (BTC)-based treasury on the continent.
The company has a long-term goal to raise $210 million to buy Bitcoin using preferential share offerings and structured debt notes in the mould of the UK’s Smarter Web Company. Altvest announced its pivot into Bitcoin in February.
Speaking exclusively on Cointelegraph’s Chain Reaction live X broadcast, ABC’s chairman Stafford Masie and CEO Warren Wheatley unpacked the details behind the inception of the company.
The listed financial service business historically focused on helping entrepreneurs and small businesses access capital through the JSE using listed instruments. Wheatley said they aimed to tackle the “dysfunction” that exists in global capital markets, where smaller players don’t have the same ability to attract investment or access capital markets.
Related: Metaplanet, Smarter Web add almost $100M in Bitcoin to treasuries
How does Bitcoin fit into that picture? Wheatley said it’s a “natural evolution,” describing Bitcoin as the “ultimate alternative asset” that would galvanize the company’s balance sheet.
Masie added that holding Bitcoin would allow ABC to continue investing and assist small enterprises in South Africa to raise capital and build their businesses. This would entail offering Bitcoin-backed financial services, including credit, savings and structured products.
“In the context of all these Bitcoin companies, we’re not a pure play. We have an operating business that’s got immense opportunities. I think this Bitcoin play gives it more muscle relative to that,” Masie said.
The underlying principle for adopting a Bitcoin treasury reserve is directly tied to the reality facing many developing countries — devaluing local currencies and inflationary concerns.
Masie said that Bitcoin holders in Europe, America and the Middle East largely view BTC as an alternative investment asset. In contrast, Bitcoin is hugely valuable as a medium of exchange and store of value in developing countries.
“In Africa, when financial services don’t work, people die. We live that reality. That’s who we are. So when we approach Bitcoin, we approach Bitcoin from a real, human necessity, life-saving perspective,” Masie said.
“Debasement is very real for us. People die because of that.”
From a South African perspective, political uncertainty, fraud and corruption are challenges that businesses and individuals face daily. As Masie explained, the rising costs of daily necessities like food, water and electricity are more a symptom of monetary dysfunction than political disorder.
“The money is broken, not the society. Your groceries are not getting more expensive; the money is getting weaker,” Masie said.
Related: UK Bitcoin treasury company Smarter Web eyes acquisitions, FTSE 100
For ABC, the Bitcoin treasury play isn’t “just an opportunity from a pure financial instrumentation perspective,” it’s a human story.
“If we can get this right, we can solve so many problems that are very inherent to Bitcoin’s value proposition. That’s why we say Bitcoin was made for us.”
Masie added that while Bitcoin allows individuals to preserve monetary value far better than South Africa’s struggling Rand, the creation of the continent’s first publicly-listed Bitcoin treasury company presents a massive opportunity for capital markets to gain exposure to BTC.
“We want to serve the individual that is not a cypherpunk, all the way through to the corporations and fixed income markets wanting exposure to the asset class but struggling to get exposure to it.”
ABC announced phase 1 of its Bitcoin strategic reserve, raising 11 million rand ($633,000) so far. The company’s prospectus notes that its first phase aims to raise $11 million in total.
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