ETHSafari brings the crypto world to Africa and Africa to the crypto world

The six-hour train ride from Kenya's capital, Nairobi, to the coastal city of Mombasa is a pleasant one. Clean shuttles, well-dressed passengers and an on-time schedule make for a nice change from the uncertainty in Africa.

In the year Opened in 2017, it replaces a colonial-era railway known as the Lunatic Express, which is good enough for going to any crypto event.

My destination, two more hours drive from Mombasa, is ETSafari in Kilifi, a paradise-like coastal town, but early. The next day there was another “train block” to the second conference room.

In Swahili, “safari” is another word for travel, and is appropriate considering the 36-hour journey required. Walking into the venue under the Baobabs is like arriving at a festival. It's a massive 50-hectare estate that hosts a huge New Year's Eve party every year, attracting ravers from Africa and, increasingly, the world.

Crypto is on the rise here. Africa has been at the forefront of financial innovation, leading the success of mobile money services such as Kenya's M-Pesa, revolutionizing banking by giving millions of unbanked individuals access to basic financial services.

ETHSafari attracts crypto fans from around the world

Community-driven ETSafari is a way to showcase and bring together African talent, projects and innovations, says ETSafari “co-founder” Jason Eason.

“ETHSafari is a beautiful thing, I think, precisely because it's not Token2049. ‘What do you mean I have to take a long train ride with everyone?! When you say it's in the woods, how deep is it?'

ETSafari celebrates not only technology but also culture, music and environment, bringing together diverse minds to collaborate on crypto-based solutions to Africa's unique challenges.

The success of the event is measured not only by the number of attendees or deals made, but also by the connections and networks created across the continent.

“We created this event to bring the world into this ecosystem as African founders and projects are excluded from global Web3 events for many reasons. We are simply a (mostly) like-minded community group hosting this event with nothing but love and passion for the African Web3 ecosystem.” ” says Eason.

M-Pesa sets the stage for crypto adoption in Africa.

M-Pesa, launched in Kenya in 2007 by telecommunications giant Safaricom, is considered one of the most successful mobile money systems in the world. It has over 50 million users in various African countries and allows users to send, receive and store money using their mobile phones.

M-Pesa has contributed to increasing financial inclusion, especially for those who have not been reached by traditional banking infrastructure. Over 70% of Kenya's adult population now uses mobile money services such as M-Pesa. Rather than crypto, it was developed for domestic bank-to-non-bank services.

This innovation has been vital to millions of Africans who previously relied on informal, cash-based systems, and now accounts for over 50% of Kenya's GDP. The platform's low fees, accessibility and ease of use have helped solve the continent's biggest challenge: bringing financial services to the unbanked population.

Also read: South Africa's digital-nomads crypto hub — Cape Town, crypto city guide

As M-Pesa revolutionized mobile banking, cryptocurrencies emerged as the next frontier of decentralized and borderless financial systems.

While both aim to improve financial inclusion, M-Pesa is centralized, tied to mobile networks and operates within a regulatory framework. It is already highly accessible, user-friendly and widely accepted, making it an essential part of daily life for millions of Africans.

Crypto is decentralized and permissionless, but adoption in Africa faces significant challenges, including limited internet access, lack of awareness, regulatory uncertainties and the volatility of digital currencies.

There are potential ways in which M-Pesa and crypto can complement each other. Buying crypto is already easy for M-Pesa customers, and platforms like AZA Finance (formerly BitPesa) have integrated M-Pesa with crypto services to make remittances cheaper and faster.

AZA Finance enables users to convert cryptocurrency into local currency by facilitating same-day transfers to M-Pesa mobile wallets.

Elsewhere, in late 2023, Opera unveiled MiniPay – a blockchain-based wallet built on the Xelo blockchain. Integrated directly into the Opera Mini browser, MiniPay makes it easier and more affordable for individuals in Africa to earn and send or receive stablecoins simply by using mobile phone numbers.

According to a report by Chinalysis, the majority of retail transactions in Africa cover crypto transfers, indicating that crypto is increasingly being used as a financial instrument rather than a speculative asset.

Africa is crazy for stablecoins

As the global crypto market expands, Africa has become one of the fastest growing regions for crypto adoption. According to Chinalysis, Africa is crazy about stablecoins, which now account for roughly 43% of sub-Saharan Africa's total crypto transaction volume.

Stablecoins and selected cryptocurrencies provide protection against the inflation and currency collapse that is plaguing many African economies.

In Nigeria, for example, the naira has depreciated significantly over the past few years, leading many to take bitcoin as a hedge. Cryptocurrencies enable cross-border transactions with lower fees compared to traditional money transfer channels, making them attractive to Africa's large diaspora population.

Blockchain offers solutions to long-standing issues such as corruption, lack of transparency and inefficient land registration. Crypto in Africa is still in its infancy but has great potential.

Developers and entrepreneurs across the continent are experimenting with blockchain to solve real-world problems, from financial exclusion to environmental degradation.

And one way ETHSafari brings them all together is to fight against each other. Jimmy Cohen, founder and CEO of Treegens DAO, told the magazine:

“One of my many highlights at ETSafari was seeing the sparkle in the eyes of developers working to solve real-world problems with blockchain technology. Seeing all the real-world use cases throughout ETHSafari made me more excited than ever about the future of crypto and why this industry needs to grow again.” I will confirm.

Treegen DAO: Plant trees with DAO

Cohen's company Tregens Dao is pioneering a global movement to make tree planting more accessible, profitable and transparent. They set a Guinness World Record by planting more than 30,000 trees and more than 60,000 mangrove trees in 24 hours.

Also read: Bitcoin in Senegal – Why does this African country use BTC?

Using relevant DAO and decentralized community structures and smart contracts, Tregens has also developed an AI-powered tree counting tool with over 97.5% accuracy, ensuring transparency on environmental impact. In the year Plant 1 billion mangrove trees on Earth Day 2025, a step that surpasses Ethiopia's record of planting 350 million trees in one day.

Treegen DAO integrates blockchain with the business using the decentralized and community-driven DAO structure. Like many DAOs, Tregen uses smart contracts — self-executing agreements stored on the blockchain — to automate tasks, execute transactions, and enforce agreements.

Bill Okoba is one of the young Kenyan Web3 pioneers attracted by ETHSafari. He works in business development for Global Ledger, a European-based crypto risk assessment company.

He shows me around the “tent,” a high-end reflective setup with a Starlink connection, next to a water stop pipe.

“ETHAfrica Global Ledger has been engaged in researching Africa's top CXX and working with known illegal transactions to identify significant compliance challenges,” he told me in a message after returning home.

“We have engaged several on/off-ramp crypto projects in Kenya that have integrated with the global economy through M-Pesa, with the exception of South Africa where crypto regulation is limited, highlighting the urgency of compliance.”

Compliance and problems with crypto in Africa

One promising innovation that is transforming Kenya's public transport sector by simulating electric mobility and using the Cello blockchain, on which the Opera Mini wallet is built.

The founders of the platform – Eliud Mungai, Mike O'Chara and Eric Wachiuri – told me at the event that their goal is to create a sustainable and investable transport system using blockchain backed by the Kenyan shilling stablecoin cKES.

These digital tokens can be used as a universal payment method on electric public transport services such as buses, trams, electric vehicle sharing and electric scooters. Users can earn tokens as rewards for environmentally friendly actions such as using renewable energy for charging or ride sharing.

Electric vehicles can also be integrated into decentralized energy markets. Tokens represent units of energy, allowing EV owners to sell excess energy back to the grid or directly to other users in a peer-to-peer market.

This is one of the biggest dream crypto projects for Kenya and Africa.

As the co-initiator of Itisafari, Aizen emphasizes that the African crypto community is a diverse, collaborative ecosystem driven by passion and passion for the continent's unique challenges and opportunities. That difference is at the core of how things change in Africa, and in different ways.

There are 54 countries in Africa, and somewhere, in one of them there is Steve Jobs or Vitalik Buterin, preparing the next crypto revolution; I even found them at Benez The Baobabs. After two great days in the jungle, it was time to head back to the beach and spend the last 24 hours at the beach. Okoba of Global Ledger came to see me from the beach hotel before I left for Mombasa and this time not a flight but a train back to Nairobi.

As I said before, Safari is Swahili for travel, and will undoubtedly be very, very interesting for any African involved in Web3 or crypto. It's in the future… it's almost certain.

Monty Munford

Monty Munford writes regularly for the BBC, The Economist and CT AM and was a technology columnist for Forbes and the Telegraph. He also runs a growth and visibility consultancy and has appeared at over 200 events and conferences, interviewing the likes of Tim Draper, the late John McPhee, Sir Tim Berner-Lee, Steve Wozniak, Kim Kardashian, Guns N' Roses and many others. .

Follow the author @montymunford