"FIVE KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THE KING OF AFRICA’S  CRYPTO EXCHANGE"

African crypto exchange king Emmanuel Babalola spoke to Billionaire Talks this week. The 27-year-old was brought up in a barracks, the son of soldiers, but he has made crypto currency  his life as the new head of Binance Africa the continent’s biggest exchange. Here are five takeaways from the lively one-hour discussion.

1.  THE STRENGTH A MILITARY FAMILY GIVES YOU.

“It was profound. I think that’s the word. So, growing up, both parents, military dad, retired, and mom was still serving. And then what happened was there was so much discipline around my life that I basically had a curfew standard from immediately I knew what curfew was. I knew when I had to be in the house then I liked to call them Barack boys then. So, you go out, play football, come back from school late. So ,I was quite stubborn. My parents were just right for me. And somehow that initial understanding of like, this is life, you have to take it seriously.

2. HOW CRYPTO IS FILLING HOLES LEFT BY THE BANKS IN AFRICA?

“There are people that can’t get a bank account. I know someone that got a crypto account before he got a bank account. Right? Yeah. Because the kind of requirements you need to open your bank accounts in some countries like this, they don’t have it. Right. So, they depend on cash in most of those regions. And cryptos is solving some of those problems. And one of the things that we see is, like, Africa accounts for more than 50% of mobile transactions in the world. It means that people are using their phones in Africa to do mobile money and all those payments more than a lot of regions in the world.”

3. WHAT TO WATCH OUT FOR WHEN SOMEONE TRIES TO SELL CRYPTO TO YOU.

“The thing about investing in crypto is anyone that tells you to buy crypto and you get this percentage after one month, that person is probably trying to steal your money to run away. Right. So actual cryptocurrency, the first thing you need to do before you even buy it is to do research, understand it first. Because by the time you understand, you realize that it’s just like buying a piece of land. Right. Or buying like say, investing like buying gold.”

4. ADVICE FOR CRYPTO INVESTORS.

“I would say crypto is full of ups and downs. In fact, right now we are in the downs. You see, crypto price now is just plunging. And it’s actually a great time to join, actually. So, for those of you that are buying now, you’ll likely start making money soon. But to be honest, it’s not a get rich quick scheme. There is a lot of value. The carriers in cryptocurrency, we have people who are working in PR, working in marketing community. I’m recruiting developers now. I’m recruiting it for a lot of rules to bundle. And a lot of crypto start-ups are raising money, and they’re raising money for expansion. So, there’s a big opportunity for entrepreneurs to come in.”

5. WHAT TO DO IF THERE’S FRAUD.

“So, if you send crypto, there’s a fraudulent transaction on the network, what happens is somebody can come in as an investigator and see from the address to the other address down to maybe a centralized exchange from the KYC, and then go back. So, it’s a lot easier for crypto forensics analysts to really investigate. Right? So that’s the truth. As I said, within the traditional space, if you look at the percentage of fraud that happens using traditional payments and look at the percentage of fraud within crypto that goes through, it’s not even something to compare. But those emails that people still get, please don’t even respond to them because everybody wants to steal your Bitcoin!”