Financial technology has dominated in Africa’s top tokenized projects during the first quarter of 2023, according to a new report compiled by Emurgo Africa.

Out of 20 tokens, 7 are utility tokens issued by fintech projects, shows the Emurgo Africa 2023 Q1 Report. 4 are cryptocurrency projects, and 2 tokens are derived from decentralized finance (DeFi) products.

Africa lacks financial infrastructure, leaving nearly half of Sub-Sahara Africans unbanked or underbanked. This has at the same time given opportunities to local Web3 startups that develop disruptive innovations to help provide many Africans with services of payment, saving, sending and earning digitized money or tokens.

Among the 20 tokenized projects in Africa, 7 run on Ethereum blockchain and 6 on BSC (Binance Smart Chain), the report said. Two projects are launched on Cardano, and another 2 on Steller chain, the report said.

The report also states nearly half of 100 token projects represent the so-called Layear 1 blockchains such as Ethereum and Cardano, followed by stablecoins, DEX (decentralized exchange) and CEX (centralized exchange) protocols and the Layer 2 blockchains like Polygon.

-Edited by Shigeru Sato
-Images: Excerpts from the Emurgo Africa’s report