Click to watchBy the time the “Future of Crypto Infrastructure” panel settled into rhythm on Wednesday at Moonshot 2025, the buzzword era, it seemed, was over. Ayotunde Alabi, CEO of Luno Nigeria, set the tone early: “The next phase is about clarity and trust.” For him, progress depends on strong KYC, careful asset listings, and the kind of regulatory dialogue that brings stability instead of fear. Exchanges, he argued, must grow responsibly, not just rapidly.
Chimene Chinah, CEO of Dantown, kept the conversation grounded in use cases. He said stablecoins are solving real, visible pain points across Africa. “Why would I wait five working days when I can get paid in less than a minute?” he asked, pointing to remittances and merchant settlements that increasingly rely on instant, low-fee rails. In her view, real adoption is when crypto stops being a buzzword and starts being invisible—the quiet layer that makes payments just work.
Michael Emeeka, Country Head for Blockchain.com in Nigeria, took it one layer deeper. Cross-chain interoperability, he said, remains one of the biggest user pain points. “People still lose money choosing the wrong networks,” he noted, adding that education and simplified interfaces must evolve alongside infrastructure. He also touched on tokenisation, a space full of promise but slowed by policy inertia. “The tech is ready,” he said. “But without alignment between regulators, registries, and issuers, tokenisation stays experimental.”
Across their perspectives ran a shared realism. Cheaper entry points and faster rails mean little if users can’t trust custody or navigate compliance. True infrastructure, the panellists agreed, comes from disciplined building: small, consistent improvements that make crypto safer, cheaper, and easier for everyday users.
As the session wound down, it was clear that crypto adoption in Africa had moved beyond tracking market cycles. What they described was a future built on credibility, clarity, and quiet progress, the kind that makes crypto feel less like a gamble and more like a system you can depend on. The next chapter of Africa has to be built in policy rooms, product design, and user experience.
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