Hong Kong-headquartered digital asset trading platform Gatecoin is moving forward with plans to bring bitcoin and blockchain services to the African continent through a partnership with a local financ
Hong Kong-headquartered digital asset trading platform Gatecoin is moving forward with plans to bring bitcoin and blockchain services to the African continent through a partnership with a local financial institution. The initiative will roll out remittance capabilities and bitcoin brokerage functionality across multiple African markets beginning in the spring, according to Gatecoin's founding chief executive Aurélien Menant.
Beyond the African expansion, Menant revealed the company has been in substantive negotiations with banking partners in mainland China, the United States, India, and Europe—five institutions in total—to explore additional collaboration opportunities. Meanwhile, Gatecoin has embarked on its latest capital raise, having secured $500,000 of a $5 million funding target with expectations to complete the round by Q1's conclusion.
The new capital will fuel regional expansion throughout Asia while simultaneously enabling product development across multiple fronts: derivative instruments tied to bitcoin price movements, a rebuilt exchange engine, and a consumer-facing mobile application. To scale these capabilities, Menant indicated the company will seek partnerships with entities specializing in cross-border payments and remittance infrastructure to distribute its blockchain service layer offering.
Since launching its exchange a year prior, Gatecoin has achieved substantial traction. The platform has facilitated $150 million in transaction volume and holds the leading market position within Hong Kong, ranks second across European markets, and maintains presence among the planet's top ten trading venues by volume, Menant stated.
The company has also been selected as the singular bitcoin-focused venture for the SuperCharger Fintech Accelerator, a three-month intensive based in Hong Kong. Operating under the stewardship of Standard Chartered Bank, search giant Baidu, and collaborative workspace provider TusPark Global Network since its October launch, the program works with eight promising companies to navigate Asia's expansion potential.
Alongside Gatecoin, the cohort encompasses Amareos, utilizing machine learning to gauge market psychology; Funding Societies, a Singapore-based marketplace connecting institutional capital with small business borrowers; Neat, engineering an AI-driven personal finance application; Eko Financial Services, building peer infrastructure for digital payments in India; Jade Payments, specializing in prepaid payment mechanisms across the Middle East and Hong Kong; MicroCred, supporting entrepreneurship and small enterprise lending within China; and WeCash, leveraging predictive analytics to deliver personalized financial services and credit assessment.
The program's backing also includes technology firms Microsoft and EY, financial data provider Yodlee, Hong Kong's primary securities exchange, telecommunications leader HKT, and governmental trade promotion authority Invest Hong Kong.
