LAGOS — SpaceTrade Technologies has unveiled a new brand identity and headquarters in Lagos, saying the rebranding is aimed at making cryptocurrency trading more accessible and expanding its focus beyond crypto exchange.
The company unveiled the new identity on Friday at its headquarters in Alaka Estate, Surulere, Lagos. Speaking at the press briefing, its Chief Technology Officer and Co-founder, Oluwatobi Odunaiya, said accessibility and simplicity were central to the rebranding, noting that many people are excluded from the crypto market because they do not understand how digital assets work or how they are used in everyday life.
According to Odunaiya, SpaceTrade is addressing the difficulty users face in moving from owning crypto to using it for everyday transactions.
“The way people interact with crypto, people want more from crypto than what they currently get,” he said, noting that converting crypto to fiat before using it for everyday needs can make the process stressful.
“But imagine having crypto and wanting to buy fuel? The process is long… We are simplifying that,” Odunaiya added.
He said one of the innovations is an offline payment option through a physical card, allowing users to spend crypto offline.
“We want people to feel like if you have crypto, I can easily use it. I can easily spend it. It doesn’t have to be more complicated,” he said.
Odunaiya said the company was also simplifying the process of “buying it, storing it, selling it, converting it to cash, converting it to Naira” and other digital assets through its services, including virtual and physical cards.
He added that SpaceTrade was looking beyond cryptocurrency to digital assets generally, including NFTs, as part of its repositioning.
“We want to take ourselves from just the crypto app that people might perceive us as into digital,” he said.
On accessibility and education, the Head of Marketing and Corporate Communications, Frankline Ntah, said users could get started by downloading the SpaceTrade app through the Play Store or App Store, providing personal information and completing verification with identification such as BVN or NIN.
For users with little knowledge of crypto, Ntah said the company had introduced SpaceTrade Insights, an educational feature within the app.
“We push out educative content about crypto, so you get to know things that you might not be aware of,” he said, adding that SpaceTrade was “offering a service that simplifies it” rather than expecting users to become crypto experts.
The company also unveiled “Crypto and Everything in Between,” an initiative covering cryptocurrency, including exchange, compliance and securities.
Ntah said the initiative was part of the company’s education drive, aimed at helping users and the wider public “come learn about everything about crypto and make trade easy for everyone.”
On regulation, Odunaiya said SpaceTrade was aware of evolving requirements from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and other authorities.
“We are building responsibly towards this to make sure that we and both our customers are transacting safely and in accordance to what the law says,” he said, adding that KYC was mandatory for users.
On security, Odunaiya said SpaceTrade was currently compliant with Nigerian Data Protection Commission (NDPC) requirements and working towards ISO compliance.
“We work closely with our in-house and external data cyber-security experts… [and] put in good infrastructure to be able to secure,” he said, adding that the company also conducts periodic audits of its systems.
Ntah said the platform also had two-factor authentication to protect users from scammers and third parties gaining access to their accounts.
On future plans, Chief Executive Officer, Emmanuel Amure, said the rebrand was more than a change of colours or logos, noting that SpaceTrade was expanding its products and activities in the Web3 space.
“It’s not just changing colours or changing logos. We’re coming out with more products,” Amure said.
He added that the company was working closely with the regulatory framework being developed by authorities, which would guide its expansion as the digital-asset space develops.
“We’re ready to expand and try to make crypto trading accessible and easier. That’s what we’re focusing on and developing,” Amure added
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