Ugochukwu Aronu’s Asset Chain may be Africa’s bold future blockchain ownership

When the four-time founder and one of the early proponents of DeFi in Africa, Ugochukwu Aronu, talks about Africa’s place in the global crypto economy, his voice sharpens. The 31-year-old Nigerian electronics engineer-turned-entrepreneur has a habit of punctuating his sentences with declarations that double as rallying cries.

“Not while I’m here,” he says, leaning in. “We’re not going to remain just consumers. We’re going to build.”

For nearly a decade, Aronu, born to paediatrician Ann and retired chartered accountant Christopher Uzochukwu Aronu in Enugu, has been at the vanguard of African crypto innovation. 

He founded Xend Finance, Africa’s first decentralised finance (DeFi) protocol backed by Binance Labs and Google Launchpad. He launched Wicrypt, an internet-sharing network now operating in 35 countries.

His gaming startup signed a distribution deal with MTN, Africa’s largest telecom, netting over 100,000 paying subscribers within months.

His latest venture, Asset Chain represents his most audacious play to build a homegrown blockchain platform that will capture value that for too long had remained abroad.

For five years, Africa punched far above its weight in crypto adoption. Nigeria ranks within the top six in the world. Yet for all its trading volume and innovation, the continent lacks a blockchain infrastructure on a global scale.

“It’s appalling,” Aronu says flatly. “India has Polygon. Here, we have none. And that’s a huge economic loss.”

He points to platforms like Binance’s BNB Chain and TRON. Alone, TRON processes more than half of the world’s USDT supply, over $80 billion. “A lot of Nigerians contribute to these networks every single day,” Aronu explains. “But where does the value go? Not here.”

The numbers back him up. Binance’s exchange reportedly did $4 trillion in futures trading in a single month. Its decentralised protocols captured trillions more. 

“That’s value creation at scale,” Aronu says. “And Africans are fuelling it, but the wealth is accruing elsewhere.”

The birth of Asset Chain

In 2023, Aronu and his team in Enugu, far from Nigeria’s traditional tech hub of Lagos, quietly launched Asset Chain, a decentralised, Ethereum-compatible (EVM) layer-one blockchain.

“This isn’t just about technology,” Aronu insists. “It’s about building the infrastructure we own. A blockchain is an economic engine. It attracts and multiplies value. Without one, we’re begging for grants, writing emails to Avalanche or BNB. That’s not sustainable.”

The public mainnet launch, he says, represents nothing less than “a movement for Africa”.

“We can’t keep begging,” he continues. “Those guys went through hell to build their ecosystems. CZ went to jail. Who has sacrificed from Nigeria? Nobody. We need to be audacious.”

Building from Enugu, for the globe

Aronu takes pride in the fact that Asset Chain was engineered in Enugu.  “I like to mention it so people know. Most of the protocols people use are built by engineers from Enugu. It really shows that we are creators, not just consumers”, he said.

The ecosystem is already filled with activity. Asset Chain hosts multiple decentralised exchanges, including a perpetual DEX modelled after HyperLiquid and GMX and an AMM DEX that’s live.

A meme coin launchpad, MoonPieFun, recently caught fire after an influencer announced the Shalom token, building what Aronu calls “a crazy community in just two or three days.”  

“There’s even EdenFinance, which lets you invest in the Nigerian money market using just your MetaMask wallet, and Asset Base, which tokenises equities in Nigeria and the U.S.,” Aronu says. “These are projects that open our markets to global liquidity.”

Lessons from Ugochukwu Aronu, the serial entrepreneur

The 2015 University of Nigeria, Nsukka-trained BEng graduate of Electronic Engineering’s career has been defined by experiments across fintech, telco, and gaming. Each venture reinforced a single lesson: distribution is everything.

“If you want to be successful, you need to help other people become successful,” he says, quoting Zig Ziglar. 

“That’s what Binance did; that’s what Y Combinator did. They created distribution networks. That’s what we’re doing with Asset Chain.”

He points to his company, Wicrypt, which rebuilt the operating system for a major African telecom’s 5G network. “They will be giving us access to millions of customers overnight. Do you know how that will affect our bottom line? It’s insane. Distribution is everything. And that’s what Asset Chain is helping founders here achieve.”

While most blockchains compete on speed and scalability, Asset Chain stakes its uniqueness on focus: African innovation.

“We’re not competing with Ethereum or Solana,” Aronu insists. “Tokenisation can happen anywhere. Our edge is attracting projects focused on DeFi and real-world assets, especially from this part of the world. For builders, being one of the first here gives them visibility they wouldn’t get on crowded chains.”

The strategy is working. Xend Finance alone has attracted over 180 million CNGN (a Nigerian stablecoin) into the money market in just six weeks. Asset Base and Eden Finance are bringing equities and fixed-income assets into DeFi. And MoonPieFun is proving the viral potential of African-led meme culture in crypto.

There’s also a strong incentive mechanism. “Gas is currently free on Asset Chain,” Aronu explains. “Users earn points for transactions, which will convert to airdropped tokens when our mainnet token launches. It’s similar to what HyperLiquid did; some people got up to $60,000 worth of tokens from that model. That’s the opportunity we’re creating.”

A vision for the next decade

Aronu’s ambitions for Asset Chain are unapologetically bold. “In the next five years, Asset Chain should have nothing less than $20 billion in total value locked and at least $2 billion in daily DEX trading volume,” he predicts.

But his real horizon is ten years out. “By then, Nigeria and Africa should control at least 10% of the global crypto market’s capitalisation and trading volume. This market is going to be worth $50–100 trillion. Who is going to control that money, America and China? Not while I’m here.”

He envisions Asset Chain not only as a blockchain but also as a vehicle for economic empowerment. “We can’t just allow other parts of the world to control all the money, all the assets. No. It should come here because we are contributing massively. It should open up economic abundance, especially for young people in Nigeria.”

For Aronu, Asset Chain is not just infrastructure; it’s a mindset shift. 

He believes the launch marks the start of a movement where Africans stop waiting for validation from abroad. “Forming the movement is the basic thing. Once the handouts stop, everybody sits up and knows they have work to do. That’s what Asset Chain represents.”

Ugochukwu Aronu’s story is one of audacity, conviction, and relentless pursuit of African self-determination in the blockchain era. 

Asset Chain is more than a layer-one network; it is an economic and cultural statement that Africa will not merely consume but create, innovate, and capture value in the global crypto economy.

As Aronu says with trademark conviction, “Not while I’m here.”