Can VALR, which is invincible in the South African market, successfully enter the Asian market?

Interviewee: Farzam Ehsani, CEO of VALR

Interview and article: Alex Liu, Foresight News

VALR is the largest cryptocurrency exchange in Africa by trading volume. It is backed by VCs such as Pantera Capital and Coinbase Ventures, and serves more than 750,000 users worldwide, currently focusing on the Asian market.

With so many CEXs based in Asia already competing fiercely with each other, can a South African company succeed? With this question in mind, Foresight News asked Farzam Ehsani, co-founder and CEO of VALR, to share his career, VALR’s past successes, and the company’s global strategy.

Background and Vision

Foresight News: Thank you for the interview. Could you please briefly describe your past experience and what motivated you to start VALR?

Farzam Ehsani: I was brought up as a global citizen and taught to see all of humanity as one big family. I still believe in these values ​​and follow them to this day.

I grew up in Kenya, Africa, studied economics in California, started my career at Deloitte Consulting in San Francisco, then moved to South Africa and continued my consulting career at McKinsey & Company. After 5 years at McKinsey, I decided to leave consulting. At the time, I became interested in how to improve the financial system, which is closely related to everyone on the planet.

Therefore, I decided to move to the largest investment bank in Africa and enter the core of the financial system. During my years there, I had the opportunity to gain in-depth knowledge of global markets, leveraged finance, credit, private equity and group finance.

It was working in the bank that introduced me to Bitcoin and eventually led me to become the head of blockchain and crypto at FirstRand Bank, Africa's largest bank, in 2016. At that time, the crypto asset industry was just emerging. Naturally, some of our ideas at the time were not accepted by the management committees of various banks. So, I left the bank in 2018, took a gamble, and co-founded VALR. This is what VALR means, courage and values.

Foresight News: VALR calls itself a value-oriented exchange. Can you talk about your core values ​​and philosophy, and what does VALR’s “value orientation” mean?

Farzam Ehsani: VALR is driven by a strong vision - "to make the world a better place and serve humanity to the best of our ability." Making money is not our primary focus.

Of course, we need to be in good financial shape, we need to pay salaries and expenses, and generate strong returns for shareholders, but we firmly believe that long-term value must be built on a solid foundation of values ​​-- things like sincerity, integrity, fairness, trust, and so on.

Especially in the crypto asset industry, these values ​​are not "icing on the cake" but factors that determine the survival of a company.

On a practical level, being a values-driven company means we are willing to compromise economic interests for our values ​​and ethical principles. We have found time and again that when we stand firm for the values ​​we hold dear, even at the expense of short-term economic interests, we achieve greater long-term economic benefits. Today, too many companies have sacrificed values ​​for economic interests, and many of them no longer exist.

Growth and success

Foresight News: VALR has become the largest cryptocurrency exchange in South Africa and Africa in terms of trading volume. What are the key factors behind this success?

Farzam Ehsani: In short, we have created a great product at a very reasonable price. Excellence is one of our values ​​and we firmly believe that if we cannot provide the best products to our customers, then we have no right to exist.

Our application programming interface (API) is one of the best in the world, which is often reflected in our customer reviews; we pay great attention to the details and design of our back-end systems and user interfaces, and we strive for perfection; we also always attach great importance to the security of customer assets and data.

At the same time, we believe in the philosophy of shared value - if we succeed, our customers will succeed too. We were one of the first (and possibly the first) spot exchanges in the world to implement negative market maker fees - paying market makers for the liquidity they create for the exchange. This spirit of shared value with our customers continues to this day, as reflected in our countless events, competitions, rebates, and new customer acquisition programs.

In South Africa in particular, we have successfully penetrated the market by offering the most comprehensive range of crypto assets at the most competitive prices, with products that are both aesthetically pleasing and secure.

Foresight News: As VALR expands globally, especially in Asia, what challenges do you foresee and how do you plan to address them?

Farzam Ehsani: South Africa is our first target market. Although we have grown into the largest exchange in South Africa, when we enter a new market, we must be humble and realize that the local situation may be very different from what we are used to.

As we expand into Asia, we have recruited new staff from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia and other Asian countries to help us bring our products and services to new markets. We are very pleased with the enthusiastic response we have received in Asia so far.

We recognize that there are many competitors in Asia, such as Binance, ByBit, OKX, etc. We welcome competition and recognize the contributions made by competitors in the development of the cryptocurrency industry in Asia.

At the same time, we believe that our products will be appreciated by Asian users and our values ​​will be respected by Asian users. In fact, we have already seen this, as Asian customers have already chosen VALR for cryptocurrency trading.

Africa, Asia

Foresight News: The African market is uncharted territory for Asians. Can you share more about South Africa and Africa in general? What opportunities are there on the continent? What crypto activities should we be aware of?

Farzam Ehsani: Africa is a vast and diverse continent with rich natural resources and a rapidly growing population. Over the years, VALR has grown significantly across the continent, but most notably in South Africa. South Africa is the most developed and advanced economy in Africa and a tourist destination. And of course, South Africa has Elon Musk.

Africa has more than 50 countries and nearly 50 currencies, which creates huge obstacles to internal trade in Africa. Both businesses and ordinary people are in urgent need of a more efficient financial system. For cryptocurrency networks and assets, this is a great opportunity to break the existing pattern of the financial system on the African continent.

Cryptocurrency has a bright future in Africa. In the long run, Africans currently account for nearly 20% of the world's population, which is a demographic advantage. In the coming decades, Africa will take its rightful place on the world stage, and we believe that VALR can play an important role in this regard. We will build more bridges of communication between Asia and Africa and establish mutually beneficial partnerships.

Foresight News: In the fiercely competitive market in Asia, what makes VALR stand out?

Farzam Ehsani: Over the years, we have invested a lot of effort and significantly expanded the dimensions of our products. We provide simple buying and selling, spot, leverage and futures (contracts) trading, a sophisticated API system, pledge services and an over-the-counter (OTC) platform.

It is worth highlighting that in the past few years, many exchanges have opened and many have closed, but VALR has always stayed true to its principles and continued to grow and develop with an impeccable record. Since April this year, VALR has been licensed by the South African regulator FSCA; we have established strong relationships with global players and are receiving more and more job applications from Asia and Europe.

It should also be noted that in the first five years, VALR mainly relied on organic growth, but since the second half of last year, we have invested a lot of resources in publicity and marketing, and developed a series of plans and activities to increase the attractiveness of the VALR project.

Since May, we have been implementing VALR’s Grand Slam program, which provides up to 5 million USDT in bonuses per month to VALR’s top contract traders. We also launched VALR’s Global Treasure Hunt event, where users can get cryptocurrency rewards by verifying their accounts, doing spot trading, staking, referring friends, etc. VALR is currently running the Solana Summer on VALR event, selecting one lucky trader every day to give away 1 Solana (SOL) token. Every few days, we will also reward the top traders in contract, spot, and comprehensive trading. At the end of September, the top five traders will share 100 SOL tokens.

We also hosted a lot of meetups in Asia, Europe, and Africa. We noticed that it wasn’t just us in Asia that were interested, but the crypto community in Asia was also showing a lot of interest in VALR and our success in South Africa.

Expansion and development

Foresight News: As VALR expands to Asia, Europe, and other regions, how do you recruit talent and ensure regulatory compliance in new markets?

Farzam Ehsani: VALR is actively looking for great talent around the world. If you are interested in joining our team, please visit our website. As for regulatory compliance, it is the cornerstone of our business. We are a centralized exchange and must comply with the laws of the countries where we do business. From the first day of the company's operations, we have made compliance a top priority. We have a long history of excellent operations in South Africa for 6.5 years and became one of the first companies to obtain an official license, which is the best proof. VALR has also received approval from the Polish Ministry of Finance to provide crypto asset services in the European Union. We have also received preliminary approval from the Dubai Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority. We attach great importance to providing services in a responsible and compliant manner. This is the only way to serve a wide range of customers.

Foresight News: What role do you think VALR will play in the global cryptocurrency space in the coming years?

Farzam Ehsani: We are currently the largest and most liquid exchange in Africa, and our goal is to become the world's leading cryptocurrency exchange in the next few years. We attach great importance to the industry's infrastructure and strive to improve it, hoping to attract target groups with excellent liquidity, rich assets and products. Most importantly, we are a trusted partner in this industry that has been plagued by scandals in the past few years. Crypto assets have brought great development prospects to the world, and our goal is to help all users move towards a better future financial world.

Foresight News: I heard that you are going to Singapore to attend the Token2049 conference. What has VALR prepared for the participants?

Farzam Ehsani: Token2049 is the world's largest cryptocurrency industry event, and we are honored to be a platinum sponsor this year. We will arrange 10 employees from all over the world to fly to Singapore to attend the conference.

I’ll be sharing some thoughts on a panel discussion, and attendees can come meet us in the VALR Exchange Room next to the lecture hall. We’ll also be hosting a side event with First Digital and Gravity Team on September 18th. It’s been a pleasure to be in Singapore and engage with the crypto community there, and I look forward to seeing you all in Cape Town in 2025. There will be more exciting news in the future, but for now, let’s all focus on Singapore!