Femi Adegolu, who is Co-Founder of TradePal AI, has hailed bitcoin as “digital gold,” noting that it has outperformed traditional assets over time, noting that digital asset is not a high risk asset.
“In the past 10 years, Bitcoin has outperformed every other asset class, from it being less than $1 in 2010, 2011 to today being over 65,000. I think there’s no other asset that has outperformed Bitcoin. So I would call it digital gold”, he said.
The Co-Founder said this in an interview with ARISE NEWS on Friday.
Adegolu further explained that government tax on Bitcoin further proves the digital asset’s legitimacy.
“If the government says they are going to tax the crypto industry, it means that whatever we’re doing now becomes legal and then we are also contributing to government revenue. So I think the only thing is that we are going to have much more people coming into the space because, of course, there’s government legitimacy right now. And that gives more investor confidence and more investor protection because we know that the government is saying that ‘we are going to take your money and use that for social amenities and infrastructure’. So I would say that in the next couple of years, it’s going to become better and better and we’re going to have a much more clearer path to compliance and regulation”, he said.
Addressing claims that digital asset platforms are prepared for stricter tax reporting and compliance rules, Adegolu said that platforms are in the early stages, and the government is still learning about the crypto industry.
“These platforms are still trying to figure it out. We’re still in the early stages. The government is still trying to figure out how this industry works. And I have to be very honest with you, they don’t understand it. And that’s why TradePal AI exists, because we have built an AI-powered solution on WhatsApp itself to enable traders seamlessly carry out their records on their transactions, and then at the end of the day, they’re able to file. And that also leads to the tax, because now the tax is going to be taxed on what you earn after deduction of your expenses”, he said.
Reiterating bitcoin’s appeal against gold in the market, Adegolu said: “Gold has been performing well, but not as much as Bitcoin. So, but I’m going to say that gold is literally going to be one of those assets that would also become very relevant in the near future, but not as much as Bitcoin. But I would hold Bitcoin better than holding gold.”
Speaking on the latest in Nigeria’s tech industry that requires crypto exchanges to hold N2B in paid-up capital, Adegolu said:
“I personally do not agree with 2 billion, 2 billion Naira in terms of having that capital requirement. I think it’s too expensive for a lot of startups and Fin-techs who are trying to get into the market. For me, it will be wiser to have it at different tiers.”
He added: “There’s unfairness because now these people are just even trying to get, and sometimes they even spend about five, six, seven years before hitting their first profit. It took MoneyPoint or OPay about six, seven years or five years to actually hit break-even point. So it’s unrealistic to tell a company who’s just getting started that you need N2B as a license to operate in Nigeria. I think it’s totally unrealistic, and it can be looked at and then reviewed.”
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