Media personality Sbusiso Leope, aka DJ Sbu, says South Africa’s huge appetite for digital currency has led to his crypto-currency-based businesses thriving – with his non-fungible token (NFT) sales going up and his crypto education platform taking off.
The South African musician, radio host, author and entrepreneur shared his crypto-currency journey at the fourth edition of Crypto Fest 2022, held recently in Cape Town.
Leope explained how turning to tech-focused businesses helped boost his entrepreneurship endeavours, after being fired from the SABC several years ago.
He has since established two online radio stations – Homegrown Radio and Massiv Metro − and later went on to establish five different podcasts, which are doing “very well” in SA, among other businesses.
In his latest tech venture, Leope’s company Leadership 2020 partnered with Crypto University on a project called Learn Crypto, a crypto-currency education platform founded several months ago.
Together with his NFT-based art project, his digital currency businesses have gained traction in SA, mainly as a result of the huge hunger South Africans have for the world of digital currency, he noted.
With many misconceptions about crypto-currency, Leope stressed the importance of enthusiasts investing time and effort to gain a deep understanding of how crypto-currencies work, prior to venturing into the digital currency.
“I'm glad that after years of people trying [in vain] to recruit me, I eventually joined the crypto world about a year ago, and being the entrepreneur that I am… I don't get involved in anything if I don't have skin in the game, and if I don't create an opportunity for other people to also learn.
“We got involved in the crypto space to amplify the education around crypto-currency, to teach and share, and encourage as many young people as possible to get into this space, especially those in our black communities. While I'm very proud of coming from the township, I also worry about the high unemployment rate, which is at its highest among our youth.”
Leope would not divulge how much he has made from crypto, only noting he had made enough returns in one year to purchase 10 plots of land, after only investing $100.
According to the Intergovernmental Fintech Working Group, in just a few years, the adoption of crypto, as well as the entry of new players into the South African market, has sky-rocketed.
In August, the Prudential Authority issued a guidance notice, urging the big-four South African banks to start working with crypto players.
Learning the crypto ropes
Leope has been running the Sbusiso Leope Education Foundation for almost 20 years, to help young people acquire entrepreneurship knowledge.
As part of this vision, Learn Crypto, run in partnership with crypto-currency evangelist Grey Jabesi, offers various courses to empower youth to learn about crypto investing, trading, NFTs, DeFi and Play2Earn, and help them eventually become a pro crypto trader and investor, he explained.
He was inspired to start the company after being scammed by fraudsters posing as a legitimate crypto exchange – an ordeal that helped him learn the ropes of the crypto world, to help others not to fall in the same trap, he noted.
“Over the past year, I've learnt so much about the crypto industry, I've collaborated with other crypto enthusiasts and we have sold out events in the crypto space – which shows you the amount of thirst for knowledge that is out there.
“So it is all of our responsibility to arm ourselves with the right information and pass it on to as many young people out there as possible. Our company is targeted at people who know nothing about crypto-currency and Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin, Web 3.0, the metaverse, etc.”
As far as his NFT project is concerned, the media personality collaborated with multimedia artist King Debs to create an NFT art collection inspired by his song “Maru A Pula” from his forthcoming album titled: “DJ Sbu Enters The Metaverse”.
Leope became the first South African musician to sell 10 pieces of NFTs in three days on the OpenSea platform.
“We have minted our own NFTs and so far we have sold 17 NFTs on OpenSea. The movement has started and we need to see more of our black brothers and sisters joining this movement. We’ve got a lot of work to do, to go out there and preach the gospel and liberate people’s minds about crypto,” he concluded.
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