Hi, I'm Robert, the founder of Numo.
Overview
Nigerian treasury bills attract over $30B a year for their double-digit yields, but the central bank restricts foreign traders and offshore banks are illiquid. Numo is a futures exchange where Nigerians go long dollars and foreign traders go long naira, settled in stablecoins.
Ask: Intros to funds running FX carry trades and businesses looking to hedge currency risk. Reach us at hello@numofx.com, or DM @robertleifke on Telegram or @numoforex on X.
The problem
Nigerian T-bills yield about 16.7%, and the last auction was 4.3x oversubscribed. Traders want the carry and can’t reach it, and the ones who did got caught in a $7bn FX backlog in 2023.
Bidding treasury bills requires a Nigerian bank account.
Getting dollars back out depends on the market having them.
Offshore forwards miss the yield, and T-bills carry exit risk.
Our solution
Numo is a stablecoin futures exchange for emerging market FX. Traders earn the naira carry from a wallet, and local businesses pay it to hedge, so nobody needs a Nigerian bank account and nobody’s money gets stuck.
Trade with stablecoins from anywhere.
Positions settle in dollars, so there’s always exit liquidity.
Traders get the full carry, cleanly.
Earn the carry
Funds and traders deposit stablecoins and hold a naira position that pays the interest rate gap.
On and off ramp into stablecoins
Close your position whenever you want and withdraw dollars in seconds.
Lock in FX rate
Lock in today’s rate on naira you’ll convert later.
Traction
$700K
Notional Open Interest
0
200K
400K
600K
800K
Oct 2
Oct 9
Oct 16
Oct 23
Oct 30
Nov 6
Vision
Every major currency is open to anyone with a brokerage account, but most emerging market currencies aren’t. They make up 29% of global FX trading, about $2.8 trillion a day, yet that flow still runs through local bank accounts and offshore dealer desks. Stablecoins have put over $300 billion onchain, nearly all of it in dollars. With Numo emerging market currencies follow: anyone with a wallet can earn naira carry or hedge against it, and stablecoins become the rails for the currencies people actually earn, not just the dollar.
Team
Robert (CEO): Built a stablecoin AMM that went from zero to $50M TVL, then an options exchange backed by Social Capital. Early engineer at Predicate, a Series A stablecoin compliance startup. Studied math at Michigan. Lives in Lagos.
