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Why XOF On-chain

The CFA franc

The XOF (West African CFA franc) is the shared currency of the WAEMU — an 8-country monetary union of 180 million people:

Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo.

The XOF is pegged to the Euro at a fixed rate of 655.957 XOF = 1 EUR, guaranteed by the French Treasury since 1994. This makes XOF one of the most stable currencies in sub-Saharan Africa.

The problem

Despite monetary stability, the financial infrastructure in the WAEMU zone is limited:

  • Remittance costs — Sending money between WAEMU countries costs 5–10% through traditional channels.
  • Mobile money silos — Flooz works in Togo, Orange Money in Senegal, MTN in Côte d'Ivoire — but they don't interoperate across borders.
  • No DeFi access — 180 million people have no way to earn yield, provide liquidity, or access global financial markets with their local currency.
  • Limited EUR on/off-ramps — Despite the EUR peg, converting between XOF and EUR is slow and expensive.

The solution

0XOF puts the CFA franc on-chain, solving all of the above:

  • Instant settlement — Send 0XOF to any wallet on Base in seconds.
  • Minimal fees — Base L2 transactions cost fractions of a cent.
  • Cross-border by default — One token works across all 8 WAEMU countries.
  • Composable — 0XOF plugs into Aerodrome, Aave, and any Base DeFi protocol.
  • EUR-adjacent — Native 0XOF/EURC trading pair on Aerodrome reflects the fixed peg.