Oluwaseun Adeyanju: Doing What Others Do, But Better

Oluwaseun Adeyanju, if asked, would describe himself as a creative entrepreneur—someone passionate about modifying already existing solutions to solve problems more efficiently. Today, he’s known as the founder of Mariblock, a leading media company documenting Africa’s growing blockchain and digital assets ecosystem. He’s also an experienced financial writer whose work has been featured in Forbes, Cointelegraph, and Investopedia, among many others.

But Seun hasn’t always been this exceptional. His journey has been marked by moments that forced him to pause, reflect, and pivot —from being asked to repeat a class in secondary school to early business ventures that didn’t quite take off to the recent temporary shutdown of Mariblock due to funding challenges. Fortunately, failure, for Seun, has never been a full stop. And over the years, this stubbornness has helped him develop a resistant attitude towards challenges. 

Childhood and Academic Background 

Seun grew up in a home where studiousness was encouraged. His upbringing was strict, leaving little room for him to interact with children his own age. His mother's job in banking moved the family across Nigeria frequently before they finally settled in Ibadan in 1994. 

He began his secondary education at Federal Government College, Ogbomosho and was later transferred to a private secondary school, Providence High School, Ibadan. This abrupt move resulted in him failing the school’s entrance examination and being asked to repeat SS1. 

The experience stung, but it became his motivation. Determined to prove that the setback was circumstantial rather than a reflection of his intelligence,  he doubled down on his studies and graduated as one of the best students in his year. Shortly after, he was admitted to the University of Benin to study Industrial Chemistry. 

By his third year in university, Seun’s interest in Industrial Chemistry had waned. He experimented with side businesses: thrifted clothes, oil and gas brokerage, and even import and export of commodities. Most didn’t work out, but in 2010, he began freelance writing. The pay sucked: $1 per article, but it soon evolved into something more meaningful, a passion.

Entrepreneurial Journey into Mariblock

After seven years of building a writing career, Seun decided to try entrepreneurship once more. His first attempt—a personal finance platform—didn’t gain traction. By 2022, while figuring out his next move, he noticed a gap: blockchain was exploding across Africa, but there was no trusted source documenting the continent’s progress, challenges, or opportunities in the space. He'd been active in crypto circles since 2016, writing for American outlets that covered the space. But African blockchain coverage was either sensationalised or buried in Western publications that didn't understand the continent's context. 

Mariblock (originally called Crypto Africa) launched as Seun's answer. The mission was to become Africa's most credible source for blockchain journalism. “If any form of innovation is going to find a place in any market, you need credible information around it,” Seun explains. The strategy worked.

Within two years, Mariblock had become the publication that investors, developers, and policymakers turned to for verified blockchain coverage. The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, the International Monetary Fund, Techcabal, and The Kenyan Wall Street are just a few of many that have cited or relied on its reporting. The team also receives frequent inbound requests from venture capital firms, business developers, and global ecosystem observers seeking local context and, increasingly, informal consultation. 

Yet, most of their validation comes through word of mouth. Seun’s personal favourite remains a simple comment from a reader stating, “I see Mariblock as the source of truth in Africa.” 

The publication had built trust. But trust doesn't pay the bills.

The Crisis and Recovery

When Seun launched Mariblock, he envisioned more than just a media platform. His goal was to build a boutique firm that combined journalism with research and consulting around blockchain and emerging technologies in Africa. From the start, he prioritised trust and journalistic integrity over revenue, funding the company entirely with his personal savings. This approach, while admirable, placed a financial strain on Mariblock once his savings were depleted. 

With no steady income, salaries fell behind, team members began to leave, and by February 2024, the company had to pause its operations. Seun admits that he considered shutting the company down entirely.

However, things took a turn for the better in mid-2024 when he was invited to speak at the Stellar Meridian conference. A trip he described as “energising.” It reconnected him with a global network and opened doors to new opportunities, including a grant that steadied Mariblock’s finances, giving him time to reassess the company’s strategy. 

The grant gave him breathing room, but more importantly, it forced him to confront hard questions about sustainability and trust — could Mariblock’s editorial-first model endure, and could it build both credibility and revenue? Upon his return, Seun reassessed everything. The answer was that events and research would fund the journalism without compromising it. It marked the beginning of a slow but deliberate process of rebuilding his team.

Looking Forward

By the end of 2024, Mariblock had begun to find its rhythm again. Seun had rebuilt his team and refined the business model. That December, they hosted the first Mariblock Roundtable— a thought-leadership gathering that was both invite-only and application-based, with each edition designed for deep knowledge sharing around a single topic. The inaugural event, held at the Nordic Hotel in Victoria Island, Lagos, drew about 100 attendees. It was their first real test, a proof-of-concept to see whether Seun could generate sustainable revenue from convenings while preserving editorial independence.  

The answer, so far, is yes. The team is now developing a playbook to take the Roundtable across Africa, with plans to host as many as 20 events per year, possibly starting in 2026. Their flagship event, Onchain by Mariblock, originally scheduled for November 2025, has been moved to 2026 to allow the team to properly prepare. Seun believes that conversations about blockchain and industry innovation are too centralised, and he hopes Onchain will change that by bringing cross-sector stakeholders to the same room because it is only through shared participation that technology can be economically relevant at scale.

Beyond events, Mariblock is building a bigger engine around intelligence and research. The company is expanding its coverage to include emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, aiming to help individuals and businesses navigate rapidly evolving spaces. 

The near-collapse of Mariblock taught Seun what failing that entrance exam at 14 had taught him that setbacks reveal what you're willing to fight for. At fourteen, it was proving he wasn't unintelligent. As an adult, it's proving that credible journalism can survive, and thrive—in Africa's fast-moving tech ecosystem.

He’s been underestimated before, but has also always proven people wrong. He believes Mariblock will be no different.