Nigeria’s First Crypto Payment Provider Shuts Doors, Auctions IP

Key Points:

• Nigerian crypto startup Lazerpay shuts down due to lack of funding, leaving 3000 businesses stranded.
• The shutdown comes after layoffs, and the company is now offering its intellectual property for sale.
• The African crypto space is experiencing upheaval, but some payment startups are still thriving.

Nigerian crypto and Web3 company Lazerpay made a shocking announcement: it was shutting down its operations.

This decision followed Lazerpay’s inability to raise funds in a funding round, as founder and CEO Emmanuel Njoku explained in a statement released on Twitter.

Njoku expressed gratitude for the impact Lazerpay had made in the crypto ecosystem, but stated that the company had reached a point where it needed to shut down. This came just months after a round of layoffs in November 2022, due to the company’s inability to raise funds after a lead investor pulled out.

However, Lazerpay is not leaving its users in the dark. The company has announced that it will focus on ensuring a seamless transition for its users by resolving any outstanding issues. It has recommended that merchants use the bank or crypto payout options and withdraw their funds from the platform before April 30, 2023. Additionally, Lazerpay is inviting companies to make offers to purchase its intellectual property.

Lazerpay was founded by Njoku, Abdulfatai Suleiman, and Prosper Ubi in October 2021 to drive crypto adoption globally. The company helps businesses accept stablecoin payments from customers globally, and has onboarded over 3,000 businesses, processing over $1 million in transactions.

The shutdown of Lazerpay adds to the recent wave of upheaval in the African crypto space. Just last week, Bitcoin peer-to-peer marketplace Paxful announced that it would cease operations. Despite this, certain crypto payment startups in the continent are still thriving. For example, NairaEx is an active Bitcoin exchange in Nigeria, serving as a medium for Nigerian traders to purchase or sell the country’s fiat currency, nairas, for cryptocurrency.

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Annie

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