- On April 2023, Emmanuel Njoku announced that the inspiring crypto exchange could not keep up with the crypto winter.
- Emmanuel, one of the youngest blockchain developers, founded the Nigerian crypto platform at only 19 years of age.
- LazerPay crypto exchange has reassured its customers that it still has their assets and has encouraged them to withdraw before 30th April.
Africa’s Web3 community has showcased its resilience over the past few years. Its rapid growth rate is estimated to be its ability to expand its foundation and usher in a new digital age for the continent. Unfortunately, the recent crypto winter has taken its toll on the once resilient crypto adoption rate. Governments have tightened their grip on crypto regulations, and crypto traders are in a hurry to withdraw their investments. Unfortunately, the crypto crash has rendered various African crypto exchanges obsolete. Paxful recent closure has set in motion a domino effect as others tightened their grip to survive. Unfortunately, LazerPay crypto exchange, a Nigerian crypto platform, has also announced its pending closure.
This announcement has sent shockwaves throughout the crypto ecosystem. Once considered the next crypt hub of Africa, Nigerians face severe drawbacks as its citizens have taken a step back from heavily associating with crypto.
The LazerPay crypto platform stood tall.
In 2021, Njoku Emmanuel founded the Lazerpay crypto exchange as a means of tapping into the vast potential of Africa’s crypto exchange. The Nigerian crypto platform has started its journey with massive support as many users initially banked on its CEO’s reputation.
According to its initial pitch, the LazerPay crypto exchange set its sights on the increasing number of people holding crypto assets. The revolutionary concept of digital currency had spread significantly throughout Africa, and Nigeria was its focal point. Having the highest transaction volume in Africa, Nigeria had topped most expectations the globe initially had.
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LazerPay became a popular crypto platform among youths and Nigerian crypto traders. It had earned itself the title Srtripe for crypto. It is a payment gateway startup that assists businesses in integrating crypto payments into their systems. Emmanuel, one of the youngest blockchains developed, founded the Nigerian crypto platform at only 19 years of age. Lazerpay has so much potential that its beta testing provides access to over 1000 businesses in Africa.
The potential Lazyer pay had was inspiring and presented a problem to its competition. In an interview, Emmanuel stated he had high hopes for the Lazerpay crypto exchange. Its sophisticated system would place Nigeria at the top of Africa’s web3 community. Unfortunately, these were all pipe dreams as the Nigerian crypt platform has struggled to survive the ongoing crypto winter.
LazerPay crypto Payment falls short.
On April 2023, Emmanuel Njoku announced that the inspiring crypto exchange could not keep up with the crypto winter. As a result, it has announced its impending closure to save face rather than declare bankruptcy. According to a Twitter post, the Nigerian crypto platform has struggled to stay afloat in the crypto winter after failing to secure funding.
During the heat of the crypto crash in November 2022, LazerPaydownsized its workforce due to the rapid backlash it received from its customers. The founders sealed the downfall by rejecting an unfavourable acquisition offer from an existing investor. Unfortunately, with limited staff and funding, many staff members were laid off or quit. According to sources inside the Nigerian Crypto platform, only two developers, the founder and the source, remain working at the startup without pay.
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LazerPay crypto exchange has reassured its customers that it still has their assets and has encouraged them to withdraw before 30th April. Before its closure, the startup had successfully implemented a crypto-to-fiat system. The system allowed users to convert merchandise to receive and make payments in Naira, cedis, Kenyan Shillings, Rwandan Shillings, US Dollars, and UAE Dirham.
This sudden shutdown comes as a shock. In less than two years LzerPay had over 3000 businesses under its wing and had potential investors such as Shola Akinlade of Paystack, Nuwa Capital, Voltron Capital and Nestcoin. Its mission to drive financial inclusion and interoperability in Africa has ended abruptly, and many wonders if this is the fate of every other industry.
Conclusion
Africa’s web3 community has taken a beating as its crypto industry continues to plummet. The FTX crash halted almost all crypto transactions within the continent. This caused a massive withdrawal rate from Africa, so much so that some organizations could not keep up.
Several African crypto payment platforms directly associated with FTX suffered first as their first essentially disappeared. Nigerian crypto platform Netscoin was left empty-handed as it had placed significant capital within the former titan, FTX. As a result, it came crashing down after its crypto traders demanded their investments which the exchange could not provide.
Since the crypto winter has become an ice age for Africa’s web community, steadily and slowly, like dominos, one exchange after another shits down. Bitfinex was another African crypto exchange that suffered the same fate as Paxful and LazerPay, as it could not fully raise funds to continue its business operations.
Will this be the same fate for Africa’s web3 community, or will it showcase its resilience again?
