Africa’s crypto industry saw a combination of success and challenges in the first half of 2023.

First was the fall of FTX, and then the collapse of Paxful and LocalBitcoins. Now, with the two global leading crypto exchanges, Binance and Coinbase, being sued by the US financial regulator, Africa’s crypto exchanges are now applying more caution.

As the number of crypto users continue to grow across various jurisdictions in Africa, these regulatory uncertainties pose obstacles. However, there’s some optimism. So far this year, Yellow Card and Bitmama are among the platforms that are thriving in this environment.

The peer-to-peer model has attracted many consumers on the continent with 1.4 billion population, and pushed the crypto trading service sector to grow. During the first half of this calendar, some of the major crypto platforms in Africa have uncovered new product features, and some other faced roadblocks on their paths.

January – Yellow Card’s New Features

Pan-African crypto exchange Yellow Card launched a new payment feature called “Yellow Pay.” This allows users to send and receive money through the Yellow Card platform, without any extra charges, instantly with just a few taps on their phone. With Yellow Pay, Yellow Card users can send and receive funds across the countries in Africa, according to Disrupt Africa.

February – Bitmama’s Crypto Card

Bitmama unveiled the much-anticipated crypto card issuance feature on its web and mobile app. With this, Bitmama virtual and physical crypto cards allow users to engage in online transactions on various platforms. Users are allowd to spend their cryptos with ease and flexibility by funding their crypto cards with US dollars from their USDC and cUSD wallets on Bitmama.

March – ConsenSys, Yellow Card Ally in Nigeria

ConsenSys, the developer of the world’s leading crypto wallet MetaMask, and MoonPay, a Web3 infrastructure company, announced the partnership in Nigeria, the biggest crypto market in Africa. Users of MetaMask in Nigeria can now use instant bank transfers to purchase crypto directly within the wallet.
Yellow Card added 5 new cryptos including Ethereum (ETH), USD Coin (USDC), Cardano (ADA), Solana (SOL) & Celo Dollar (cUSD) to its app. Users can view and trade over 7 cryptos including Bitcoin (BTC), Tether (USDT), Ethereum (ETH), USD Coin (USDC), Cardano (ADA), Solana (SOL) and Celo Dollar (cUSD).

April – Jack Dorsey’s Block in Deal With Yellow Card

Block, Jack Dorsey-led U.S. company behind popular payment apps Cash App and Square, inked a partnership deal with Yellow Card. The alliance allows for cross-border payments to 16 African countries, including Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya. Block aims at facilitating a decentralized network for fiat and cryptocurrency transactions.
Regulatory pressure in the U.S. forced the Africa-focused crypto exchange Paxful to shut down its operations.

May – Patricia Lost Millions

Crypto exchange Patricia was reported to have briefly suspended withdrawals for users on its platform as a result of a breach. According to a report on TechCabal, Patricia lost $2 million in a hack that happened in January 2022. The company has identified an individual of the hacker group and was reported to be investigating the incident.

June – US Watchdog Took Aim at Most Powerful Exchanges

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accused Binance and its founder Changpeng Zhao of operating a “web of deception,” such as inflating trading volumes, failing to restrict US customers from its platform, diverting customer funds and etc.
SEC also accused Coinbase of putting its cutomers at risk by operating itself as an “unregistered broker, exchange and clearing agency.”

-Edited by Shigeru Sato, Faustine Ngila