Nigerian crypto p2p platform, Buycoins shuts down Buycoins Pro

Nigerian peer-to-peer crypto marketplace, Buycoins has announced that it will be shutting down one of its offerings known as Buycoins Pro.  According to reports gathered online, the Bitcoin exchange sent a letter to its users to announce that it will be ‘sunsetting Buycoins Pro.’ Per the statement, the vertical will be sunsetted in the coming days. 

As part of the process, the company says the withdrawal of assets will remain accessible for the next 3 months. Also, users can still trade with Buycoins Over-the-Counter (OTC) service through Desk.

“We genuinely appreciate your understanding and cooperation during this period. We understand that changes like these can be inconvenient, and we’re committed to assisting you in any way we can to facilitate a smooth sunsetting process. We extend our heartfelt thanks for being a part of the Buycoins Pro community. Your feedback, engagement, and support have been instrumental in shaping our platform. Should you have any queries or need assistance, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our support team atsupport@buycoins.africa.” – The company added in the statement.

Related post: Nigerian CryptoCurrency App ‘BuyCoins’ Hits Milestone; Processes Over N500 Million Worth of Cryptocurrency in 3 Months

Notably, Buycoins had one app at launch in 2017. But later on, it metamorphosed into Basic and Pro. The former was for buying and selling (investing) digital assets while the Pro version which just got shut down was for advanced technical traders. 

It is also worthy of note that the Basic version was rebranded into Accrue in October of last year when Buycoins acquired Accrue which is still active.

Buycoins journey 

Buycoins, formerly called Bitkoin is a platform for P2P Bitcoin trading that was founded in 2017 by Timi Ajiboye, Ire Aderinokun and Tomiwa Lasebikan “to afford Nigerians a safe and easy way to buy, sell and store cryptocurrencies.”

In 2021, the exchange and all its products (including Accrue) came under the umbrella of a new parent company called Helicarrier.

At the time of the rebranding in October 2021, Helicarrier’s five products were Buycoins, a platform for buying, selling and storing cryptocurrencies; Pro, a platform for advanced crypto traders, featuring an order book, many more currency pairs and other tools for super-fast trading on the go; Sendcash, a platform for crypto-powered remittance; Sendcash Pay, a suite of developer tools that let users add borderless payment experiences to digital products; and NGNT (Nigerian Naira Token), a naira-backed digital currency.

Read also: Jumia Food to exit Nigeria and six other African countries by end of 2023

Upheaval in the African crypto space

African crypto startups have endured a difficult eighteen months or thereabouts. The industry has been plagued with shutdowns, layoffs, restructuring and other not-too-positive developments.

Some of the notable African-focused crypto companies that have laid off staff, shut down services and experienced problems include LazerPay, Nestcoin, Paxful, Patricia and some others.

Hopefully, the anticipated bull run of 2024 will bring better tidings for the companies.