Report: Africa-Focused Crypto Trading App Shut Down — Co-Founder Says Only Nigerian Users Affected

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The Africa-focused crypto trading app Vibra has reportedly stopped working in Ghana, Kenya, and Nigeria. Reports that the app is not working in the three countries contradict the co-founder’s claim that only users from Nigeria are affected.

Resign or Get Fired

An Africa-focused crypto trading app, Vibra, has reportedly been stopped in Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria. Vincent Li, the co-founder of African Blockchain Labs — the organization behind the app — insisted however that the measure only affected users in Nigeria. He also added that the suspension would be temporary.

Nevertheless, an Oct. 18 Techcabal report quotes current and former employees who have confirmed the app’s stoppage in all African markets. The employees, who did not wish to be identified, also told the publication that they had been asked to resign or be fired. Another former employee suggested that Vibra has not been generating enough revenue.

“The company may have also closed because they could not work out how to get commensurate turnover from the user education we were doing,” an unnamed former employee said.

Crypto Winter Impact

Meanwhile, the co-founder’s claims that only Nigerian users will be affected are reportedly undercut by messages on Vibra’s telegram channel which suggest otherwise.

Like other ambitious African crypto startups that fell by the wayside in 2023, the suspected demise of Vibra has been attributed to the so-called crypto winter. During this period, crypto and fintech startups that raised millions of dollars have either scaled back or have been forced to end operations.

However, as the case of the Ghanaian startup known as Dash has demonstrated, the demise of these startups is also attributed to corporate governance failures and acts of fraud by founders. In the case of Dash, not even the more than $86 million capital that was raised in five years could save the startup.

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