"Withdraw All Your Money": Nigerian Crypto Firm Gives Customers 2-Week Deadline, 20-year-old CEO Explains

• Lazerpay, a Nigerian fintech startup that uses cryptocurrency, is shutting down its operations
• The CEO, Njoku Emmanuel, announced the closure and stated that the company was unable to secure enough funds
• Lazerpay is a two-year-old fintech company that accepts payments in stablecoins and allows merchants to convert their crypto to fiat currency

Nigerian crypto-based fintech company Lazerpay is shutting down operations after unsuccessful fundraising attempts.

In a statement issued via its official Twitter handle on Thursday, the CEO, Njoku Emmanuel, said Lazerpay ceased operations after multiple futile efforts to raise funds for the business’s survival.

Lazerpay Founder and CEO Emmanuel Njoku, in a tweet, said :

"Today, we announce the difficult decision to cease operations at Lazerpay. Despite our team’s tireless efforts to secure the necessary funding to keep Lazerpay going, we were unable to close a successful fundraising round.

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We fought hard to keep the lights on as long as possible, but unfortunately, we are now at a point where we need to shut down.”

Reports show that Njoku promised to resolve all outstanding matters before the disruption, and merchants were advised to withdraw their funds from the platform before April 30, 2023.

He has also put the company's IP address (Internet Protocol) up for sale.

What to know about Lazerpay

In 2021, Emmanuel Njoku, a teenager at the time who is now 20 years old, founded Lazerpay to promote the global adoption of cryptocurrencies.

Njoku claims that the firm has enabled over 3,000 businesses to accept payments in stablecoins, including an off-ramp feature to help merchants convert crypto to fiat directly to the bank in over 100 countries.

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In November 2022, Lazerpay let go of some team members to prolong its operating runway after a potential lead investor withdrew abruptly due to market conditions and disagreements over terms.

It's worth noting that the decision to lay off staff came after the employees had agreed to a salary reduction, while the management team had opted not to receive any payment.

List of Nigeria's most valuable banks after Q1, 2023

In another report, the Nigerian banks with the highest market capitalisation for the first quarter of 2023 have been unveiled.

Zenith Bank and GT Bank retained their positions as the most highly valued commercial banks in the Nigerian market, which they held at the beginning of the year.

However, First Bank experienced a decrease in its market value during the same period.

Source: Legit.ng