Stablecoins infrastructure provider, Yellow Card, has said its decision to shut down its consumer-facing crypto exchange was driven by a strategic shift from business-to-consumer (B2C) services to business-to-business (B2B) infrastructure, rather than regulatory developments in Nigeria.
Lasbery Oludimu, Group Vice President of Operations and Managing Director of Yellow Card Nigeria, disclosed this during a media briefing in Lagos following the company’s recent $40 million fundraise to expand its stablecoin infrastructure.
According to Oludimu, the company closed its crypto exchange in December 2025 as part of a broader assessment of how to deploy its technology infrastructure more profitably.
What Oludimu is saying
Oludimu clarified that the closure had nothing to do with Binance’s regulatory challenges or broader developments in Nigeria’s cryptocurrency market, noting the shutdown was not done only in Nigeria.
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- “People would have said that was related to what happened in Nigeria if we had shut down only Nigeria. But we took that decision to pivot from B2C to B2B and it was a business and product-related decision,” she said.
Oludimu said the shift to B2B would allow Yellow Card to better monetise infrastructure that the company had spent significant resources developing and maintaining.
- “We have a big infrastructure. You’re giving it to players that will underutilise it, and you’re incurring the same cost,” he said.
She added that the B2B model was also more aligned with the company’s product strategy because businesses could integrate Yellow Card’s infrastructure into their own operations and services.
From a business perspective, she said the shift was more profitable, while from a product perspective, it allowed Yellow Card to put its internally developed infrastructure in the hands of customers that could make greater use of it.
The $40 million buffer
Oludimu said Yellow Card now operates across more than 50 markets, providing stablecoin payments, fiat settlement rails, wallet services and custom local stablecoin issuance.
According to her, the latest $40 million brought Yellow Card’s total equity financing to more than $120 million.
She said the new funding would support the expansion of Global USD Accounts, Yellow Card’s end-to-end dollar account for businesses, and strengthen the stablecoin rails connecting its markets worldwide.
Yellow Card’s expansion has been accompanied by continued regulatory progress. In June, the company secured regulatory AML affiliation in Switzerland as a supervised financial intermediary, providing banking partners and institutional clients with a regulated point of access to its stablecoin infrastructure across Africa and other international markets.
- “Stablecoins are increasingly moving beyond being viewed simply as a crypto product,” Oludimu added.
- “They are becoming practical infrastructure for businesses that need more efficient ways to move money, manage treasury and participate in global commerce. Our focus is on building that infrastructure responsibly and ensuring African businesses are part of this evolution.”
What you should know
Yellow Card is one of the digital asset firms seeking licensing in Nigeria under the Accelerated Regulatory Incubation Programme (ARIP) of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
In a recent interview with Nairametrics, Oludimu said the company had submitted an application to the regulatory body.
According to her, ARIP is now propelling Nigeria to the forefront of global regulatory standards as it provides a structured pathway for crypto businesses to operate within a regulated framework.
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