South African crypto startup Momint, once lauded for helping local creators monetize digital content through NFTs, has announced its shutdown — becoming the latest name to join an expanding list of high-profile Web3 failures across the continent.

The closure adds another chapter to what increasingly resembles a regional reckoning. While Africa remains one of the world’s most active regions for crypto adoption by users, its startup ecosystem is facing the brutal reality of high burn rates, weak infrastructure, cautious regulation, and disappearing investor appetite.

From Local NFT Pioneer to Solar Crowdfunding Champion

Launched in May 2021, Momint began as South Africa’s first NFT marketplace supporting rand payments. Its early success was headlined by flashy sales, including a Bryan Habana rugby-themed NFT that sold for over $20,000 and the tokenization of Nelson Mandela’s 1961 arrest warrant, which fetched $130,000 in early 2022.

But the platform sought to go beyond NFT speculation. In early 2023, it launched SunCash, a solar crowdfunding initiative in partnership with Sun Exchange. Users could purchase solar cells for as little as R150 (~$8.33) and receive quarterly returns in USDC, with flagship deployments in Limpopo and Mpumalanga. It was a clever pivot: blend environmental impact with tokenized ownership.

By mid-2024, Momint boasted over 53,000 users and $1.95 million in marketplace volume. It also bagged a $50,000 grant from the DFINITY-backed Mzansi Web3 ICP Hub, aimed at refining smart-meter integration and lowering transaction costs via blockchain.

There were other innovations: crypto-fiat merchant vouchers via 1Voucher, enabling users to spend ETH and USDC at over 10,000 outlets including Pick n Pay and Woolworths. Momint even supported low-cost cross-border remittances — a key use case in Africa’s fragmented payments landscape.

Still, none of this was enough.

In its final statement, the company cited unsustainable operating costs, sluggish user growth beyond early adopters, and a hostile fundraising environment as reasons for the shutdown. Total funding raised since inception stood at $16.7 million, with investors ranging from Dogpatch Labs and Tshimologong to Outlier Ventures, Untapped Global, and Adaverse.

The Broader Collapse: VIBRA, Pillow, LazerPay, Bundle, Mara…

Momint’s fall is far from isolated. Across the continent, a growing list of crypto startups — many once buoyed by Silicon Valley-backed seed rounds and pitch decks promising financial inclusion — are shutting down.

Nigerian-born VIBRA, funded by Lateral Frontiers, Dragonfly Capital, and CRE VC, flamed out after a failed regional expansion into Kenya and Ghana. Its #VIBRAinClass initiative paid crypto tutors and incentivized users to attend blockchain classes, but the financial model was, in hindsight, fatally flawed.

Singapore-based Pillow, which offered crypto-powered savings in Nigeria and Ghana, cited “regulatory friction” as it hastily exited all African markets in mid-2023, despite having raised $21 million.

There’s also LazerPay, Bundle Africa, and most dramatically, Mara — which raised $23 million from Alameda Research and Coinbase Ventures in 2022. Mara allegedly spent $15.9 million in a single year, mostly on salaries and bonuses, without generating revenue. Reports later surfaced of inflated user numbers and internal rifts. The company collapsed. Its CEO promptly launched a new platform, leaving unpaid vendors and disillusioned staff behind.

In all cases, investor patience wore thin.

Crypto Dreams, Crumbling Foundations

The closures highlight deeper issues within Africa’s Web3 playbook.

While the enthusiasm for crypto adoption is real — Nigeria ranks #2 globally in user adoption, with Kenya, South Africa, and Ethiopia in the top 30 — the startup infrastructure is still brittle. Regulatory uncertainty is rife. In Nigeria, for instance, the central bank only recently lifted a ban on crypto transactions, but exchanges remain in limbo. South Africa, while more progressive, is tightening oversight under the Financial Sector Conduct Authority.

In this environment, even tokenized innovations like solar crowdfunding or crypto-for-retail integrations face existential risk.

Equally pressing is a pattern of financial mismanagement. Across many failed startups, large venture rounds were burned through at alarming speeds. Startups splurged on flashy activations, aggressive user incentives, and high salaries, often before establishing viable business models.

Some investors, in hindsight, concede they were “over-exuberant.”

“There was a time when just saying ‘Africa + Web3’ could open any door,” one early-stage investor told Launch Base Africa. “Now, everyone’s asking the hard questions.”

Momint’s demise brings fresh urgency to rethink what sustainable crypto innovation in Africa looks like. Despite promising use cases — from remittances to off-grid solar funding — the dream of decentralizing finance on the continent will not survive on hype alone.

A more sober phase is beginning.

Startups will need to tighten spending, pivot toward real utility, and work within — not against — local regulatory frameworks. Investors, too, must recalibrate expectations and due diligence.

For now, the message is clear: Africa’s crypto appetite endures, but the ecosystem’s metabolism must slow down.