2021, crypto’s biggest year ever, which saw Bitcoin gallop to an all-time high of $63,000, was the last time Patricia enjoyed the goodwill of most Nigerians. That year, it sponsored Big Brother Naija, Africa’s biggest TV reality show watched by over five million fans generating billions of impressions online. Nairametrics places the sponsorship cost at ₦200 million ($500,000), a fair price for its marketing value in the books of money-flushed tech firms. If Patricia replicated the same numbers as Abeg, the fintech that bagged an 8900% user increase after sponsoring the TV show, we can imagine Patricia’s users to be in their millions, all of whom are now being forced to exercise patience with the crypto company, where their funds have been locked for six months as the company sorts out its issues.

The company’s problems include a reported $2 million hack, the mass exits of senior executives, and the massive downward spiral of the company's goodwill. These circumstances place Patricia’s CEO, Hanu Fejiro, in what could be the toughest challenge of his career, as both onlookers, stakeholders, and schadenfreude-laden sceptics wait to see if Patrica does any better than an exit.

Here’s a timeline of events since the markets began to respond to Patricia’s troubles.

1. May 16, 2023

Patricia’s users noticed an app “glitch” that made it impossible to move their assets. Panic was minimal as it was the first time in several years.

2. May 26, 2023

Patricia announced that it was the victim of a breach that affected users’ BTC and Ether assets. It disabled transactions on all accounts. The announcement added that one of the culprits had been apprehended and more investigations were ongoing while leaving out the details of the hack.

3. May 27, 2023

TechCabal published an exclusive that reported Patrica’s losses to be $2 million, adding that it happened as far back as January 2021, 17 months before Patricia’s public announcement.

4. August 3, 2023

TechNext reported on Seun Dania’s equity investment in Patricia. The Tradefada CEO said at the time that he was investing because he believed Patrica had the potential to overcome its struggles.

5. August 18, 2023

Patricia announced that all customer’s affected assets would be converted into the company’s native token, PTK (now PUTX), which was valued at $1, and would be disbursed in tranches as the company made profits. The tech community revolted at this, terming it a classic rug pull strategy.

6. August 19, 2023 - October 16, 2023

Patricia had a series of interactions with users where it described its token in detail and assured customers of its plans to reimburse users. The company called for more patience and attempted to quell angry threats from customers who were promising to protest or harm Hanu Fejiro. In one of such meetings, Hanu disclosed that Patricia had secured investments that would be directed into the repayment schedule. The details of the investment were left out.

7. October 17, 2023

Techpoint reported that an unidentified Patrica personnel was pleading with a customer, Nelson Abraham, for his cooperation to convert his assets worth N4,000,000 ($5,224) into equity. Abraham’s report, which claimed Patricia was doing this against his will, remains the single case reported widely. Patricia did not comment on this development.

8. October 24, 2023

Per Nairametrics, Patricia reached an agreement with the SEC-licenced DLM Capital Group, to have its subsidiary, DLM Trust, handle the fund disbursements to Patricia’s customers. The first batch of customers were slated to receive reimbursements by November 20, 2023. The arrangement did not involve DLM investing in Patricia.

9. October 25, 2023

DLM Group announced the suspension of the agreement with Patricia, citing “multiple breaches in the terms and conditions of agreement and trust” between both companies. As of writing, the contract between both companies is no longer available on Nairametrics.

In a recent conversation with NODO, Hanu said that Patricia was working hard to bring this phase of the company to an end and would “correct the record” in due time. It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the coming months.

Irrespective of how we view Patricia’s situation, the true win for the African tech ecosystem will be in Patricia's full recovery and sustainability, particularly in the aftermath of this crisis. While aftershocks from troubled startups like Dash, Float, and Payday, are still reverberating across the continent, such grace may not be extended to crypto companies in a clime like Nigeria. As we opined in this NODO article earlier, an exit of Patricia with users’ funds will be equal to pulling the rug from under a whole country: regulators will rage, and more Nigerians will lose trust in the prospect of cryptocurrencies.

The article will be continually updated with Patricia’s news.