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Binance will shut down its regulated buy-and-sell product, Binance Connect, today, according to a recent statement from the company. Formerly called Bitfinity, the product was launched in 2022 as an on-ramp service that allowed merchants to receive payments in crypto. Binance Connect notably drove more utility to the use of digital currencies—a move the company said was directed to make traditional businesses more “crypto ready.” But changing market conditions and partner difficulties has now forced a shutdown.

A spokesperson for Binance confirmed the closure to CoinDesk, maintaining that the move was strategic and would allow Binance to focus on its core offerings. “We periodically review our products and services to ensure that our resources continue to be focused on core efforts that align with our long-term strategy. We consistently adapt and modify our business approach in response to changing market and user needs,” they shared.

Biswap, a BNB-chain decentralised exchange, offered more context on the closure in an X (formerly Twitter) post yesterday. According to them, Binance Connect is shutting down “due to its provider closing the supporting card payments service.” It is not clear what provider is affected, but attention has been drawn to some of the global card schemes that Binance Connect supports, including Mastercard and Visa. Binance Connect supported over 50 cryptocurrencies and fiat-to-crypto payments.

Binance has consistently relied on its banking partners to keep its on-ramp solutions afloat. In May 2023, Binance Australia announced the immediate termination of fiat services, citing issues with third party partners. Zepto, Binance’s third-party provider in the region, said it was instructed to offboard Binance by a partner, Cuscal. “Cuscal has, and will continue to, terminate any client or their customers and/or merchants that do not meet our strict requirements,” said Cuscal in a statement to CoinTelegraph.

Outlook for Africa

While exchanges dominate the African blockchain ecosystem, several products have been launched in recent years to bring more utility to cryptocurrencies, and atop that conversation is the opportunity for merchants to receive payments in crypto.

Before selling its business to Blockfinex, cash-strapped Fluidcoins operated an Africa-focused solution that allowed sellers and buyers to transact in crypto. Lazerpay, a now-defunct crypto startup, processed stablecoins for businesses, but failed to raise capital to scale after, according to them, serving over 3,000 businesses.

Lazerpay’s founder, Njoku Emmanuel, later shared in a podcast that the business majorly suffered from regional regulatory clampdowns, as financial institutions, which are central to on-ramping users, continued to be averse to crypto. Blockfinex, however, has maintained interest in scaling Fluidcoin’s merchant-facing business.

While there’ll always be a need for merchants to interact with customers through crypto, the success of such businesses at scale seem to depend on the heavily regulated third-party financial institutions. So, in a continent like Africa, where crypto is banned in almost half of its countries, manifesting a seamless crypto-fiat business relationship calls for strategic innovation around the internal business processes. Binance invested over $36 million in the product that it is shutting down today. African crypto businesses need not follow a similar route.