Yo! Today I’m pumped to announce Strike’s next major market in our global expansion: Africa! Today, we are launching Strike Africa, expanding our full suite of Bitcoin services into Gabon, Ivory Coast, Malawi, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, and Zambia with more African markets to come in the future.

At Strike, we envision a future where everyone has access to Bitcoin, a truly open, global, and public digital infrastructure for money. To realize this vision, we’ve been hyper-focused on expanding our Bitcoin and Lightning services to as many markets as possible with as many on and off-ramps as possible.

Last year, we announced Strike’s first major expansion outside of the United States. Since then, we have made significant progress in making Strike available to billions of people globally, with all of these markets having access to our leading Bitcoin & Lightning wallet, USDT, and debit card on-ramps. However, that was only the beginning.

Today, we are launching our first full-featured region outside of the US, giving customers local fiat on & off-ramps, buy and sell bitcoin, buy and sell USDT, and more in Africa.

Why Bitcoin And Strike In Africa?

Africa presents immense opportunities for financial innovation and economic freedom. Many countries on the continent are grappling with high inflation rates and devaluing currencies, making it challenging for people to save and build wealth:

• Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, is facing a severe economic crisis, with inflation nearing 30% and its currency hitting record lows. The Nigerian Naira has lost 230% of its value in the last year, leaving 210 million people in economic turmoil. Similarly, Ghana saw inflation increase to 23.5% and averaged 14.3% in the past ten years leading up to 2022. In this landscape, bitcoin has emerged as a reliable digital reserve asset and hedge against inflation, offering people a way to protect their property rights and preserve wealth.
• Remittance rates in Africa are among the highest globally, hampering financial development. According to the World Bank, in 2022, the average cost of sending $200 to Africa was 8.5 % of the amount transferred, compared to less than 6% globally. Existing remittance services tend to be scarce and expensive, with up to 20% in fees on the amount transferred to some African countries.
• Strike delivers faster, cheaper, global payment connectivity for the world, all on open public digital infrastructure. Leveraging the Lightning Network, we are able to provide a seamless and cost-effective cross-border payment experience for individuals and businesses.
• With skyrocketing inflation rates, antiquated payment rails that are riddled with fees, and intense capital controls forcibly locking people into deteriorating money, other platforms like Coinbase and Binance have taken advantage by promoting alternative “currencies” and shitcoins like Ether and Solana as money. At Strike, we remain committed to offering a principled, ethically sound solution focused on helping customers find value in all Bitcoin has to offer, without the distraction of speculative assets. That’s why we only offer Bitcoin and a USD Stablecoin, USDT. That's it.

Our focus on bitcoin allows us to deliver a unique global experience with access to bitcoin and USDT, global payments, a full-featured Lightning wallet, and more all in one simple money app. With Strike Africa, we're not just expanding our reach; we're empowering people across the continent with the tools to navigate economic challenges and opportunities to achieve financial freedom.

With that, let’s take a deep dive into all Strike Africa has to offer. Strike is a network of products and services. When we enter a new region, there is much more than meets the eye.

Strike Africa: Breaking It Down

Strike Africa is more than just a feature. With this launch, we are releasing our full suite of products and services in the region. Let’s walk through all of the details encompassed in this launch and services like buying & selling bitcoin, buying & selling stablecoins, cross-border payments, and more.

Strike Africa: The Strike App

The Strike App now offers major on & off ramps, buy & sell bitcoin, buy & sell USDT, on-chain payments, a full-service Lightning Network wallet, global P2P payments, and more in Gabon, Ivory Coast, Malawi, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, and Zambia, with more markets in Africa to come.

You can see the current state of our bank transfer and mobile money on & off ramps in the supported African markets today:

Strike customers in Africa can do the following in supported markets:

• Buy & sell bitcoin
• Buy & sell USDT
• Send & receive on-chain payments with a free on-chain withdrawal option
• Send & receive Lightning Network payments with bitcoin
• Send & receive Lightning Network payments with USDT
• Receive payments to their Lightning Address as bitcoin
• Receive payments to their Lightning Address as USDT
• In-app shopping over the Lightning Network with their bitcoin
• In-app shopping over the Lightning Network with their USDT
• P2P Strike users around the world with bitcoin
• P2P Strike users around the world with USDT
• Conduct fast and cheap cross-border payments
• Cash out to local currency

Onboard to bitcoin and USDT, P2P domestically and globally using bitcoin and USDT, make free on-chain payments, get a full-featured Lightning Network wallet, shop with your USDT or bitcoin over the Lightning Network, access global payments, and more, all in one simple money app. Not an exchange with shitcoins and staking and yield and leverage. Our simple yet passionate focus on bitcoin allows for an incredible experience globally.

Imagine the use cases. Strike users in the US can now instantly send money to their family home in Africa that is received as USDT, which they can then exchange for bitcoin or cash out to local currency as they’d like. Incredible, and we’re only getting started.

Strike Africa: Businesses, API, and Private

Strike Africa isn’t only a big milestone for our app. Adding new currency pairs and markets to Strike adds new value everywhere.

Businesses

Businesses can officially open accounts in our supported African regions! We support two primary use cases for businesses in Africa:

1. Buying Bitcoin & USDT

We’re starting to roll out the ability for businesses in Africa to open a Strike account and get access to our Business Dashboard, enabling them to securely invest in both bitcoin and USDT. Your account allows you to buy, sell, hold, send, and receive bitcoin, and buy and sell USDT. If you’re looking to invest your balance sheet into bitcoin and USDT, let us do the hard work for you.

2. Cross-border Payments

We’re working on rolling out a full suite of cross-border payment services for businesses, so that businesses that open a Strike account can make cheaper and faster cross-border payments. Strike uses bitcoin technology to execute B2B cross-border payments for business customers that are affordable and settle quickly. For example, a business with a South African division of their company could repatriate revenue in Rand back into the United States as USD into their corporate bank account. Settlement is the same day and the fees are cheap. Open networks win.

If you’re a business looking to buy bitcoin, USDT, or make cross-border payments, feel free to reach out to us at onboarding@strike.me.

API

Are you a developer looking to build Bitcoin and payment tools for customers in Africa? Are you a developer in Africa looking to build Bitcoin and payment tools for the rest of the world?

Developers and businesses can now open a Strike API account and get access to:

• BTC, USD, USDT
• Bitcoin infrastructure
• On-chain payments
• Lightning Network payments
• Exchanging currencies (BTC/USD, etc)
• Sending fiat currencies over Lightning (USD, USDT, etc)
• Receiving fiat currencies over Lightning (USD, USDT, etc)

The possibilities with the Strike API are becoming more and more powerful. You can now onboard users into your app from their local currency, create an instant cross-currency payments experience over the Lightning Network, give all of your users bitcoin wallets, enable instant tipping into your website, and more.

A great example of the Strike API in the wild is Primal. Primal uses the Strike API to power their Bitcoin wallets, Lighting payments, Lightning Addresses, fiat onboarding, and BTC currency exchange.

We are not going to orange pill the world ourselves, nor do we want to. We’ve worked tremendously hard for the infrastructure we have and we want you to use it for your wildest dreams.

If you’re looking to open a developer account with us, give us a shout at api@strike.me

Private

Customers in Africa can now leverage Strike Private! With Strike Private, eligible clients get access to our leading Bitcoin infrastructure with no purchase limits, tailored custom pricing, and our team of Bitcoin experts. We partner with these clients on buying and selling bitcoin, Bitcoin education, Lightning Network overviews, guidance on self-custody, market analysis, and more. Whatever you need on your Bitcoin journey, Strike is your trusted, reliable, expert partner for the most significant monetary technology revolution of our lifetimes.

If you’re interested in partnering with us or learning more, all you have to do is reach out to us at private@strike.me.

Thanks

Strike Africa is just the beginning. Our commitment to Bitcoin has never been stronger and we will continue to launch new regions all throughout 2024. We learn the most about Strike when we listen and collaborate with all of you. Thank you.

Together, we are at the forefront of a financial revolution, one that promises a more fair, honest, humble, real, and equitable future for all of us. Thank you for trusting Strike, supporting Strike, and partnering with Strike. You will be hearing from me again very soon.

Until then. Much love.

Jack