A crypto startup can have a promising idea, raise millions of dollars and still have to rethink its entire business when the market turns against it. For Nestcoin, a Nigerian-founded Web3 company, that moment came in 2022, when the collapse of FTX put a significant portion of its funds at risk.
But the setback did not end the company’s plans to build with blockchain technology. Instead, it forced Nestcoin to narrow its focus, moving away from a collection of crypto products towards a more concentrated effort to make digital financial services accessible to people in emerging markets. Today, Nestcoin’s mission is to build a modern banking app for creators, builders and innovators. Its journey offers a look at how an African Web3 company has adapted its approach to crypto adoption, self-custody and financial access.
Making crypto useful beyond trading
Nestcoin launched in November 2021 with a broader ambition than building another cryptocurrency trading platform. Founded by Yele Bademosi and Taiwo Orilogbon, the company set out to develop products that could help people in emerging markets understand and use crypto.
Its initial strategy covered several areas of the Web3 ecosystem, including decentralised finance (DeFi), crypto education, digital art and blockchain gaming. Rather than betting on a single application, Nestcoin planned to build, operate and invest in products across these categories.
The company raised $6.45 million in pre-seed funding in February 2022. The round included investors such as Distributed Global, Alter Global, Serena Ventures, Alameda Research and A&T Capital. Nestcoin intended to use the funding to expand its team and develop products aimed at increasing crypto adoption in frontier markets.
The strategy reflected a belief that access to crypto involved more than buying and selling digital assets. People also needed ways to learn about the technology, participate in emerging digital economies and use crypto for practical financial activities.
Nestcoin began pursuing these opportunities through several ventures, including Breach, a crypto media platform, and Metaverse Magna, a blockchain gaming initiative. It also explored other products designed to bring Web3 applications to a wider audience.
However, maintaining several products would soon become more difficult than the company had anticipated.
How the FTX collapse changed Nestcoin’s direction
In November 2022, the collapse of FTX sent shockwaves through the cryptocurrency industry. Nestcoin was among the companies affected.
In a public statement reported by TechCrunch and Techpoint Africa, Bademosi disclosed that Nestcoin had held a significant portion of its funds, including cash and stablecoins, with FTX. The exchange’s failure left the company facing a serious financial setback.
The incident exposed a risk that crypto companies can overlook when managing their own operations: building products around financial independence does not remove the risks associated with relying on third-party platforms.
For Nestcoin, the challenge was not simply about market volatility or falling token prices. Its exposure to FTX affected the company’s own resources, forcing it to reduce its workforce and reconsider how it would continue operating.
The company subsequently shifted away from its original venture-studio model. Some initiatives, including Metaverse Magna, moved towards operating independently, while Nestcoin concentrated its efforts on Onboard, its self-custodial digital asset product.
By September 2023, Nestcoin had secured another $1.9 million in strategic funding to support Onboard. The round was led by Hashed Emergent, with participation from investors including Base Ecosystem Fund, Alter Global, Magic Fund and CMT Digital.
The funding marked a more focused phase for the company: instead of developing a broad portfolio of crypto-native ventures, Nestcoin was positioning itself around a financial product intended to make digital assets easier to use.
Importance of self-custody
In a custodial crypto service, a company holds users’ assets on their behalf. Users rely on that provider to safeguard their funds and process withdrawals. With a self-custodial wallet, users retain control of the cryptographic keys that authorise transactions involving their assets.
That distinction matters because control over private keys determines who can authorise access to blockchain-based funds. When a third party holds those keys, users must trust the provider’s security and operational practices. When users hold them themselves, they gain more direct control but also take on greater responsibility for protecting access.
Nestcoin’s Onboard was designed to make self-custody more accessible without requiring users to navigate all the technical steps commonly associated with crypto wallets.
In a 2023 report, TechCrunch described Onboard as a non-custodial wallet that aimed to combine the usability of familiar financial applications with the benefits of retaining control over digital assets. At the time, the product offered features intended to simplify access and management, including an alternative to traditional seed-phrase-based wallet access.
Seed phrases are sets of words used to recover many cryptocurrency wallets. Losing one can make assets difficult or impossible to recover, while exposing it to another person can compromise the wallet. Reducing the burden of managing these credentials can help make self-custody less intimidating for new users, although it does not eliminate security risks.
The underlying principle is straightforward: users should be able to interact with digital assets without automatically surrendering control of them to a centralised service.
Connecting blockchain assets with local money
Self-custody is only one part of the challenge. For many users, the usefulness of crypto also depends on whether they can move between digital assets and the money they use for everyday expenses.
A person might receive a stablecoin payment from an overseas client but still need local currency to pay bills, purchase goods or transfer money to a bank account. If converting between the two requires several platforms, unfamiliar procedures or additional costs, the experience can become frustrating.
Onboard’s historical product offering sought to address some of these barriers by combining a self-custodial wallet with access to crypto-to-fiat conversion. TechCrunch reported in September 2023 that users could convert certain crypto assets, particularly stablecoins, into naira through the platform. In January 2024, Mariblock reported that Onboard had expanded into Kenya, where users could exchange Kenyan shillings for USDT and USDC.
Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies designed to maintain a relatively stable value against another asset, often a fiat currency such as the US dollar. USDT and USDC are examples of dollar-linked stablecoins. They can be transferred using supported blockchain networks, potentially allowing people to receive and move digital dollars without relying exclusively on conventional international banking rails.
However, a stablecoin is not the same as money held in a bank account. Users may face conversion fees, liquidity constraints, network transaction costs, issuer risks and restrictions imposed by service providers or local regulations.
The practical value of a crypto financial product therefore depends on more than whether it supports stablecoins. Users also need reliable access to the assets, clear information about costs and a workable route to convert them into the currencies they actually spend.
Where blockchain fits into the bigger picture
Blockchain is the technology that enables digital assets to be recorded and transferred on supported networks without requiring every transaction to be settled through a conventional bank ledger.
For a self-custodial wallet such as Onboard, blockchain infrastructure provides the underlying environment in which supported crypto assets exist, and transactions are processed. The wallet provides an interface through which users can manage those assets and authorise transfers.
This does not mean every part of the experience runs on a blockchain. Features such as identity verification, customer support, interface design and fiat conversion can depend on conventional software, financial institutions and third-party service providers.
That distinction is important when evaluating companies in the Web3 sector. A product can use blockchain infrastructure while relying on centralised services for other parts of its operation. Understanding those boundaries helps users assess what decentralisation means in practice and which risks remain.
Nestcoin’s stated focus on self-custody reflects one of the central ideas behind blockchain-based finance: users can retain control of their digital assets instead of depending entirely on a single platform to hold them.
Yet self-custody is not a complete solution to financial access. Users still need secure applications, usable interfaces, functioning conversion services and support when problems arise. Making those pieces work together is part of the challenge facing companies that want crypto to serve people beyond its existing user base.
What Nestcoin’s journey reveals
Nestcoin’s story is not simply one of launching a crypto startup and raising funding. It also shows how quickly a Web3 company’s plans can change when financial risks become operational problems.
The FTX collapse forced the company to reassess its model, reduce its scope and concentrate on a product with a clearer financial use case. Its subsequent funding for Onboard suggested that investors remained willing to support that narrower direction.
Still, historical fundraising announcements and product launches do not establish how much adoption Nestcoin has achieved today. Its current website promotes a modern banking app for creators and builders, but public information available for this review does not independently establish its latest user numbers, transaction volumes, supported blockchain networks or the full status of its current services.
Those details matter because the long-term value of crypto financial products depends on whether people can use them reliably, understand the risks and access the services they need in their markets.
Nestcoin’s original ambition was to make crypto-native products more accessible to people in emerging economies. Its evolution towards a more focused financial product suggests that the company sees practical usability as an important part of achieving that goal.
Whether that approach delivers lasting value will depend on the strength of its current product, its ability to serve users safely and its success in connecting blockchain-based assets with everyday financial needs.