Why Yellow Card shuttered its retail business

Pan-African exchange Yellow Card has announced that it will discontinue its services to retail users and shut down its application for retail payments. 

Instead, the firm is now focusing on business-to-business stablecoin payment services, for which it claims it has seen more demand in recent months.

The details 

• In a mail to users on October 29, the firm said the decision was a ‘strategic shift’ in Yellow Card’s business model that allows it to provide enterprise-level stablecoin infrastructure for business.
• According to the company, providing institutional-grade stablecoin integration services for businesses in emerging markets is its core focus, and it is now pivoting to narrow down on this.
• Notably, the decision is also driven in part by the company’s recent Series C funding, which it raised to power the pivot to B2B offerings.

What they told Mariblock

• Yellow Card told Mariblock that the decision was driven by a strong and growing demand for stablecoin-fiat payment settlement rails, custody wallet services and stablecoin issuance from businesses in the markets the firm is active in.
• The exchange declined to comment on specific figures that show how much the demand for B2B infrastructural stacks has grown compared to its retail users, pegged at 1.7 million a year ago.
• It added that while there are no immediate plans to adjust its workforce, the company will eventually realign its staff structure to match its new business focus.
• Yellow Card clarified that regulations did not influence the change in direction, as its product offerings meet global regulatory standards.
• Retail users have till the end of the year to withdraw their funds before the app is finally closed on January 1, 2026.

Key quotes

• A Yellow Card spokesperson wrote to Mariblock; 

“This was a strategic decision driven by strong and growing demand from businesses. By focusing fully on our B2B Institutional Suite, we can deepen our core strengths, scale faster, and deliver the institutional-grade infrastructure that businesses - and by extension, consumers - rely on.” 

• On what has necessitated the shift in focus, the firm said: 

“The demand for our B2B solutions continues to grow at a substantial pace, and our operational scale reflects that ... They rely on us for a full stablecoin infrastructure stack — from payment rails to fiat settlement and institutional-grade custody solutions. That’s what we’re now focused on exclusively.” 

Some context 

• Yellow Card, launched by the American entrepreneur Chris Maurice in 2019, told TechCrunch last year that it processed $3 billion. 
• Maurice explained that after raising $33 million last year, the company decided to pivot to B2B services because managing retail users was too expensive and the profit margins were too small to sustain the business. 
• Instead, Yellow Card is focusing on its tech stack, which incorporates legacy financial rails and stablecoins, enabling businesses and corporations to process payments in crypto and fiat. 
• Earlier this year, global payments firm Visa announced a partnership with Yellow Card to expand its settlement solution into Africa. 
• Specifically, the partnership was to expand Visa’s stablecoin offering in Africa by plugging into Yellow Card’s existing infrastructure.