Company filings seen by Techpoint Africa reveal that some founders of Helicarrier (formerly Buycoins) have left the company. According to the filing dated January 8, 2023, Ireoluwa Aderinokun’s appointment as a director was set to be terminated on June 30, 2023, while Olatomiwa Lasebikan’s appointment as a director had already been terminated in 2021.
This leaves Timi Ajiboye as the only remaining founder at Helicarrier. However, on February 3, 2025, he announced his full-time employment with The Browser Company, the company behind Arc Browser, raising further questions about the company's future.
Although Helicarrier is still listed as an active startup on Y Combinator’s directory, the shutdown of key products like Buycoins and Buycoins Pro signals challenging times for the eight-year-old startup.
From Bitkoin to Buycoins to Helicarrier
Helicarrier was one of Nigeria’s earliest crypto startups. Founded in 2017 as Bitkoin, it provided a way for Africans to trade cryptocurrencies using local payment rails. The company later secured an undisclosed amount of funding from Microtraction in 2018.
After gaining acceptance into Y Combinator that same year, the startup rebranded from Bitkoin to Buycoins. Four years later, it underwent another name change, becoming Helicarrier.
In a 2021 Medium post, Ajiboye explained that "Buycoins doesn’t do a good job of telegraphing all that we’ve become." He noted that the company had evolved from a simple peer-to-peer Bitcoin trading website into a broader ecosystem offering multiple products, including Buycoins, Buycoins Pro, Sendcash Pay, Sendcash, and NGNT.
These products were intended to support the company’s mission to financially connect Africans across the world through digital currencies.
The regulatory challenges and crypto winter
However, Helicarrier's mission encountered significant obstacles in 2021 when the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) issued a directive preventing banks from facilitating crypto-related transactions. Known as the "crypto ban," this regulation made it impossible for crypto startups to receive naira deposits from users looking to buy or sell cryptocurrencies.
Following this regulatory clampdown, the broader crypto industry faced further turbulence after the collapse of FTX in 2022, leading to a prolonged market downturn. The crash forced several crypto companies, including Bundle, to shut down in July 2023.
Written by Omoruyi Edoigiawerie, a seasoned startup attorney with over a decade of experience. Learn more.
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While Helicarrier did not shut down completely, it discontinued Buycoins Pro, its cryptocurrency exchange for professional traders. In a statement to customers, the company announced:
"Regrettably, we must inform you that Buycoins Pro will be sunsetted in the coming days. As part of this process, we kindly request your attention to the following important information."
Although Helicarrier assured users that they could still trade using Buycoins’ over-the-counter service, Mariblock reported that activity on the exchange’s official Telegram group suggested the company was struggling to generate sufficient trading volume.
"In a discussion between the group’s admin and Buycoins Pro users on April 18, 2023, customers complained that the exchange does not have enough trading volume to fill their orders," Mariblock reported.Helicarrier appears to be facing the same challenges that led to the shutdown of other prominent African crypto companies such as Bundle, LocalCryptos, and LocalBitcoins. With its original founders no longer at the helm, the future of the once-promising startup remains uncertain.
