Chipper Cash, one of Africa’s leading fintech companies, announced today that over 50% of all Bitcoin transactions on the platform run on the Lightning network, marking one of the most important real-world developments to date.
The company, which serves millions of consumers and businesses in Africa, uses lightning bolts through the voltage of its infrastructure providers to provide faster, cheaper and more reliable payments. This achievement shows well the growing importance of Bitcoin’s Lightning network as a viable, everyday payment rail in markets where legacy systems often struggle.
“Lightning response payments could enhance and accelerate larger, more reliable financial access across Africa,” said Maijid Moujaled, co-founder and president of Chipper Cash. “A reliable voltage infrastructure can reduce building complexity and focus on scale based on lightning. With voltage, lightning becomes the backbone of global real-time payments by providing near-close settlements to those and businesses that need it most at a low cost.”
Founded in 2018 as a peer-to-peer remittance platform, Chipper Cash has since evolved into a fully licensed fintech provider offering cross-border payments, partnerships with Visa, equity investments and Stablecoin Rails. Lightning quickly became the center of its expansion. What began as a weekend discovery by Moujaled himself grew into adoptions across the continent fueled primarily by word of mouth.
One Chipper Cash customer simply described the lightning bolt. “It’s like discovering fire,” he emphasizes speed and reliability compared to traditional methods.
The company says financial infrastructure is suffering from outages and delays in most of Africa. Even after years of operation, Fiat Partners continues to experience downtime. In contrast, Lightning offers near and always on payments. For markets that are used to unreliable systems, this represents a progression in financial accessibility.
Here are the key success metrics from the Lightning rollout in Chipper Cash:
Over 50% of Bitcoin transactions are driven by lightning.
Adoption was organically promoted through customer referrals.
Faster, smoother borders and domestic payment experience.
It has a stronger recovery compared to Fiat Rail.
The integration also allows interoperability with strike, cache apps and other lightning-driven platforms, expanding chipper reach globally. Recently, the company launched Chessa, which instantly settled over 25 local Fiat currencies, allowing for transfers via Crypto Rails. Lightning sits at the heart of this product.
“What Chipper Cash is doing with Lightning proves that emerging markets can jump over the outdated payment rails,” said Graham Krizek, CEO of Voltage. “By powering certain parts of the infrastructure, we’ve lifted immediate, global and low-cost payments that work everywhere.”
By integrating lightning as part of its payment infrastructure, Chipper Cash has established itself as a continental leader in Bitcoin adoption. With customer demand and support from voltage, the company shows how African fintech can leap outdated systems and provide the next generation of financial services today.
Source: https://bitcoinmagazine.com/news/africas-chipper-cash-adopts-lightning-at-scale-50-of-bitcoin-transactions-now-instant-and-low-cost
