Lisk closes its blockchain as African startups lose another source of funding

Lisk is shutting down its blockchain on 31 October 2026, ending a project that had also become a source of funding for African startups building in Web3. The Swiss blockchain company said the Lisk blockchain will be discontinued at the end of October, while its decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO) will also be wound down. The LSK token will continue to exist and trade on Ethereum and Base. But for some African startups, the bigger issue is losing a company that had been willing to put money into early stage Web3 businesses. Lisk had spent the past few years building relationships across Africa through startup investments, accelerator programmes and developer initiatives. Its investments included Nigerian stablecoin payments startup Azza and Nigerian social-finance platform ClapMi. It also supported South African supply chain startup LovCash and Rwandan agritech marketplace Afrikabal through its EMpower Fund. That funding is now coming to an end as Lisk moves away from running its own blockchain. The timing is not great for African Web3 startups. According to Crypto Valley VC, blockchain startups on the continent raised $90.1 million in 2025, down 26.6% from the previous year.

Lisk’s blockchain has lost most of its activity

The reason for the shutdown is not difficult to see in the network’s numbers. According to DeFiLlama, Lisk currently has just over $139,000 in total value locked across its decentralised applications. At the start of the year, that figure was $5.47 million. The network currently holds around $587,000 in stablecoins. Decentralised exchanges recorded about $1,700 in trading volume over the latest 24 hours, while the blockchain generated roughly $3.88 in fees. There simply isn’t much happening on the network. Lisk said the blockchain was not generating enough revenue to support the LSK token. It also pointed to the amount of LSK being used for grants and incentives. Those payments increased the number of tokens in circulation and put more pressure on the token’s price.

Africa was one of Lisk’s bigger markets

Lisk had made a serious effort to build a presence in Africa. It hired regional leads, worked with accelerators and supported developer training programmes. Those efforts also gave the company access to startups looking for early funding. Azza, ClapMi, LovCash and Afrikabal are among the companies that received backing or support through the Lisk ecosystem. The EMpower Fund was another part of that effort. For founders, Lisk was therefore not just another blockchain network. It was also a potential source of money and technical support. That is what is disappearing with the shutdown. African blockchain startups are already dealing with a smaller funding pool. The $90.1 million raised in 2025 was a significant drop from the previous year. Lisk’s exit will not stop investment in African Web3, but it removes one of the investors that was actively looking for early-stage companies in the sector.

Lisk is now betting on financial software

The shutdown comes less than a year after founder Max Kordek returned as CEO in December 2025. Kordek has since pushed the company towards financial software instead of continuing to build out the blockchain. The new product is aimed at finance teams that manage money across different businesses, countries and currencies. Lisk wants to bring bank accounts, stablecoins, payments and approval processes into one platform. The product is currently in early access. The company is also proposing to burn 100 million LSK held by the DAO. If approved, that would reduce the total token supply from 400 million to 300 million. Another 47 million LSK from the DAO treasury would be transferred to Lisk Limited, the company behind the new software business. The DAO’s governance contracts and forum would then be shut down. The proposal still needs approval from the Lisk community.

Developers and token holders have to move

People holding LSK on the Lisk Chain will need to move their tokens to Ethereum before the blockchain closes. Lisk says the process can take at least seven days, so users will need to start the transfer before the 31 October deadline. Developers building on Lisk also have an option. The company has worked with Celo to create a migration route for projects built on the Lisk Chain, giving developers a way to move their applications instead of leaving them on a network that is about to close. LSK itself will remain in use. Lisk says the token will be used for rewards and, eventually, payments within its financial software platform. For African startups, however, the bigger story is the loss of a backer. Lisk spent years trying to build a blockchain ecosystem in Africa and put money behind founders working on everything from payments to supply chains. That chapter is now ending. The company is betting that selling financial software to businesses will work better than running its own blockchain. For the startups that were counting on Lisk as a source of funding and support, they now have to look elsewhere.