Pillow offered its users the chance to invest in Bitcoin, stablecoins, and other currencies, with initial returns of up to 18%. The two-year-old firm had been successful in raising a total of about $21 million.

A Singaporean firm called Pillow, which had operations in Ghana and Nigeria, has decided to stop offering its services.

The current regulatory landscape and its impact on the connected financial infrastructure were blamed for the startup’s demise. The start-up offered features like cryptocurrency investments, purchases, and savings.

Through an in-app message, Pillow informed its user base of this information. Over 75,000 people in 60 different countries apparently received the SMS advising them to withdraw their money as soon as possible.

The corporation has set a deadline of July 31st, 2023 for consumers to remove their assets in order to simplify the process. By that time, the app will no longer be available on the Play Store, and the platform plans to discontinue bank withdrawals on July 7 and cryptocurrency withdrawals on July 31 of 2023.

Although Arindam Roy, Rajath KM, and Kartik Mishra, the company’s founders, have not publicly announced it, Pillow’s goal to provide a way for people in emerging economies to combat inflation has been accomplished with the closing of the business.

The firm had been successful in raising about $21 million from a total of 15 investors to support this goal.

Given that the business was aggressively advertising job openings only a few months ago, Pillow’s move can be viewed as a surprise turn of events. However, this circumstance highlights the considerable difficulties that crypto businesses face while negotiating regulatory environments around the world.

The Securities Exchange Commission of Nigeria recently said that it is thinking about allowing tokenized coin offerings on authorized digital exchanges that are backed by assets such as equities, debt, and property but “not cryptocurrency.” The regulator declared that unless it and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) have agreed on standards, it will not register cryptocurrency exchanges.

Exchange operations became challenging after the CBN ordered commercial lenders to stop facilitating cryptocurrency transactions in 2021.

Pillow offered its users the chance to invest in Bitcoin, stablecoins, and other currencies, with initial returns of up to 18%. A total of $21 million has been raised by the two-year-old firm, with significant investors including:

Accel India
Quona Capital
Elevation Capital, and
Jump Crypto

The previous October, Pillow made public its $18 million Series A investment.

The startup reportedly considered India to be a significant market, but the Reserve Bank of India has been pressuring bankers to avoid working with cryptocurrency businesses for more than a year, making it nearly impossible for Web3 startups to function in the nation.