Nigeria-Based Busha Expands to UK, Partners With Uphold for Crypto Offering

Busha, a digital asset platform that has built a strong base across Africa, is taking a major step beyond its home market with the help of Uphold. The company has chosen the modern infrastructure provider for on-chain finance to support the launch of its services in the UK, marking a fresh chapter in its growth story and a notable example of cross-border crypto expansion.

The move comes as Busha looks to serve UK residents with access to on-chain financial services through its customer app, which will connect directly to Uphold’s infrastructure. That integration will allow users in the UK to buy, sell, and hold a range of cryptocurrencies on the Busha platform, opening the door for a broader set of digital asset services in a market with growing interest in crypto and digital finance.

Busha already has over a million customers across Africa, especially in Nigeria and Kenya. Since launching in 2019, the company has worked to position itself as a platform shaping the future of money on the continent, so moving into the UK feels like a natural next step as demand grows for financial services that can work smoothly across borders.

Michael Adeyeri, Busha’s CEO, said the UK expansion makes a lot of sense, particularly because of the long-standing family and historical connections between the UK and many African countries. He noted that the company sees real value in serving families with connections in both regions and believes UK residents should be able to access a full range of digital assets through Busha.

The expansion was not a simple matter of switching on a new market. Busha already has a reputation for compliance and was among the first crypto exchanges to secure a provisional licence to operate as a digital asset exchange under Nigeria’s licensing framework. Even so, bringing its services to the UK meant navigating a new set of regulatory demands and infrastructure requirements.

Major Expansion Move

According to the company, it faced a decision between building the necessary capabilities internally and going through the registration process on its own, which could have taken years, or partnering with a provider that already had the required systems in place. Busha ultimately selected Uphold because of its compliance-first approach, its understanding of UK regulatory expectations, and its experience working with regulators in the country.

For Uphold, the partnership adds another example of how its infrastructure can help fintech and crypto companies expand without starting from scratch in each new market. Robin O’Connell, CEO of Uphold Enterprise, said the arrangement addresses exactly the kind of challenge blockchain-powered finance was designed to solve: the ability to move value digitally to anyone, anywhere with an internet connection, at any time. He added that Uphold was proud to help get Busha’s UK digital asset services up and running in just a matter of months.

The timing is also important. As more crypto companies look for ways to enter new jurisdictions while staying on the right side of local compliance rules, partnerships like this are becoming a practical route to growth. Rather than spending years building out every piece of infrastructure independently, firms can work with regulated providers that already have the technical and legal foundations in place.

Busha’s UK service is available starting today, giving the company a foothold in one of the world’s most closely watched financial markets. The launch may also signal broader ambitions ahead. Busha said it is evaluating a possible business-to-business offering that would provide international payment services to other service providers on its platform, suggesting the UK expansion could eventually become part of a much larger commercial strategy.

Uphold itself has built its brand around the idea that on-chain services are the future of finance. The company offers infrastructure for on-chain payments, banking, and investments, and serves millions of customers in more than 140 countries. It connects with more than 30 trading venues, including both centralized and decentralized exchanges, in order to provide liquidity, resilience, and efficient execution.

The company also places heavy emphasis on transparency, publishing its assets and liabilities every 30 seconds on a public website. Uphold is regulated in the U.S. by FinCEN and state regulators, registered in the UK with the FCA, and in Europe with the Bank of Portugal. Its securities products and services are offered through Uphold Securities, Inc., which is registered with the SEC and is also a member of FINRA and SIPC.

For Busha, the UK launch is more than just geographic expansion. It is a sign that an Africa-born crypto platform can build credibility at home, then use that foundation to enter a mature and highly regulated market abroad. With Uphold providing the infrastructure behind the scenes, Busha is now betting that its model can travel well beyond its original base and serve a new audience of crypto users in the UK.