CBAF

Circular Bitcoin Africa Fund

When the idea of a circular Bitcoin economy took root in El Salvador through Bitcoin Beach, few could have predicted just how far the ripple effect would travel.

In the early 2020’s, that ripple reached Africa. What started as a seed of collaboration linking grassroots projects has since blossomed into an Africa-wide network of over 33 active circular economies, all collaborating on an informal basis under umbrella of the Circular Bitcoin Africa Fund (CBAF).

For more information on the global equivalent of this, check out the Federation of Bitcoin Circular Economies (fbce.io)

This is our story so far.

Where We Began

The CBAF was born out of conversations between Herman of Bitcoin Ekasi (South Africa), Mike of Bitcoin Beach (El Salvador) and Scott of Federation of BCEs. The realisation was the traction of different circular economies across Africa that could be brought together for mutual growth: if we joined forces, shared knowledge, and pooled sats, we could accelerate adoption across the entire continent.

The first grants were modest but meaningful. At the first Adopting Bitcoin Capetown 2024, through the support of Bitcoin Beach, we distributed 15 million sats each to Bitcoin Witsand (South Africa), Bitcoin Victoria Falls (Zambia), Bitcoin Dua (Ghana), and Bitcoin Kampala (Uganda). These sats were not just numbers on a balance sheet. They were fuel to strengthen our communities: sats in the hands of merchants, sats paying for food, sats showing families that Bitcoin could work for them.

Milestones That Defined Our Growth
By early 2025, we had something to show for it. At the second Adopting Bitcoin Conference in Cape Town, we proudly shared our early results. That was the Fund’s first public milestone, and it proved that Africa was fertile ground for Bitcoin adoption.
From there, momentum built fast. What started with five pilot projects has now grown into a network of 33 initiatives across the continent. New members include BitBashara, Bitcoin Aves, Maputo Skate & Education, BitJR Academy, and many more. Each project brings its own culture, creativity, and urgency to the mission of building circular economies with Bitcoin.
Knowledge Sharing as Our Cornerstone
One of our greatest achievements is not just in sats distributed but in how we’ve built a network of African Bitcoin leaders who learn from each other.

We host group calls where we discuss tactics:
How to redistribute sats to keep them circulating.
How to train merchants before handing them QR codes.
How to build trust with communities that have lived their whole lives without stable money.
How to keep the community funds secure.

As Ronnie of Afribit Kibera puts it:
“We have women now who are saving in Bitcoin. They didn’t even know how to save before.”
This is the heart of CBAF not just handing out sats, but helping communities gain the tools to make Bitcoin their own.
Proof of Work: Our Funding Model
We fund projects based on proof, not promises. That proof comes in the form of videos of real Bitcoin transactions, captured by community members themselves.

In May 2025, we launched our first funding round for 23 projects. We received 81 Proof of Work videos, each showing sats changing hands at local shops, kiosks, and food stalls.
By August 2025, that number skyrocketed to 298 videos, representing sats being spent and re-spent across Africa. That round unlocked 23 million sats (about $28,000) for our communities.

The rules are clear: videos must show confirmation screens from both sender and receiver. We encourage repetitive merchant expenditure meaning the same faces and same shops appear often because circularity thrives when Bitcoin becomes routine.

And the model works. As one community member in Kibera put it:
“I prefer Bitcoin to M-PESA because M-PESA transaction costs are higher and the network can be slower.”  Damiano Magak, garbage collector and food seller
Proof of Work is not just accountability. It’s education, repetition, and habit-building all rolled into one.
Infrastructure That Sticks
Funding sats is just the beginning. To make adoption real, we’ve invested in infrastructure:

Every project now has a BTC Map, Bitcoin Confederation profile, seeded with 1 million sats to activate their donation QR codes. These profiles include static Lightning, on-chain, and Liquid addresses, making it easy for donors worldwide to send support.

Through a partnership with Bitcoinize, we distributed 15+ NFC-enabled PoS machines to circular economies across Africa. These devices work with Lightning, on-chain, and NFC tap-to-pay wallets, giving merchants robust, low-cost options to accept Bitcoin.

We’ve also rolled out and distributed Bolt Cards to 6+ projects , enabling tap-to-pay transactions for those without smartphones—a game changer for schools, children, and group disbursements.
Media Recognition and Global Reach
Our work has attracted both local and international attention. One standout moment is Bitcoin Ekasi’s documentary, Lekker Feeling: A Bitcoin Ekasi Story, directed by Aubrey Strobel and produced by Aubservation Films. The film—now widely shared—traces how Bitcoin and surfing in Mossel Bay (through Bitcoin Ekasi and The Surfer Kids) are giving a new generation pathways to financial literacy, empowerment, and freedom. 

Additionally, Afribit Kibera was featured on BBC News, bringing international visibility to Bitcoin adoption in Nairobi’s largest informal settlement.
We have not stopped at being covered but are also creating media about these projects to showcase their #SPEDN efforts. This post was seen by 13,000 + people.
Scaling in Real Time: The Blink Experiment
In mid-2025, we pushed the limits of scale with a Blink Wallet Batch Payment challenge. Within 40 minutes, we sent sats to 771 individuals across 10 countries—each receiving 2,100 sats. That’s 771 transactions completed nearly instantly and with close to no fee cost, showcasing the power of Bitcoin to move value across borders at lightning speed.
This was not a theory. It was proof that Bitcoin can operate at community scale today.
Our Philosophy of Circularity
As Bitcoin Ekasi has emphasised:
“When sats are spent, they're not being sold. They're not going to Blackrock or Saylor. It's not being converted to fiat.
Instead, it stays right here, in this community. Contributing to the future generational wealth of friends, neighbors, aunts, uncles, parents and children. Because the shop owner is the friend, neighbour, aunt, uncles, etc."
Circularity means building trust, embedding education, and making sure sats don’t just enter a community but stay and multiply within it. It’s a philosophy that guides everything we do.

Looking Ahead
The Circular Bitcoin Africa Fund has grown from a seed of five projects into a tree with over 33 branches and counting. Each project is unique, rooted in its local soil, but we are connected by one vision: to make Bitcoin relevant, useful, and life-changing for everyday Africans.
We are building a continental movement, not with flashy headlines, but with the quiet consistency of sats being spent at fruit stands, kiosks, schools, and barbershops. This is how real adoption happens.

Our journey has just begun.