How a campus experiment became a business that lets you price your own internet

The idea that became Wicrypt, a Nigerian startup that allows users to earn money by sharing their internet, began as a question on a university campus in southeastern Nigeria.

In 2015, Ugochukwu Aronu, then a student at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu, was thinking about why Internet access remained expensive and uneven, even in places where connectivity technically existed. 

Mobile data was costly. Fixed broadband barely reached beyond major cities. Yet many people who paid for the Internet did not fully use it.

Aronu started to toy with a simple analogy: if neighbours could string extension cables across compounds to share electricity, why couldn’t they just as easily share unused internet bandwidth?

That question eventually grew into Wicrypt, founded in 2019 by Aronu, now its Chief Executive Officer (CEO), and Chidozie Ogbo, its co-founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO). Aronu has gone on to build other startups, including Xend Finance, a crypto investment platform, and Asset Chain, a blockchain company that powers crypto and stablecoin transactions.

Wicrypt did not set out to become an Internet service provider. Instead, it wanted to build the tools that allow Internet users to distribute it to others within a defined area and earn money from doing so.

Becoming the operating system for Internet providers

Wicrypt is an Internet-sharing platform that combines hardware routers with apps that allow users to monitor and manage their Internet usage. It does not sell Internet data, and it does not replace telecom operators.

Instead, Wicrypt acts like an operating system layered on top of existing Internet service providers (ISPs). 

A user still buys the Internet from an ISP. Wicrypt’s router then allows that connection to be securely shared within a specific range, inside a shop, a hostel, a housing estate, or a school building.

People who connect to that router pay for access. The router owner can then earn from those payments.

“People often think we’re an ISP,” said Emmanuel Okoro, Chief Operating Officer (CTO) at Wicrypt. “We’re not. Your ISP provides the internet; we [provide the tools that let] you [control] access, pricing, users, and earnings.”

Wicrypt sells physical routers and access to its software platform, which handles authentication, usage tracking, payments, and device management.

Building hardware without owning factories

Wicrypt does not manufacture routers itself. The startup designs the software layer and the specifications for its devices, then contracts Chinese manufacturers to produce white-label routers that are branded and configured for Wicrypt’s network. 

This allows the startup to control quality and customise hardware without the capital burden of running factories.

When Wicrypt launched, its first routers were expensive. Early units sold for as much as $1,000, limiting adoption to a small group of early believers.

“We initially priced the routers high just to cover our research and development costs,” said Okoro. “After the first batch, we moved into mass production, and that allowed us to reduce the price significantly.”

Today, for example, Wicrypt’s Spider router—a long-range device designed to distribute internet across wide outdoor areas—sells for about $125 per unit, said Okoro.

Over time, Wicrypt redesigned its hardware strategy to make its devices cheaper and easier to deploy, moving from an initial, expensive batch of routers that sold for about $1,000 apiece to mass‑produced versions with lower manufacturing costs and price points.

Today, it sells smaller, cheaper routers that vary by range and capacity. Some are designed to cover short distances, suitable for cafés or retail spaces. Others can distribute connectivity across large buildings or reach distances of up to 10 kilometres for wider deployments like campuses, schools, or estates.

Okoro said the startup remained profitable on hardware, claiming that each router sale generates a margin of 15–20%, enough to sustain manufacturing and logistics. Hardware sales kept the business alive, but they did not guarantee long-term adoption.

Early support and experimentation with crypto

Wicrypt attracted attention early. In 2019, the startup won a ₦2 million (*$5,500) cash prize at a competition organised by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the country’s communications regulator, which validated its product.

Around the same time, Wicrypt adopted a crypto-based incentive model. It launched the Wicrypt Network Token (WNT) to reward people who shared the Internet through its routers. 

Users earned tokens based on usage and activity, tying physical infrastructure to digital rewards.

Wicrypt describes its business as a decentralised physical infrastructure network (DePIN), a category of startups that use blockchain technology to distribute ownership and control of physical infrastructure. Wicryp, which allows individuals to distribute internet, track usage, and earn from it, fits squarely into that model.

During the height of the crypto market run, when the WNT peaked in 2023, the startup’s approach attracted early adopters. It sold routers and attracted users, enticed by the rewards, sold their internet and earned tokens, and the network expanded. But the limits soon became visible. 

Like most Web3 businesses caught in the tokenomics loop where crypto prices swing wildly, the bust cycle disincentivised users who wanted a stable way to earn. At the time of this report, WNT trades well below $1. 

WNT has over $274,000 in market capitalisation, with 48,000 tokens in circulation, according to blockchain analytics platform CoinGecko. Yet its 24-hour trading volume is zero, signalling low usage.

Without liquidity or active trading, token rewards lost their appeal. The problem is familiar across Web3 sectors such as gaming and play-to-earn (P2E), where token incentives often fail to sustain long-term user engagement.

“People don’t want to earn something they can’t use,” Okoro said. “They want a stable income.”

Most potential customers were not interested in crypto at all. They wanted affordable internet, predictable costs, and simple tools.

The crypto model, Okoro said, was attracting the wrong audience.

The shift to subscriptions

By 2024, Wicrypt began rethinking its business approach. It pivoted from a retail model overexposed to token prices to a more sustainable, enterprise-focused business built around its router operating system and subscriptions. The tokenomics trap forced the startup to restructure its business, a process it completed in November 2025.

“We realised we couldn’t build a serious business on the mood swings of the crypto market,” said Okoro. “So we started designing a model where Wicrypt’s [product could earn revenue from users] without the token.”

The startup decided to keep the WNT token alive for users who wanted it, but move its core offering toward a subscription-based software model. 

Instead of relying on token rewards, router owners now pay recurring fees to access Wicrypt’s management platform.

Crucially, the subscription does not replace earnings; it enables them.

“The subscription is what unlocks monetisation,” said Okoro. “Under this model, users still earn money by sharing their internet and charging people who connect to their routers. The difference is that earnings now come directly from internet access payments, rather than from Wicrypt distributing tokens.”

The shift also does not remove the need for hardware. Users still need Wicrypt-compatible routers to distribute connectivity within their chosen area. 

What has changed is flexibility. Rather than buying a single expensive device upfront, users can now choose from a range of lower-cost routers based on coverage needs, then pay for software access over time.

“The hardware enables distribution, the software enables earning,” said Okoro. He explained that both parts of the system are designed to work together.

The subscription packages vary based on use case, from basic setups for small spaces to more advanced plans for campuses and estates, offering features such as user management, pricing controls, and analytics.

Traction and the size of the opportunity

Wicrypt has deployed over 2,000 hardware routers across Africa and in other international markets, such as China, serving individuals, small businesses, campuses, and estates, according to Okoro. The startup also counts mid-tier schools as its customers. Okoro declined to share revenue specifics but said adoption has grown steadily as hardware prices fell and subscriptions simplified onboarding.

The market opportunity for a business like Wicrypt is substantial. Africa’s router and switch infrastructure market was valued at $9.7 billion in 2025, according to research firm Cognitive, and is growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.92%. The market is projected to reach $16.5 billion by 2033.

Africa accounts for about 25.4% of the global router market. Nigeria controls 8.86% of Africa’s share, according to Cognitive, putting the country’s router market at about $856.5 million.

Wicrypt competes indirectly with global router manufacturers, such as US-based TP-Link, and other networking hardware providers active in Nigeria, as these players do not offer token mining rewards. Globally, it competes directly with decentralised wireless networks like Helium, Roam, and Wayru that also incentivise users with crypto rewards for providing connectivity. 

Locally, Wicrypt is a category leader because, while some traditional ISPs, such as Tizeti and Spectranet, offer routers and internet switches, and modem bundling. Wicrypt’s business rests on token mining. Across Africa, its closest competitor is London-based World Mobile, which runs similar community-powered connectivity operations on the continent.

Yet, unlike most of its competitors, Wicrypt combines hardware with monetisation software, targeting users who want not just connectivity, but income.

The road ahead for Wicrypt

Wicrypt’s evolution reflects a broader shift across crypto-adjacent startups: businesses reliant on tokenomics to lure in users on the promise of earning money are losing ground to the volatility of tokens. 

Some of them, including P2E gaming startups, such as Hyper Games, are ditching tokens for real-world application, extending reward access to non-knowledgeable crypto users who want real value, and not be forced to earn crypto.

Wicrypt still believes in decentralised infrastructure. It has simply learned that adoption depends on clarity.

For Wicrypt, the future is less about tokens and more about making internet-sharing predictable and profitable. The startup is targeting expansion into other African markets where shared housing, campuses, and public spaces face similar challenges around managed internet access.

If its model scales, Wicrypt could redefine how connectivity is distributed in places where access exists, but affordability does not.

And it would all trace back to a question Aronu first asked on a university campus in Nsukka, as a teenager.

*Exchange rate as of 2019.