Africa Bitcoin Conference 2026 (Blantyre, Malawi)

The Africa Bitcoin Conference 2026, the fifth edition of the continent’s main Bitcoin-only gathering, takes place from 2 to 4 December 2026 at the Amaryllis Hotel in Blantyre, Malawi. It is the first time the conference comes to Malawi, after two editions in Ghana, one in Kenya and one in Mauritius. The organiser, Africa Bitcoin Conference (ABC), sells three passes from $50 to $600, and buyers can pay in bitcoin or in dollars.

The paid programme runs from 09:00 on Wednesday 2 December to 17:00 on Friday 4 December, local time (CAT, UTC+2), according to the organiser’s Eventbrite listing. The pass pictures on the tickets page also say 2 to 4 December. The official homepage, however, still shows 2 to 5 December, the dates announced in April. ABC has not said what happens on 5 December, so any content on that day is unconfirmed. A fourth day of side events is possible but has not been announced.

Africa Bitcoin Conference 2026: programme and speakers

No day-by-day agenda is online yet. The homepage invites organisations to host panels, workshops or side events within the programme. That call is probably closed: a Stacker News post on 3 July 2026 gave applicants one week left. Sponsors can still write to the organiser by email.

As of 16 October, the homepage lists 17 speakers. Most of them build products rather than give keynotes. Chanda Chewe runs Bit2Kwacha, a Zambian Android app that lets users buy bitcoin with mobile money or a card, sell it for local currency and top up airtime. Theophilus Isah (Mavapay), Bright Kportiklah (BitSpenda), Daniel Mensah Dzansi (zazapay) and Sabina Waithira Gitau (Tando) also work on payments. Megasley represents Africa Free Routing, a Lightning routing project, and Tuedon Tuoyo comes from the Bitcoin Dev Project, which trains developers.

The list also includes Freddie New (BHodl), Ghaffar Hussain (Groundswell Project), Joseph Adereti (Three Ace Technology Services), Nikolai Tjongarero, known as OKIN, Barakana Guy-Eudes (Free Tech Institute and BitLibera, Burundi), Advaxe Ndayisenga (My Satoshis), Raphael Osaze Eyerin (Clooza), EM (African Bitcoiners), the product designer Elizabeth Musanga and Innocencia Ndembera of Women in Tech Malawi. There is no global headliner on the 2026 list so far. Names such as Jack Dorsey and Alex Gladstein appear on the site only as past participants.

Tickets: three passes from $50

Prices on the tickets page are in US dollars only, as of 16 October 2026:

• ABC Pass, $50: all sessions, workshops, start-up meetups, coffee and snacks.
• Satoshi Pass, $350: the ABC Pass plus networking lunches on the first two days, a private dinner on Day 2 and a VIP bag.
• Nakamoto VIP Pass, $600: the Satoshi Pass plus a Day 1 reception, the VIP lounge, an invite-only goodbye dinner and a larger gift bag.

The “Pay with bitcoin” button leads to a form run by Yenda, an African payment service. Card payments in dollars go through Eventbrite, where sales opened on 16 May 2026. No early-bird tier and no sales deadline are shown.

Four editions: from 400 to 800 attendees

ABC started in Accra in December 2022. Its “Genesis Edition” drew about 400 participants, according to the organiser’s 2024 report, and included a fireside chat with Jack Dorsey. Accra hosted again in 2023. Nairobi took the third edition in 2024 and Port Louis, Mauritius, the fourth in 2025.

Some online guides say past editions took place in “Ghana and South Africa”. That is wrong: ABC has never been held in South Africa. Before Malawi, the hosts were Ghana, Kenya and Mauritius.

The 2024 report also gives the organiser’s own figures: Bitcoin projects in Africa grew from a few dozen in 2022 to over 120 in 2024, more than 50 projects were funded through contacts made at ABC, and hackathons paid out over $50,000 in prizes. ABC says 40% of its speakers and attendees are women. These numbers come from ABC and have not been checked independently.

The conference was co-founded by Farida Nabourema, a Togolese human rights activist, according to Techpoint Africa in 2023. The current About page lists a team led by Dr. Nabila Fash as executive director, with Prince Akpah in charge of programming. ABC also runs the Afro Bitcoin Fellowship, a 12-month mentorship for young developers, and Africa Bitcoin Day. The manifesto on its About page says the group is united by the belief that “Bitcoin makes the world freer”.

Venue and getting to Blantyre

Eventbrite places the Amaryllis Hotel on Laws Road, Blantyre. One third-party listing still names the Malawi Sun Hotel, but both official sources say Amaryllis. The venue is a hotel, though ABC has not announced a room block or a discount code.

Blantyre is Malawi’s commercial capital. Its airport is Chileka International (BLZ). Flight aggregators list Ethiopian Airlines via Addis Ababa and Airlink via Johannesburg as the main links, but no airline has confirmed a schedule for the conference. The other international airport, in Lilongwe, is about 300 km away. In December, Blantyre is one hour ahead of Paris and Rome.

Visa rules for European travellers are not clear from public sources, and reports on recent changes conflict. Check the current requirements with the Malawian embassy or Malawi’s official immigration portal before you book.

Why a Bitcoin conference in Malawi

ABC has not given an official reason for choosing Blantyre. Its posts on X present the city as a new host with a growing tech community. Since 2024 the conference has moved to a new country every year, though ABC has never called that a rule.

The local backdrop is the kwacha. On 9 November 2023 Malawi devalued its currency by 44%, from about 1,180 to 1,700 per dollar, the fifth devaluation that year, Bloomberg reported. Inflation rose to 33.1% that month. The official rate has held roughly steady since then, AllAfrica reported in November 2025, but the premium on the informal market peaked at about 150% in March 2025, according to IMF figures cited in the same report. A co-founder of the local group Bitcoin Boma gave a talk at Adopting Bitcoin Cape Town in January 2025 titled “Only Sound Money Can Save Us Now: The Case of Malawi”.

Bitcoin Boma hosted Africa Bitcoin Day in Lilongwe on 30 May 2026, a three-hour afternoon event billed as a partnership with ABC. Women in Tech Malawi has a speaker on this year’s list. On the legal side, the Reserve Bank of Malawi has said in the past that crypto assets are not legal tender, that it does not supervise them and that no exchange is licensed in the country. No newer statement was found.

Across the region, Sub-Saharan Africa received over $205 billion on-chain between July 2024 and June 2025, up about 52% on the year before, according to Chainalysis. Bitcoin is the main asset people buy with local currency on exchanges in Nigeria and South Africa, and traders use stablecoins heavily for cross-border payments. Malawi does not appear in that report. If you are new to these assets, our guides to what Bitcoin is and to how stablecoins work explain the basics.

What it means for readers in Europe and Africa

For African readers, this is a regional event at a regional price. A $50 pass costs a fraction of most global Bitcoin conferences, and the speakers come from Zambia, Ghana, Nigeria, Burundi, Kenya, Namibia and Malawi. Francophone readers will find links too: the co-founder is Togolese and BitLibera works from Burundi.

For European readers, the trip is long, and the focus is different from the big EU events. The talk is about mobile money on-ramps, Lightning payments and self-custody in a country where MiCA does not apply and no exchange holds a licence. Those who prefer to stay closer to home can look at Plan ₿ Forum in Lugano, another Bitcoin-only conference.

What is still unknown

ABC has not said what is planned for 5 December, nor published the agenda, the workshop list or the sponsors. No hackathon or livestream has been announced for 2026, although past editions had both. There is no attendance figure for Mauritius 2025 and no forecast for Blantyre. The next step to watch is the agenda on afrobitcoin.org, which should also settle the 4 or 5 December question.