Rurbit users in Burundi can now cash out bitcoin through IBBM+, Interbank Burundi's mobile banking service. Rurbit announced the new off‑ramp on X on 11 October.

How It Works

Users send bitcoin over Lightning from Rurbit to an IBBM+ account, then withdraw cash from an IBBM+ agent. Everything runs on USSD: dial *220*04# on any phone, no internet connection needed.

Interbank Burundi's page for IBBM+ lists money transfers and payments for goods and services, and says accounts can be opened at a branch or with an IBBM+ agent.

What Changes

When Blink profiled Rurbit in May, users who wanted to turn their bitcoin into cash had to find a local Bitcoin holder to make the swap. Now they can go through a bank account and an agent instead.

Rurbit pitched the change at merchants: a shop that takes bitcoin still needs Burundian francs to buy stock.

Rurbit So Far

Wilfrid Cubahiro, a computer science student in Burundi, built Rurbit on his own using the Blink API. Each user gets a Lightning address short enough to type on a feature‑phone keypad, and the menu includes a Bitcoin AI educator in Kirundi.

Rurbit uses USSD because most Burundians are offline. DataReportal put internet use at 11.1 percent of the population at the end of 2025, and 84.4 percent of people live in rural areas.

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