One of Africa’s premiere exchangeYellow card, has collaborated with Visa (Nasdaq: v) to extend Stablecoin payments throughout the region.
The partnership will center around cross -border transfers, which continue to be slow, ineffective and expensive. According to World BankAfricans pay 8.5% in costs, with the global average of 6.6%.
“When you look at Stablecoins, there is a lot of excitement on the market and all major payment companies investigate ways to enter space,” Yellow Card CEO Chris Maurice told Bloomberg.
Yellow Card has moved its business model to focus on Stablecoins for several years. In January 2024 the exchange told Coeingeek that its African users now turned to Stablecoins to make payments abroad and receive Transfers.
During the new partnership, the exchange plans to launch its new Stablecoin Service in at least one African country this year, said Maurice. It intends to expand their services to more than 20 countries where they operate next year.
While the company did not reveal which country it would launch first, Kenya is the most likely. According to the elderly legal lawyer of the exchange, Edline Murungi, the East African Nation New legislative efforts Has done this among the most appealing on the continent. The proposed Virtual Asset Service Supplier’s Bill makes a distinction between speculative “crypto” tokens and stable assets that spend separate policies for each category. If possible, the bill will be the most progressive in Africa, Murungi told Bloomberg in a separate interview.
“These use cases will really change the industry. And if other countries follow suit, Kenya will become a hub for many activities for digital access,” she said.
In addition to the upcoming friendly laws, Stablecoin adoption In Kenya are also the highest in Africa. A report from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in January revealed that a large number of Kenyan companies Now pay their foreign suppliers in Stablecoins due to a lack of dollars and high costs on mainstream channels.
While most African countries still lack extensive “Crypto” regulationsCEO Maurice believes that the region is still the best place to launch digital asset products because of its fintech-friendly frameworks.
“There is no better place to be (launch) a company in Stablecoins than the African continent where you have more supervisory authorities that have licenses available, there is more commitment to supervisory authorities … (Africa) had more friendly trends for the past two and a half years than you did on any other continent,” Maurice abandoned While he spoke at a recent New York event.
For Visa, the yellow card partnership is the latest in its quest to position itself as a Stablecoin foundation. It first fixed A Stablecoin transaction on its rails in 2023, and since then it claims to have settled $ 225 million in similar transactions, a small fraction of the $ 28 trillion flowing through Stablecoins last year.
Stablecoin initiatives are shown as much about innovation as about protecting its position. Industry experts have expressed concern that Stablecoins could eat on the market such as the company and Mastercard (Nasdaq: MA) have had for decades.
Africa’s digital wallets record 13% Cagr, hit $ 59B in 2029
Away from Stablecoins a new report revealed that Africa’s prepaid cards and Digital wallet The market will continue to grow aggressively over the next four years to meet $ 59 billion in 2029.
The Report revealed that the sector has registered an 18.8% composed annual growth rate (CAGR) over the past four years and is expected to end this year at $ 36.1 billion.
Digital wallets And prepaid cards have been favored by an increase in the adoption of digital solutions and coordinated efforts to promote financial inclusion. This has quickly lowered the number of unbank and under -banked people, with some countries such as Kenya and Egypt that achieve an economic inclusion that exceeds 75%.
African countries continue to lead in banking banks. To take advantage of this, digital wallet suppliers have integrated their solutions into mobile money platforms, which further drives the assumption.
“As the market develops, companies that adapt to legislative requirements will invest in security improvements and offer innovative solutions best positioned for long -term success,” the report noted.
Watch: Increase financial inclusion in Africa with BSV -Blockchain
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