Why Everyone in Africa Is Suddenly Obsessed With Digital Dollars—And What Visa Didn’t Tell You

by

Under a sky swollen with promises and paradoxes, Visa—the grand old emperor of plastic—and Yellow Card Financial, that nimble upstart purveyor of stablecoin, have fastened a partnership whose ambitions shimmer like mirages across the Saharan steppe. Their new pact seeks not just to speed the dollar’s digital twin to every corner, but to fuse the nostalgia of old money with the shimmering uncertainty of tomorrow’s coins. How poetic: once, we chased lions, now we chase liquidity.

Bloomberg, chronicler of breezes and bottom lines, reveals that the two will set the wheels of this scheme turning in at least one African land by year’s end, with further escapades scheduled for 2026. Will the future arrive wearing a suit, or a hoodie? No one knows. 😏 Either way—money will move, and so will the fees, inevitably.

Chris Maurice, Yellow Card’s co-founder and CEO, has all the airs of a man herding clouds. He proclaims this union will “enhance treasury,” conjure “better liquidity,” and make money transfers so “cost-effective,” you’ll almost believe your fees have disappeared. Almost.

According to Chainalysis, that modern oracle, Sub-Saharan Africa’s dalliance with cryptocurrency is no whirlwind romance—it’s a slow dance. Yet stablecoins, those dollar ghosts, steal the show, forced into the limelight by currency shortages and ever-creative Forex crises. Somewhere, a bureaucrat is crying into a spreadsheet. 💸

Yellow Card, ever the pioneer, boasts of licenses and expansive ambition: from Nigeria’s swirling streets in 2019 to twenty countries today, $6 billion in digital currency bridged—a feat only possible in the era of borderless bits. If this is what “decentralization” looks like, perhaps someone missed the fine print.

“All the major payment companies are exploring ways to get into this space,” Maurice notes, with the persuasive optimism of a man trying to sell heaters in the Sahara.

Stablecoin adoption in Africa is on the rise

Like a chorus at sunset, the numbers grow. USDt and USDC—dollar-pegged stablecoins—become household names across Lagos and Addis Ababa, their traction outpacing traffic jams. Chainalysis turns up with its pocket calculator and announces: 43% of all crypto volume here is stablecoins. Remarkable—at this rate, even chatty aunties at weddings will soon demand payment in digital dollars. 🥳

Circle, not to be outdone, spies opportunity in Africa’s bustle. In April, they clasped hands with Onafriq, plotting pilot settlements across 40 countries—a modest plan, really, as long as no one consults the local power grid.

Read More

2025-06-19 20:25