Pan-African fintech and stablecoin platform Yellow Card integrates Fireblocks wallet to improve cross-border transactions for both businesses and individuals in Africa.
Digital asset provider Fireblocks has launched support for Yellow Card, Africa’s leading stablecoin on/off ramp. This will help the crypto company to improve cross-border transactions for individual and institutional clients.
Seeking to remove obstacles for global corporate treasury in accessing African markets, Yellow Card will leverage Fireblocks’ Wallets-as-a-Service (WaaS) offering. It enables the stablecoin provider to create, manage, and secure up to 14 million multi-party computation (MPC) wallets. The solution is distinguished by its scalability and enhanced security features.
The partnership is an illustration of joint efforts to tackle persisting issues in the cross-border payment infrastructure of the continent.
“Much like the rest of the world, Africa has seen a transformative shift from traditional payment methods to alternative payments driven by new technologies, with $100 billion worth of remittances flowing into the continent. However, cross-border payments are still encumbered by high costs, with low-value cross-border payments incurring steep fees.”
Ran Goldi, SVP Payments and Network at Fireblocks
Some of the complex challenges faced by multinational corporate treasuries are regulatory compliance, currency volatility, and inefficient legacy banking systems.
“We’re excited to work with Fireblocks to enable real-world use cases for stablecoins, solving the complex challenges of international and pan-African transactions. Together, we’re looking to enhance how businesses around the world manage their treasury, make payments, and drive innovation across Africa.”
Chris Maurice, Co-founder and CEO of Yellow Card
Stablecoins and other cryptocurrencies have been growing in popularity in Africa and MENA countries on the background of high inflation levels. Although the continent citizens traditionally prefer Bitcoin, lately, several market participants have turned away from BTC towards stablecoins, due to their low price volatility.
In early 2024, South Africa’s Intergovernmental Fintech Working Group announced it would conduct analytical research on the use cases of stablecoins and consider appropriate policy measures and regulations of the digital currency during the year.
Yellow Card was the first fintech in Africa to launch PayPalUSD payments, paving new ways for digital financial transactions between Africa and the United States.
Cross-border payments are of great importance to Africa. The formal African remittance market was valued at $100 billion in 2022, growing at a CAGR of over 12%. Due to its massive diaspora population, Nigeria regularly receives the greatest remittance inflows, followed by Ghana, Kenya, and Senegal.
It is not a coincidence that Nigeria is also one of the world’s most crypto-keen countries in the world. With the inefficiency of legacy banking systems, poor network quality, and high annual inflation rates unseen in almost three decades, the country’s citizens and expats tend to choose alternative financial tools to store the value of their remittances.
