KEY FACTS: Visa has partnered with Yellow Card Financial, a leading African stablecoin payments provider, to advance digital dollar-backed stablecoin transactions across Africa, with an initial rollout planned in at least one country by the end of 2025 and further expansion in 2026. This collaboration aims to streamline cross-border payments, leveraging Yellow Card’s $6 billion transaction history and Visa’s global payment infrastructure to enhance speed, affordability, and accessibility in regions with high demand for digital currencies.

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Source: Yellowcard App/ X

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Visa and Yellow Card Partner to Revolutionize Stablecoin Payments Across Africa

Global payments giant Visa has announced a strategic partnership with Yellow Card Financial, a leading African stablecoin payments provider, to accelerate the adoption of digital dollar-backed stablecoins across the continent. This collaboration, unveiled on June 19, 2025, signals a transformative step in bridging traditional financial systems with blockchain-based innovations, aiming to enhance the efficiency, affordability, and accessibility of cross-border payments in emerging markets.

Yellow Card🤝Visa
Yellow Card is teaming up with Visa to enhance stablecoin settlement infrastructure in emerging markets. Together, we’ll make cross-border payments quicker and more efficient through the power of blockchain innovation.
Source

The agreement between Visa and Yellow Card, a pan-African fintech operating in over 20 African countries, focuses on promoting stablecoin use for cross-border payments in regions where Yellow Card is licensed to operate. According to the report, Yellow Card will launch stablecoin transactions with Visa in at least one African country by the end of 2025, with plans for further rollouts across additional markets in 2026. This initiative builds on Visa’s broader strategy to expand its stablecoin settlement capabilities across the Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa (CEMEA) region, where demand for digital currencies is surging.

Yellow Card, founded in 2016 by CEO Chris Maurice and CTO Justin Poiroux, has emerged as a trailblazer in Africa’s cryptocurrency ecosystem. The company has processed over $6 billion in transactions and is recognized as the continent’s first licensed stablecoin payments orchestrator. The partnership between Yellowcard and Visa’s payment infrastructure aims to streamline treasury operations, enhance liquidity management, and facilitate faster, more cost-effective cross-border money transfers.

The partnership comes at a time when stablecoins—digital currencies pegged to stable assets like the U.S. dollar—are experiencing explosive growth in Sub-Saharan Africa. According to a Chainalysis report analyzing crypto usage between July 2023 and June 2024, stablecoins now account for approximately 43% of the region’s total cryptocurrency transaction volume, surpassing volatile cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. This surge is driven by economic challenges unique to the continent, including volatile local currencies, high inflation, and limited access to traditional banking services.

In countries like Nigeria and Ethiopia, two of Africa’s largest economies, retail crypto adoption has seen significant growth. Nigeria alone recorded over $30 billion in stablecoin transactions between June 2022 and July 2023, ranking first globally in stablecoin adoption and second in overall digital asset usage with 25.9 million users. The country’s 11.9% penetration rate highlights the critical role stablecoins play in addressing economic instability and facilitating cross-border trade. Similarly, Kenya’s progressive regulatory framework, exemplified by its draft Virtual Asset Service Providers Bill, positions it as a potential hub for digital asset activities in the region.

Stablecoins offer several advantages over traditional financial systems, particularly in Africa’s underserved markets. They enable faster, safer, and lower-cost transfers, overcoming the barriers of high fees and slow settlement times associated with international remittances. By using blockchain technology, stablecoin transactions are processed almost in real-time and benefit from high levels of cryptographic security. Additionally, they provide African consumers and businesses with access to global markets without relying solely on local currencies, fostering greater financial inclusion and economic stability.

Visa’s collaboration with Yellow Card is part of a push to integrate blockchain technology into its core services. Since 2023, Visa has been a pioneer among major payment networks, settling over $225 million in stablecoin volume using Circle’s USDC through participating clients. The company’s stablecoin infrastructure, initially piloted with Crypto.com and later expanded to acquirers like Nuvei and Worldpay, allows issuers and merchants to settle transactions directly in USDC, bypassing traditional banking delays. By extending this framework to the CEMEA region, Visa aims to create a unified digital asset network that supports 24/7/365 settlement and reduces transaction costs.

Godfrey Sullivan, Visa’s Senior Vice President and Head of Product and Solutions for CEMEA, emphasized the transformative potential of stablecoins. “In 2025, we believe that every institution that moves money will need a stablecoin strategy,” Sullivan stated. The partnership with Yellowcard will explore advanced use cases, such as B2B payments, liquidity pooling, and direct merchant settlements, designed to replace outdated cross-border systems and provide transparent value flows.

Visa’s recent investment in BVNK, a South Africa-based stablecoin payments firm, further underscores its commitment to building a robust digital finance ecosystem in Africa. This move complements the Yellow Card partnership, positioning Visa as a key player in the continent’s rapidly evolving cryptocurrency sector.

Presently, there is an increasing regulatory clarity for stablecoins in key African markets. Countries like Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa are developing legal frameworks to govern digital assets, providing traditional financial institutions with the confidence to invest in blockchain-based solutions. For instance, Kenya’s draft Virtual Asset Service Providers Bill has been hailed as the most progressive in Africa, potentially paving the way for the country to become a regional hub for digital finance innovation. This makes the timing of the Visa-Yellow Card partnership very significant.

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Information Sources:

• Electronic Payments International
• Yellowcard App/ X
• Cointelegraph
• Bitcoin Ethereum News

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