Visa and Yellow Card Partner to Revolutionize Cross-Border Payments with Stablecoins

This move is set to make money transfers faster, cheaper, and more accessible, and is a significant step forward in Visa's broader strategy to modernize payment systems across the region.

The partnership between Visa and Yellow Card will allow businesses to hold dollars in stablecoins and send money easily across borders, using Visa Direct, a service that enables businesses to send money directly to customers' bank accounts or to the accounts linked to their debit or credit cards. This integration will be tested in countries where Yellow Card operates, and is expected to have a significant impact on the way businesses operate in these regions.

The benefits of this partnership will be particularly significant for businesses in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA), where stablecoin adoption has shown strong potential. Between June 2022 and July 2024, the SSA region received at least $500 billion in stablecoin remittances each month, demonstrating the growing demand for stablecoin-based payments. In Ethiopia, businesses have adopted stablecoins for cross-border payments, leading to a 180% year-over-year increase in low-value transfers. In Nigeria, stablecoins like USDT are now among the most traded currencies on crypto exchanges, often used to hedge against currency instability.

Visa's interest in stablecoins started in 2021, when it launched a pilot with Singapore-based crypto firm, Crypto.com, to settle transactions using USDC. This marked one of the first times a major payments network used a stablecoin for settlement. Since then, Visa has expanded to support other blockchains like Solana and opened up these services to more financial institutions. By 2023, Visa allowed clients to settle obligations in USDC and has since processed over $225 million in stablecoin transactions.

Globally, interest in stablecoins continues to grow, with the digital asset experiencing an adoption boom. In the past month alone, stablecoin transactions hit $4.1 trillion, eclipsing even what Visa processes quarterly. Other companies, such as Shopify, Stripe, and Walmart, are also exploring the use of stablecoins, demonstrating the growing recognition of the potential of this technology.

The partnership between Visa and Yellow Card is a significant step forward in the development of stablecoin-based payments, and is expected to have a major impact on the way businesses operate in the CEMEA region. With the growing interest in stablecoins, it is clear that this technology is here to stay, and that companies like Visa are well-placed to support its adoption. As Godfrey Sullivan, Visa's senior vice president and head of product for CEMEA, noted, "In 2025, we believe that every institution that moves money will need a stablecoin strategy."

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