5 years in the past, SpaceX launched Starlink, which has since grown into its greatest income driver, increasing to over 100 international locations. However as Starlink scaled, it confronted a significant hurdle: accepting funds in creating markets, the place conventional banking infrastructure is unreliable, gradual, and liable to blocking transactions. Many native banks throughout Africa, Latin America and Asia battle with worldwide funds, forcing SpaceX to search for options.
To bypass these challenges, SpaceX turned to stablecoins, a fast-growing methodology for cross-border funds already broadly utilized in rising markets. The corporate partnered with Bridge, a stablecoin funds platform, to simply accept funds in numerous currencies and immediately convert them into stablecoins for its international treasury. This transfer positioned Bridge as a viable different to correspondent banks in markets the place conventional monetary methods fall quick. Quickly after, Stripe took discover, buying the startup for greater than $1 billion and solidifying Bridge’s popularity and driving up its valuation as an infrastructure participant, fixing inefficiencies in international finance.
The rise of stablecoins—now a $205 billion market—is pushed by real-world utility, not hypothesis, notably in rising markets the place probably the most compelling use circumstances unfold. Cross-border funds in these areas are sometimes gradual and costly, involving a number of intermediaries. For instance, a textile producer in Brazil paying a provider in Nigeria might need to undergo a number of banks and forex exchanges, every including charges and delays. Stablecoins take away this friction, enabling cheaper, near-instant transactions.
Adoption and investor curiosity surge
This rising demand has led to huge transaction quantity progress for startups offering stablecoin cross-border options for companies in Africa and rising markets.
Yellow Card, which offers a platform that lets customers convert fiat to crypto and again to fiat, doubled its annual transaction quantity to $3 billion in 2024 from $1.5 billion in 2023. Conduit, which allows stablecoin funds for import-export companies in Africa and Latin America, noticed its annualized TPV bounce to $10 billion from $5 billion. Lagos-based Juicyway, which facilitates cross-border funds utilizing stablecoins, has processed $1.3 billion in whole cost quantity to this point.
Investor curiosity has additionally surged, with high enterprise corporations backing stablecoin-powered fintechs concentrating on these markets. Peak XV and HongShan, the corporations that break up from Sequoia, co-led a $10 million seed spherical in KAST, a neobank that lets customers maintain and spend stablecoins. Sequoia itself was a main backer of Bridge. Yellow Card raised $33 million, led by Blockchain Capital. Conduit, which raised a $6 million seed spherical final 12 months, is finalizing one other spherical. In the meantime, QED Traders led a $9.9 million funding in Cedar Cash, a stealthy fintech utilizing stablecoins for cross-border transactions. Initialized led an $8.5 million spherical in Caliza, which is bringing real-time transfers to Latin-America utilizing USDC. Tether itself invested a large examine in an African stablecoin infra and liquidity supplier, TechCrunch has realized.
The development is evident: stablecoins are now not a crypto experiment—they’re changing into a core a part of monetary infrastructure in rising markets to maneuver cash globally. As adoption accelerates, the query will not be if stablecoins will rework funds however how shortly they are going to stand alongside—and even substitute—outdated monetary methods.
Some numbers replicate this shift. In accordance with a16z, sending $200 from the U.S. to Colombia by way of stablecoins prices lower than $0.01, in comparison with $12.13 utilizing conventional strategies. Cost platforms are adapting, making a lower albeit a smaller one than the standard middlemen rails. Stripe, for example, now fees 1.5% for stablecoin transactions, 30% decrease than its normal card charges. Companies and people are additionally utilizing stablecoins as a hedge towards inflation and a extra steady retailer of worth, with USDT and USDC changing into vital instruments.
Functions outdoors cross-border and remittance
Whereas cross-border funds and remittances have pushed early adoption, stablecoins at the moment are gaining traction in client finance, payroll, and, partly, retail transactions.
This January, Brazilian unicorn Nubank launched a characteristic rewarding USDC holders with a 4% annual return, following a tenfold improve in customer-held USDC final 12 months. Now, 30% of Nubank’s customers have USDC of their portfolios. Nubank joins different fintech giants like Venmo, Apple Pay, PayPal, Money App, and Revolut, which already allow in-app stablecoin transactions.
Past client financial savings, stablecoins are reshaping international payroll. As distant work expands, startups like Rise enable firms to pay contractors utilizing stablecoins. The platform lets companies pay in fiat whereas contractors obtain stablecoins like USDC or USDT, avoiding forex volatility. Final November, Rise raised $6.3 million in Collection A, fueling its enlargement in stablecoin-powered payroll options.
“The market is going where we are building and it’s only a matter of time until the big players get in the arena. They will offer stablecoins by partnering, acquiring, or building a crypto payment infrastructure,” Rise CEO Hugo Finkelstein instructed TechCrunch.
And whereas retail adoption of stablecoins has been slower, however startups like Cashnote.io are testing options. The platform, developed by Korean fintech Korea Credit score Knowledge and Web3 VC agency Hashed, allows retailers to simply accept bank card and digital asset funds by way of a point-of-sale system. Retailers can course of funds utilizing stablecoins with out the restrictions of bank card limits and shoppers can use digital belongings for on a regular basis purchases.
Each corporations are testing the platform within the Abu Dhabi International Market (ADGM), one of the vital crypto-friendly regulatory environments globally. Cashnote.io is projecting to go reside with retailers within the area over the approaching months, with UAE-based digital belongings infra supplier Fuze performing because the settlement associate. Fuze raised a $14 million seed in 2023.
But, regardless of stablecoins’ potential to streamline funds globally, issues stay. For one, critics warn that stablecoins might disrupt financial coverage. As they grow to be extra frequent in international finance, some fear they may mirror previous issues about dollarization, the place economies rely too closely on the U.S. greenback as a substitute of constructing impartial monetary methods.
Equally, their effectivity comes with trade-offs. In contrast to government-backed currencies, they rely upon non-public firms like Circle and Tether to take care of their worth. These firms use money reserves, short-term securities, and different monetary belongings to maintain stablecoins pegged to the U.S. greenback. Nonetheless, the 2022 collapse of TerraUSD exhibits how weak stablecoins might be.
Regulatory shifts might make or mar adoption
Governments and regulators worldwide are paying consideration, and their actions will affect stablecoin adoption. Some areas like Abu Dhabi’s ADGM, for instance, have positioned themselves as crypto-friendly zones, enabling fintech corporations to experiment with stablecoin funds. Hashed CEO Simon Kim says Cashnote.io might solely work within the area because of the area’s structured and supportive authorized framework.
“There’s hardly a government like Abu Dhabi that accelerates innovation from new challengers abroad like this,” Kim instructed TechCrunch. “It has many sandboxes and government support systems for testing innovative and new crypto infrastructure.”
Equally, the UAE made headlines final 12 months when a court docket ruling permitted salaries to be paid in crypto, reinforcing the nation’s place as a world hub for digital asset innovation.
Africa presents a distinct present. In lots of circumstances, innovation strikes sooner than regulation, forcing policymakers to react solely after fintech proves its worth—simply as they did with cell cash, in line with Zekarias Amsalu, co-founder of considered one of Africa’s high fintech occasions. He believes regulators, fairly than being overtly cautious, ought to embrace stablecoins as they already assist scale back cross-border switch and remittance prices by as much as 75%.
“If you are willing to formalize Franco Valuta [policy that allows the import of goods without using foreign exchange from a bank] when the dollar crunch bites, against all real risks, why not consider formalizing stablecoins that are provided by licensed exchanges with all transparency and compliance?” Amsalu posits.
Whether or not their stance adjustments or not might rely upon how regulation shapes up within the U.S., which is contemplating new legal guidelines that might have a world impression on stablecoins: A strict regulatory strategy—although unlikely—might gradual adoption and impose tighter monetary controls on issuers. However, a pro-stablecoin stance might encourage extra international locations to create clear licensing guidelines for digital belongings. “These are very strong signals for investors,” Finkelstein stated.
