Mambo 👋
A regulated Kenyan bank plugged directly into stablecoin infrastructure this week. When banks stop watching from the sidelines and start building on the rails, the story changes.
The Story
Anzen and Credit Bank partnered to stabilize Kenya’s $5 billion remittance market.
Credit Bank customers will be able to convert Kenyan shillings into stablecoins and back using their existing bank accounts. Credit Bank holds the local and dollar liquidity while Anzen handles the stablecoin settlement layer. The goal is faster, cheaper cross-border payments without depending on correspondent banks.
Deals
No new stablecoin deals this week. The most funded native stablecoin fintech in Africa remains Yellow Card, $88 million raised across all rounds, including a $33 million round in 2024, now serving over 33,000 businesses.
Launches
LipaWorld partnered with Crossmint to let users fund their wallets using cards, Apple Pay, and Google Pay .
Regulation
African countries are tightening rules around AI and data at the same time stablecoins are growing fast across the continent.
Both technologies are operating freely in spaces where no policy exists yet, forcing African governments to open boundaries they never wanted open, before they are ready.
Madini
Most African crypto startups are done with retail trading.
Yellow Card shut down a consumer app with over one million users to go all in on B2B stablecoins. Roqqu, Dantown, Luno, and Blockchain.com are all moving the same direction.
Retail crypto margins are thin and slow. Use cases are limited. And when regulators come after crypto, they are mostly targeting meme coins and Bitcoin trading, not stablecoin payments.
From Inside
Everyone talks about Africa’s cross-border payments opportunity as if it is always Africa sending money out to the world. But the intra-African corridor is just as real. Cameroon to Nigeria alone moves $1.4 billion annually. South Africa to Zimbabwe moves $1 billion.
I met an African founder whose stablecoin platform moves $100 million per month across borders. When I asked him where his API pays out, almost 10 of his 13 active markets were intra-African.
The opportunity is not just Africa to the world. It is Africa to Africa. And stablecoins are already moving it.
On the record
Bitcoin is down 95% in trading volume across Africa over five years. Stablecoins now run 75% of exchange activity in South Africa. In Nigeria and Egypt people are using them as a third exchange rate, the rate that tells the truth about what their currency is worth on the street.
Written from inside Africa with love 🇹🇿💚