Mambo! 👋 Flutterwave just announced its fifth stablecoin partnership this year. Still no standalone stablecoin product. The pattern we called two months ago is not slowing down.
The story
Flutterwave partnered with Tempo to bring stablecoin payments to Send App and Flutterwave for Business.
This is Flutterwave’s fifth stablecoin partnership this year: Polygon, Caliza, Nuvion, Nilos, and now Tempo.
Another sign of what we have been saying: Flutterwave is not building a new stablecoin company. It is adding stablecoins to products people already use.
Deals
Stablecoin startups received 70% of all African startup funding in May.
It is not only companies moving toward stablecoins. Investors are also making the same bet.
Launches
Esca Finance partnered with MANSA, a Tether-backed stablecoin settlement provider, to enable same-day settlements across Nigeria, Ghana, and Francophone Africa.
MANSA provides the liquidity layer while Esca handles local payouts, reducing the need for companies to keep capital parked across multiple markets.
It sounds like stablecoins removing prefunding. But someone still provides liquidity. The capital requirement did not disappear, it just moved.
We said it two weeks ago: you will still need to prefund. The question is who does it and where.
Regulation
Another pattern we continue to see: stablecoin companies are collecting traditional fintech licenses.
The licenses may not be built specifically for stablecoins, but they give companies the credibility needed to work with banks, fintechs, and regulators in emerging markets.
Madini
Binance hired Sammy M as Head of Africa.
Before joining Binance, he led Visa across Sub-Saharan Africa, served as Group Chief Digital & Data Officer at Letshego, and was Executive Head of Business Payments at M-Pesa.
The move comes at a time when crypto and stablecoin companies in Africa are moving closer to traditional finance. The next phase is not only building crypto products, but bringing them into platforms people already use.
From inside
Grey processed $61.4 million in stablecoin payments within four months of launch.
But the interesting part is Grey did not start as a crypto company. It was already a remittance platform with millions of users before stablecoins came in.
On the record
MoneyGram launched MGUSD, its own U.S dollar stablecoin.
The interesting part: MoneyGram did not build a stablecoin for crypto traders. It built one for the same thing it has done for decades, helping people move money across borders.
Another example of the shift we keep tracking.
Stablecoins are moving from crypto products to becoming infrastructure inside companies people already use.
Written from inside Africa with love 🇹🇿💚
Was this useful? Let me know on X or LinkedIn