Mambo 👋! Tether is not waiting for Africa to adopt stablecoins. It is funding the companies that will make adoption inevitable.
The story
Stablecoin payments infrastructure startup Checker raised $8 million to expand in Africa and Asia.
The best thing about Checker, which has processed over $3 billion through its API infrastructure helping banks, PSPs, and financial institutions integrate APIs, is that the round included investors like Iyin Aboyeji, co-founder of Flutterwave; Gwera Kiwana, former VP of Partnerships and Blockchain Payments at Onafriq; Justin Ziegler, co-founder of Juicyway; and unnamed investors from Stripe and Tala.
Checker’s round still supports our thesis that stablecoin adoption is accelerating because stablecoin companies now want to integrate with existing platforms instead of operating as standalone products.
Deals
Sorted raised $4.4 Million to expand stablecoin payments in Africa and other emerging markets.
The round, led by Tether, comes just a week after Tether invested in LemFi, signaling a clear trend: stablecoin issuers are now backing stablecoin infrastructure companies directly to accelerate adoption and secure long term distribution partners.
In emerging markets, stablecoins are not vitamins. They are painkillers solving real problems around cross border payments, dollar access, settlement speed, and inflation.
Launches
PayPal Launched PayPal USD, its dollar backed stablecoin, to Users Across 70 Markets Worldwide and Expands Access in Africa.
“Bringing PYUSD to Africa is about delivering tangible value to the people and businesses driving growth in these dynamic markets,” said Otto Williams, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Middle East and Africa, PayPal.
What is becoming clear is that stablecoin adoption is increasingly happening through platforms people already know and trust, instead of users discovering stablecoins through crypto first products.
Regulation
Stable Naira completed a CertiK security audit with an 88.9% code security score.
Nigeria banned dollar remittances in May. A naira-pegged stablecoin building compliance credentials in the same period is not a coincidence. It is the smartest positioning move in Nigerian crypto right now.
Madini
Stablecoin Africa Ecosystem Adoption
From inside
Visa said stablecoins are ‘pretty big’ for Africa’s payments future.
“We believe that could actually be pretty large. Stablecoins specifically could be pretty big, as well as agentic commerce, that’s another big trend we’re seeing and actively engaged with. In many countries, many banks are showing strong interest in crypto-backed cards. We discussed that at this forum with a few banks from the continent. There is also big interest in crypto-based settlements between banks and Visa, or between banks directly. Some pilots will be coming up very, very soon, and once they come up and prove the concept, which I’m sure they will, it will become mainstream” - Michael Berner, Visa's Head of South and East Africa
On the record
Fresh capital. Experienced cross-border payments talent.
Chimoney had infrastructure and licenses. Distribution is what finished them.
Checker is clearly trying not to make the same mistake.
Written from inside Africa with love 🇹🇿💚
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