Pan-African fintech Yellow Card has partnered with global digital asset infrastructure provider Fireblocks to make cross-border payments faster and more affordable across Africa.
Moving money across African borders has been costly and slow for years, with high fees and complex systems.
Through Fireblocks’ Wallets-as-a-Service platform, Yellow Card will have access to create and secure up to 14 million digital wallets using advanced multi-party computation (MPC) technology. This will give businesses and individuals safer, faster, and more efficient ways to transfer funds.
Yellow Card CEO state the partnership vision
Chris Maurice, CEO and co-founder of Yellow Card, explained the vision:
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“We are excited to work with Fireblocks to enable real-world use cases for stablecoins, solving the complex challenges of international and pan-African transactions. Together, we enhance how businesses worldwide manage their treasury, make payments, and drive innovation across Africa.”
Stablecoins, cryptocurrencies tied to stable assets like the U.S. dollar, are at the heart of this shift. On Yellow Card’s platform, stablecoins made up 99 per cent of transactions in 2024, with Tether (USDT) accounting for nearly 89 per cent.
Nigeria alone processed almost $22 billion of stablecoin transactions in one year, making it Africa’s largest market.
Businesses are also rapidly adopting stablecoins. In 2024, corporate stablecoin transactions rose by 25 per cent as importers, exporters, and e-commerce firms turned to digital assets to cut costs and speed up payments.
The platform solutions have already reduced settlement times from days to under a minute, slashing costs by up to 80 per cent compared to traditional channels like SWIFT.
For Fireblocks, the partnership reflects an opportunity to scale secure digital payments in a rapidly growing market. Ran Goldi, Senior Vice President of Payments and Network at Fireblocks, noted the urgency:
“Africa, like the rest of the world, is experiencing a major shift from traditional payment systems to digital alternatives. The demand is clear with $100 billion in remittances flowing into the continent. Yet, cross-border payments still come with high costs, especially for low-value transactions.”
Africa is driving global change
Stablecoins are not just an African trend—they have now processed more annual volume globally than Visa and Mastercard combined. Fireblocks alone handles over $200 billion in stablecoin payments every month.
By operating in 20 African countries and supporting 14 local currencies, Yellow Card is a bridge for global firms entering emerging markets.
This collaboration is more than simplifying payments—it is about placing Africa at the centre of global financial transformation.
Yellow Card said, “This partnership represents more than growth; it is a validation of Yellow Card’s vision that emerging markets deserve world-class financial infrastructure.”