๐ ๐ฐ๐๐ง๐ญ ๐ญ๐จ ๐๐๐ข๐ซ๐จ๐๐ข, ๐๐๐ง๐ฒ๐, ๐ญ๐จ ๐ฌ๐ฉ๐๐๐ค ๐ญ๐จ ๐ฌ๐ญ๐๐๐ฅ๐๐๐จ๐ข๐ง ๐๐ฎ๐ข๐ฅ๐๐๐ซ๐ฌ ๐๐ง๐ ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐๐ซ๐ฌ.
โฆ ๐๐ฑ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐จ๐ฌ๐ข๐ฏ๐ ๐ ๐ซ๐จ๐ฐ๐ญ๐ก ๐๐ง๐ ๐ฏ๐จ๐ฅ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐: Kenyaโs crypto ecosystem has experienced significant expansion, with over $20 billion in annual transactions. Stablecoins now dominate transfers, accounting for approximately 43% of the region's crypto volume.
I had a great time speaking with Felix, Ronald, and Derrick to find out about the growing Stablecoin ecosystem in East Africa.
Thanks to the @PlasmaFDN team for making this happen, and @proofofnathan and @rongplace for their support.
Welcome to Money Code, Stableconโs flagship podcast that decodes stablecoins and the future of programmable money for builders, investors and decision makers.
Hosted by @chuk_xyz, Author of Stablecoin Blueprint, and @rparekh, Head of Payments & Stablecoins at Monad Foundation, this show dives into the systems, strategies and stories from operators driving digital finance forward. Each week weโll bring the best ideas directly to the builders and decision makers shaping what comes next.
The conversation starts here.
Coming soon!
South Koreaโs biggest banks are about to test whether stablecoins belong inside the banking system.
@ShinhanBankENG, Hana, KB Financial, and @wooribank met last week with @tether (USDT) and @circle (USDC).
On the table:
โ Distributing dollar-pegged stablecoins in South Korea
โ Launching a won-based stablecoin
โ Building rails through private banks, not a central bank
The political context is shifting fast:
โ President Lee Jae Myung campaigned on a pro-crypto platform and is pushing for a national stablecoin market
โ The Bank of Korea scrapped its CBDC plans in June
โ Upbit is already working with Naver Pay on its own stablecoin
Stablecoins are moving into regulated finance.
And when four of South Koreaโs biggest banks explore direct issuance, itโs a signal that stablecoins are shifting into the core of financial infrastructure.
The bigger question: what happens when other banking markets decide to follow?
The twelfth edition of our newsletter, Where Money Moves, is live.
Twice a month, we unpack the key trends, developments, and data shaping the stablecoin industry.
Dive in.
๐ ๐ฐ๐๐ง๐ญ ๐ญ๐จ ๐๐๐ ๐จ๐ฌ, ๐๐ข๐ ๐๐ซ๐ข๐, ๐ญ๐จ ๐ฌ๐ฉ๐๐๐ค ๐ญ๐จ ๐๐ญ๐๐๐ฅ๐๐๏ฟฝ๏ฟฝ๏ฟฝ๏ฟฝ๐ข๐ง ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐๐ซ๐ฌ.
Nigeriaโs commercial capital has become the continentโs provingโground for dollarโpegged tokens. In just the past year, Nigerians moved tens of billions of dollars in stablecoins, slashed remittance costs, and built a grassroots dollar economy that now touches one in eight citizens.
โฆ #2 worldwide for grassroots crypto adoption. Nigeria sits immediately behind India in Chainalysisโ 2024 Global Crypto Adoption Index.
โฆ ๐๐$๐๐โฏ๐๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ข๐จ๐ง in onโchain crypto flowed into the country (Julโฏ2023โฏโโฏJunโฏ2024). Stablecoins already account for approximately ๐๐% of all crypto value entering Nigeria, the highest share in Africa.
โฆ Retailโsized (<โฏ$๐โฏ๐) stablecoin transfers hit ~ US$3โฏbillion in Q1โฏ2024 alone.Continentโwide stablecoin volume topped US$๐๐โฏ๐๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ข๐จ๐ง (Junโฏ2022โฏโโฏJulโฏ2023); Nigeria captured ~๐๐โฏ% (~ ๐๐$๐๐โฏ๐๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ข๐จ๐ง).
โฆ FXโstarved SMEs: Importers use USDT/USDC to pay Chinese, American, and European suppliers when banks cannot source dollars.
Thanks to the @PlasmaFDN team for making this happen, and to @proofofnathan and @rongplace for their ongoing support.
Incredibly honored and grateful for the invitation to watch @POTUS sign the Genius Act today.
Tether has already brought over 160 billion USDT to over 500 million users worldwide.
Now that President Trump has led the United States to embrace digital assets, we believe we can increase tenfold and cement the dollar's global dominance.
Thank you for your support โฅ๏ธ
1/ There has been a lot of discussion lately about the potential use case of stablecoins for retail payments at merchants.
Given every stablecoin transaction is publicly visible today, what does the onchain data show?
๐๐ก๐ข๐ฌ ๐๐๐๐ค ๐ข๐ง ๐๐ญ๐๐๐ฅ๐๐๐จ๐ข๐ง๐ฌ ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐จ๐ค๐๐ง๐ข๐ณ๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง
โฆ US House passes Genius Act
โฆ @dakota_xyz raises $12.5 million led by @coinfund
โฆ @BankofAmerica is working on its Stablecoin
โฆ @okx integrates @Paxos USDG
โฆ Orbital and ClearBank link Stablecoins with SEPA
โฆ @Noah_HQ and @gnosispay Partnership
โฆ Spiko raises $22 million led by Index Ventures
the number of non-us stablecoin based finance apps at 7 figure revenue run rates and growing like crazy is wild
we have invested in two
give me more
if you are building this in latam/africa/asia
pls reach out
The Genius act has passed.
306-122 with 4 NV remaining on the R side.
102 Democrats in favor after also bringing in massive support from the Democratic side in the Senate.
This is the most important piece of bipartisan financial legislation since Dodd-Frank. A new era begins.
Excited about stablecoins? You're not bullish enough yet. Let me explain why
Crypto has 4 mass-market use cases today:
1) Store of value. Almost half a billion people have owned crypto. BTC has been the best performing asset of the past decade. Interest to hold BTC and other crypto assets is rapidly increasing.
2) Trading. Coinbaseโs core biz and a source of livelihood for thousands if not millions of people.
3) Staking. A better way to save and earn.
4) Stablecoins. The future of global payments.
1 & 2 have been around for over a decade. Staking went mainstream about 5 years ago. And we are only now seeing stablecoins take off.
It is becoming increasingly clear that stablecoins are the future of payments, and the backbone of the emerging global digital economy.
They are starting to eat legacy credit, debit, and banking networks. Eventually stablecoins will become so embedded in commerce that consumers will transact in them without realizing it.
How big can that get?
Citigroup estimates the total stablecoin market cap to be at $1.6 trillion by 2030 - and others put this as high as $3.7 trillion. Even more impressive, they also estimate the total addressable market for cross-border transfers at $195 trillion.
As big as these projections are, theyโre still sleeping on the opportunity and missing a few very important things:
โข Stablecoins are more than a financial plumbing update - this will be an overhaul to the existing system. They offer a new global, open financial network that will drive the mass migration of unbanked or underbanked individuals and businesses into the global economy.
โขย Stablecoin rails + self-custodial wallets = internet-native bank accounts that are open to everyone everywhere. Stablecoins are growing the global economic pie.
โขย We already know stablecoins are especially compelling to people who are underbanked and who live in countries with currency instability. Weโve also seen data that shows stablecoin payments attract new customers to merchants, allowing individuals who were previously sidelined to participate in global commerce.
Now think one step further:
โขย What about AI agents and faster, automated transactions leading to more volume?
โขย What about small, cash-oriented businesses around the world going digital?
Stablecoins enable payments for the internet age. As the network and tech grows, these things become possible. Technology moves in concert, and we see stablecoins enabling an exponential increase in the pace of money movement.
By 2030, every person and business who uses the internet (and a huge contingent of those who currently donโt) will interact with stablecoins. Coinbase is going to make sure of it.
Stablecoins are critical to our mission of increasing economic freedom by unlocking more open, fair, free, and transparent financial services (DeFi) globally, unencumbered by legacy financial systems. The TAM is massive, and weโre just getting started.
๐ธCitigroup also wants in on stablecoins
โขLaunch plans: A day after @jpmorgan announced it will build a stablecoin, @Citi CEO Jane Fraser revealed on a post earnings call that the bank is exploring issuing a proprietary stablecoin, with a strong emphasis on tokenized deposits.
โขCrypto services expansion: The firm is also investigating reserve management for stablecoins and custody services for crypto assets.
โขStrategic rationale: Citigroup wants to streamline payments infrastructureโissuing a stablecoin would create a faster, programmable layer for cross border and treasury operations.
โขMarket forecasts: Citiโs internal think tank predicts that the global stablecoin market could grow to $1.6โฏtrillion in a base scenarioโor as much as $3.7โฏtrillion by 2030.
โขRegulatory environment: The potential launch is buoyed by legislative momentum, including the Senateโs passage of the GENIUS Act, though progress has slowed in the House.
โขOptimistic backdrop: This comes amid a strong Q2 performanceโCiti beat expectations, saw its stock hit highs not seen since 2008, and announced a $4โฏbillion share buyback.
The XPL public sale opens today, July 17 at 9:00 AM ET.
The sale is only open to users who deposited into the vault during the deposit window. Your allocation is fully reserved until the sale ends on July 28 at 9:00 AM ET, so there is ample time to commit. Take your time and stay vigilant.
Make sure youโre using the correct URL: https://t.co/aiIgmLYcef
Full details in the blog post: https://t.co/NKVPVXEOEP
๐๐ญ๐๐๐ฅ๐๐๐จ๐ข๐ง๐ฌ ๐๐ซ๐ ๐๐๐๐จ๐ฆ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐๐๐๐โ๐ฌ ๐๐๐๐๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ญ ๐๐ข๐ ๐ข๐ญ๐๐ฅ ๐๐๐ฌ๐ก
Together with @ayammaher and @PlasmaFDN, we take a deep dive into the Stablecoin Ecosystem in the MENA region.
โฆ ๐๐ง๐ ๐จ๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐ ๐๐ฌ๐ญ๐๐ฌ๐ญโ๐ ๐ซ๐จ๐ฐ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ฌ๐ญ๐๐๐ฅ๐๐๐จ๐ข๐ง ๐ก๐ฎ๐๐ฌ. The MENA region now sees stablecoins accounting for roughly 52% of all cryptocurrency transactions.
โฆ ๐๐จ๐ฅ๐ฏ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ซ๐๐ ๐ฌ๐ญ๐ซ๐ฎ๐๐ญ๐ฎ๐ซ๐๐ฅ ๐ฉ๐๐ข๐งโ๐ฉ๐จ๐ข๐ง๐ญ๐ฌ. Dollarโpegged tokens slash the cost of the regionโs ๐๐$๐๐๐โฏ๐๐ง annual remittance flows, shield households from doubleโdigit currency inflation, and fit a mobileโnative population where twoโthirds are under 30.
โฆ ๐๐ก๐ ๐๐ข๐ ๐ก๐ญ-๐ฌ๐๐ ๐ฆ๐๐ง๐ญ ๐ฏ๐๐ฅ๐ฎ๐ ๐๐ก๐๐ข๐ง ๐๐ฅ๐ซ๐๐๐๐ฒ ๐ฅ๐ข๐ฏ๐๐ฌ. Our 2025 map tracks over 40 operators spanning wallets & superโapps (Wish Money, botim), B2B rails (Fuze, Walapay), on- and off-ramps, remittance exchanges, issuers, and bank consortiums, showing an ecosystem that now covers the entire payment stack.
โฆ ๐๐๐๐ฅโ๐ฐ๐จ๐ซ๐ฅ๐ ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐๐ ๐. โโฏ12โฏ% of AbuโฏDhabi taxi fares are already paid in AEโฏCoin; botim routes โโฏ๐๐$๐๐๐โฏ๐ฆ per month in ultraโlowโcost transfers by converting AEDโto USD andโINR behind the scenes.
Thanks to @ayammaher and the @PlasmaFDN team.