Chris Maurice, CEO of Yellow Card, a pan-African stablecoin cryptocurrency exchange, said the company currently has about 270 employees, operates in 20 African countries, and has traded more than $3 billion in cryptocurrencies so far this year. So far, the company has raised $85 million, with investors including Jack Dorsey's Block Inc., Valar Ventures co-founded by Peter Thiel, and Coinbase Ventures.
Yellow Card's clients include companies such as Coinbase Global Inc., Block and Elon Musk's Starlink, as well as pharmaceutical distributors and consumer goods companies.
In addition to Africa, stablecoin adoption is also on the rise in Latin America, with some companies in Mexico and Brazil starting to use such digital assets to enable cheaper and faster cross-border transactions. Fernando Martinez, CEO of Mexico City cryptocurrency brokerage Nonco, said the number of Asian companies incorporated in Mexico has grown fivefold in the past five years, with Nonco's daily trading volume ranging from $200 million to $400 million, 60% of which involves stablecoins.
In Brazil, the cryptocurrency market has experienced significant growth this year, with weekly trading volumes involving the Brazilian real currency, BRL, growing faster than U.S. dollar volumes since late January, and BRL-denominated cryptocurrency trading volumes from January to early May at around $6 billion. (Bloomberg)