Flutterwave bets on Stablecoins to rewire Africa’s cross-border payments

Flutterwave, Africa’s largest payments infrastructure startup, is accelerating its pivot away from traditional banking rails with the launch of stablecoin balances for merchants and users across its platform, signaling a deeper bet on blockchain-based settlement as a core layer of the continent’s financial infrastructure.

The new feature, launched in partnership with blockchain infrastructure provider Turnkey and AI-powered global banking platform Nuvion, allows Flutterwave users to hold, send, and receive stablecoins such as USDC and USDT alongside fiat currencies including the U.S. dollar and the Nigerian naira within embedded wallets across Flutterwave’s products.

The move comes as African businesses operating across borders continue to grapple with high costs, delayed settlements, and limited access to foreign currencies under traditional payment systems. By integrating stablecoins directly into its platform, Flutterwave is positioning itself to offer faster, cheaper, and more predictable cross-border transactions for merchants serving global customers.

“To accelerate business growth in Africa, we must make it safe, easy, and affordable for businesses to accept all forms of regulated payment methods, including stablecoin, from a global customer base,” said Nkem Abuah, lead for remittances and stablecoin partnerships at Flutterwave.

Stablecoins, digital currencies pegged to fiat assets such as the U.S. dollar, have increasingly emerged as a settlement alternative for payments companies in emerging markets, where currency volatility, capital controls, and correspondent banking frictions complicate international commerce. Flutterwave’s latest rollout reflects a broader shift among African fintechs toward embedding crypto-native rails beneath familiar payment interfaces.

Read also: Why AI and Stablecoins dominated fintech funding in Q3 2025 and what it means for Africa in 2026

For Flutterwave, the launch marks another step in a multi-year strategy to reduce reliance on legacy banking infrastructure.

In October 2025, the company partnered with Polygon Labs, making Polygon its default network for cross-border stablecoin settlements. That move laid the groundwork for programmable, blockchain-based payments at scale.

The stablecoin wallet rollout also builds on Flutterwave’s acquisition of Mono, the Nigerian open banking startup it bought in 2025. By steadily bringing more of its payments stack in-house, from open banking connectivity to blockchain settlement, Flutterwave is gaining tighter control over transaction flows, costs, and reliability.

Under the new setup, Turnkey provides the wallet infrastructure and security layer that enables Flutterwave to offer embedded stablecoin wallets, while Nuvion bridges fiat and stablecoin rails through its AI-powered global banking platform. The integration allows merchants to move seamlessly between currencies while maintaining compliance and security standards.

“We share Flutterwave’s belief that stablecoins offer an incredibly efficient way to accelerate payments and put more money directly into the hands of business owners rather than intermediaries,” said Bryce Ferguson, CEO and co-founder of Turnkey.

Flutterwave joins a growing list of payments and crypto-native companies, including Polymarket, Axiom, and Alchemy, that have integrated Turnkey’s infrastructure. The partnership follows Turnkey’s $30 million Series B funding round in June 2025, aimed at expanding its team and scaling its wallet technology globally.

Access to the new stablecoin feature will initially be limited to a select group of Flutterwave merchants, with plans to expand availability across its wider merchant base later in the year. The phased rollout reflects both regulatory sensitivities and Flutterwave’s focus on testing usage patterns before broader deployment.

The move underscores how stablecoins are shifting from experimental tools to foundational infrastructure in African fintech. Rather than positioning crypto as a consumer-facing alternative to banks, Flutterwave is embedding it quietly into the plumbing of payments, where speed, cost, and reliability matter most.

Read also: FX, Stablecoin literacy, become survival skill for Africans – Expert

As Africa’s digital economy becomes increasingly cross-border, Flutterwave’s stablecoin push signals a future where programmable money, rather than correspondent banking, underpins how value moves in and out of the continent.

Royal Ibeh is a senior journalist with years of experience reporting on Nigeria’s technology and health sectors. She currently covers the Technology and Health beats for BusinessDay newspaper, where she writes in-depth stories on digital innovation, telecom infrastructure, healthcare systems, and public health policies.

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