Block, the US fintech company behind the Cash App and Square announced a partnership with YellowCard, one of Africa’s largest crypto exchanges.
The partnership will facilitate cross-border payments between 16 countries in Africa, including Nigeria, Ghana, and South Africa.
Why This Matters
Block’s partnership with Yellow Card comes two years after cofounder and CEO Jack Dorsey, the former CEO of Twitter, invested in the African exchange.
Meanwhile, Block has been pursuing a broader strategy of cross-border payments, including remittances. That includes leading a funding round for Gridless, a Bitcoin mining firm in Kenya that hopes to use Bitcoin mining to encourage the development of renewable energy projects.
How The Partnership Will Work
Yellow Card and Block’s TBD, an offshoot of the payments giant that specializes in developing software for crypto and Web3 projects, have been testeing their cross-border payment infrastructure to send money between the U.S., Ghana, Nigeria, and Kenya.
The system leverages stablecoins and Bitcoin to decrease the fees needed to send money across borders, TBD says.
Yellow Card provided the software to plug into each of the 16 countries’ financial networks, and TBD provided the “bridge” between each of the countries.
Specifically, TBD designed its technological “bridge” to be legally compliant and adhere to international and national money-transfer regulations, legal and technological expertise that Yellow Card doesn’t have.
What They’re Saying
“The international payments space, especially in Africa, is in dire need of the innovative solutions we are building together,” Chris Maurice, cofounder and CEO of Yellow Card, said in a statement. “And this is the culmination of the vision behind Block’s initial investment in Yellow Card in 2021.”
“Developers don’t want to worry about compliance jurisdiction by jurisdiction,” she told Fortune in an interview. “Developers just want to build and make sure that it works.”
What Happens Next
The subsidiary’s cross-border payment infrastructure will eventually be available for other developers to plug into beyond Yellow Card.
Source: Yahoo
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