Africa Stablecoin Summit 2025 showcases the future of digital money

The inaugural Africa Stablecoin Summit 2025 brought together more than 300 high-level leaders from across the continent and beyond to explore how stablecoins can strengthen Africa’s financial systems, trade, and economic resilience.

Powered by Binance — the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume and registered users — and supported by Tether, VISA, and Telcoin, the two-day event was hosted by Chasing Mavericks and co-hosted by Kotani Pay under the theme ‘Harnessing Stablecoins for Africa’s Economic Resilience.’

The summit drew representatives from governments and central banks of Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda, Zambia, and South Africa, alongside delegates from the United Nations, the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and other major players in the digital finance ecosystem.

Recent data presented during the summit showed that stablecoins accounted for 43 percent of crypto transaction volume in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2024.

Nigeria alone recorded nearly USD 22 billion in stablecoin transactions between July 2023 and June 2024, according to an industry report by Yellow Card.

A separate analysis by the Center for Global Development noted that international stablecoin flows represented about 6.7 percent of GDP in Africa and the Middle East last year.

With more than USD 300 billion in stablecoin transactions estimated to flow through African markets annually, discussions focused on how the technology could tackle challenges such as currency volatility, fragmented payment systems, and high remittance costs.

Key sessions featured leading voices in the financial and tech sectors, including Larry Cooke (Africa Head of Legal, Binance), who officially opened the summit, Saruni Maina (Regional Operations Lead – Africa), Shahebaz Khan (Senior Vice President, Head of Commercial and Money Movement Solutions, VISA CEMEA), and MP Kimani Kuria (Chairperson, Finance and National Planning Committee, Kenya National Assembly).

“Stablecoins are more than a technological innovation—they are a pathway to inclusive, cross-border financial systems that can empower businesses and individuals across Africa,” said Larry Cooke.

“At Binance, we are committed to fostering responsible innovation, collaborating with regulators, and investing in solutions that enable Africans to participate fully in the digital economy.”

Shahebaz Khan of Visa noted that the company is extending its global payments network to integrate stablecoins into its systems.

“Visa’s global network has long been the engine for how the world pays and gets paid. As money itself evolves, we’re extending that same trusted infrastructure to the next frontier: stablecoins,” he said.

“By pairing stablecoins with Visa’s world-class technology stack, we see tremendous potential to modernize global money movement — making payments faster, more accessible, and more secure for everyone.”

Telcoin CEO Paul Neuner added, “The promise of stablecoin and what that could really mean to telecom, it is a message that we’ve been preaching for a long time, which is the internet of money where there’s just stablecoin floating and directly transacting from consumer to merchant. The telcos can play a very large role in running the internet of money just like they run the normal internet today.”

The summit featured keynote addresses, policy deep-dives, and interactive town hall sessions covering regulation, interoperability, and real-world adoption.

Discussions also examined South Africa’s Project Khokha and the U.S. GENIUS Act as case studies for developing effective frameworks around digital currencies.