Stablecoins are becoming too cool to ignore; every remittance and cross-border payment startup and their cousins want to be the first to integrate stablecoin payments. But, will that pay off?
Yesterday, Zepz, the UK unicorn that runs payment companies World Remit and Sendwave, said it is bringing stablecoins to its remittance platform (SendWave) in “more than 100 countries.” To knock your socks off, legacy companies like MoneyGram and Western Union have been experimenting with a thing or two about stablecoin wallets. To add to the surprise you’re feeling, Wise, the global remittance fintech, also listed a leadership role for digital asset services.
Why is everybody suddenly gung-ho about money that lives on the internet? It’s like one cross-border fintech COO that recently integrated stablecoin payments told me: it’s about the trend and riding the wave. Stablecoin adoption is growing, and because global heavyweights are leaning into it, it gives a sense of legitimacy to digital assets.
Yet stablecoins, especially dollar-backed ones, pose some serious concerns about how they infringe on monetary policy controls; this was a sentiment echoed by Chai Gang, deputy director of payments systems at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), during one of the Moonshot by panel sessions.
Beyond speed and convenience, and despite all that momentum, regulators want to review the fine print underlying stablecoins’ risk. Sendwave operates in several African countries, including Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, and Liberia, and is considered one of the leading digital remittance platforms. A move like this could get regulators asking serious questions about how they really want to approach these digital assets.
