Circle partners with Sasai Fintech to boost USDC stablecoin usage in African cross-border transactions
The partnership seeks to incorporate the world's second-largest USD-backed stablecoin into Africa's regional payment systems to enhance international transfers and remittance services.
Circle has announced a strategic partnership with Sasai Fintech aimed at broadening the adoption of its USDC stablecoin throughout African payment channels, with a focus on remittance flows, corporate transactions and mobile wallet applications.
The announcement made on Tuesday reveals that the partnership will embed the world's second-largest stablecoin within Sasai's current payment systems infrastructure, which facilitates international money transfers, corporate payment solutions and digital consumer wallets, with the objective of lowering transaction expenses and accelerating settlement periods.
Sasai maintains operations throughout numerous African jurisdictions, delivering digital payment solutions that will be integrated with Circle's blockchain-based infrastructure.
Both organizations indicated they would investigate real-world use cases for USDC leveraging Circle's comprehensive technology stack, as stablecoin adoption continues to expand across Africa in tandem with increasing requirements for international payment solutions and mobile-centric financial products.
The United Nations has established an objective of bringing down average remittance transfer costs to below 3% on a global scale. Nevertheless, these costs continue to be elevated, especially across Sub-Saharan Africa, based on World Bank data. "Sierra Leone, Uganda, Angola, Botswana, and Zambia are among the economies with the highest transaction costs, all greater than 7% in 2023," according to a World Bank June 2025 report.
Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire stated the organization is concentrating on rapidly expanding payment channels within developing economies, while Cassava Technologies Chairman Strive Masiyiwa indicated the collaboration has the potential to broaden accessibility to digital financial products for both commercial entities and individual consumers.
Data from DefiLlama shows USDC is the second-largest stablecoin by market capitalization at around $78.6 billion, trailing only Tether's USDT at about $184.1 billion.
The rise of crypto and stablecoins in Africa
Cryptocurrency uptake throughout Sub-Saharan Africa has experienced dramatic acceleration, rising 52% during the 12-month period ending in June 2025, with the continent processing in excess of $205 billion in blockchain-based value, based on a Chainalysis report published in September.
Nigeria represented over $92 billion of that transaction volume, with South Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia and Ghana following behind, where adoption has been predominantly fueled by remittance transfers, international payment requirements and the need for protection against local currency devaluation.
This expansion is attracting heightened attention from cryptocurrency firms seeking to establish presence throughout the continent. In recent weeks, Blockchain.com made its entry into Ghana as a component of its wider African expansion strategy, coming after experiencing more than 700% growth in brokerage transaction volume in Nigeria since introducing retail services in that market.
Regulatory authorities are also moving forward with sector formalization efforts. In March, Ghana's Securities and Exchange Commission granted approval to 11 crypto trading platforms for participation in a regulatory sandbox established under its recently enacted Virtual Asset Service Providers Act.
On the consumer front, both Bitcoin and stablecoins are experiencing increased adoption for daily financial activities. In January, former UN under-secretary-general Vera Songwe stated remittances have become "more important than aid" in Africa, with stablecoins proving to be a more rapid, cost-effective option compared to conventional transfer methods.
Speaking on Natalie Brunell's Coin Stories podcast in March, Africa Bitcoin Corporation executive chairman Stafford Masie said Bitcoin is used as money in some local economies.