By Faustine Ngila*
Kenya processed $3.3 billion in stablecoin transactions in the past year, driven by costs that are 85% cheaper than traditional remittances. Now M-Pesa, the mobile money platform that serves 66.2 million Africans and processes $309 billion annually, is partnering with Abu Dhabi’s ADI Foundation to integrate blockchain infrastructure across eight countries
On a Tuesday morning in Nairobi’s Kasarani neighborhood, Grace Wambui invoices a client in Hong Kong for her graphic design work. In less than 15 minutes, USDT (a dollar-pegged stablecoin) lands in her digital wallet. Within minutes, she converts it to Kenyan shillings and cashes out through M-Pesa, the mobile money service that has become as ubiquitous in Kenya as cash itself.
What once seemed experimental has become routine for millions of Kenyans like Wambui, who are quietly driving one of the world’s most significant cryptocurrency adoption stories. Now, that grassroots movement is about to get institutional backing as M-Pesa, Africa’s dominant mobile money platform, partners with the Abu Dhabi-backed ADI Foundation to integrate blockchain infrastructure across eight African countries.
The partnership, announced this month, marks a watershed moment: the convergence of Africa’s mobile money success story with the emerging world of stablecoins and blockchain technology. For Kenya, it represents the formalization of a financial revolution that has been building from the ground up for years.
Kenya processed approximately $3.3 billion in stablecoin transactions in the 12 months ending June 2024, according to blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, making it the fourth-largest recipient of stablecoins in Africa behind Nigeria, South Africa, and Ghana. More remarkably, Kenya now ranks fifth globally for stablecoin transactional use, outpacing major economies like the United Kingdom, India, and Indonesia.
The numbers behind Kenya’s crypto surge are striking. According to Triple-A estimates, 10.71 percent of the Kenyan population, or nearly 6.1 million people, currently hold cryptocurrencies.
These are not speculative trades. Kenyans are using stablecoins (cryptocurrencies pegged 1:1 to traditional currencies like the U.S. dollar) for everyday financial needs: remittances from the diaspora, cross-border trade settlements, freelancer payments, and as a hedge against currency volatility.
“When it started, the driver was remittances, where people living in the diaspora were sending money home,” explains Peter Mwangi, country manager of Yellow Card, Africa’s leading stablecoin infrastructure provider. “The reason they used stablecoins was that transaction fees were minimal, while it was also permissionless finance.”
The cost advantage is stark. Stablecoin transfers average between 0.5 and 1 percent of the value sent, compared to traditional remittance channels. According to the World Bank, sending money to Sub-Saharan Africa in Q1 2025 cost an average of 8.78 percent of the transaction value, while the global average was 6.49 percent. For a $200 remittance (typical for many diaspora families), that difference can mean the difference between paying rent on time or falling behind.
But the use case has evolved. “Businesses are now adopting stablecoins,” Mwangi says. “For instance, an exporter of tea or Maasai shukas to the US would prefer receiving payments in stablecoins as that transaction can only take five minutes at most and converting that to Kenya shillings is much easier and cheaper.”
The M-Pesa Advantage
Kenya’s stablecoin surge did not happen in a vacuum. It is built on the foundation of M-Pesa, the mobile money platform that revolutionized financial inclusion when it launched in 2007. M-Pesa now has over 66.2 million customers across Africa as of March 2024, with over 60 million active users in Kenya alone.
The platform’s scale is staggering. M-Pesa processed 33 billion transactions in the financial year ending March 31, 2024. For the financial year 2023/24, the value of transactions was 40 trillion Kenyan shillings ($309 billion), across 28 billion transactions. In the six months to September 2025, M-Pesa generated 88.1 billion Kenyan shillings ($676.9 million) in revenue, exceeding the combined total from mobile data, voice, and messaging services.
The Central Bank of Kenya recorded 82 million mobile accounts (predominantly M-Pesa) in a population of 56 million as of December 2024. The platform now serves 381,000 agents managing around 82 million accounts.
“Kenya’s strong mobile money ecosystem, especially M-Pesa, allows for seamless stablecoin integration,” notes Mwangi. “A tech-savvy youth population is also turning to stablecoins for cheaper remittances and protection against currency swings, making them practical financial tools.”
The infrastructure is already in place. Companies like Yellow Card, Kotani Pay, and more recently, Payd, have built bridges between blockchain networks and mobile money wallets, allowing users to convert stablecoins to M-Pesa-accessible shillings almost instantly. Stablecoins accounted for 43 percent of all crypto transactions in sub-Saharan Africa in 2024, according to multiple industry reports.
Even multinationals have taken notice. Starlink, Elon Musk’s satellite internet service, converts payments collected in Kenyan shillings into stablecoins and transfers them to America, where they are exchanged into dollars, according to reports.
Kenya’s adoption exists within a broader African cryptocurrency boom. The cryptocurrency market in sub-Saharan Africa grew by 52 percent year-on-year, reaching more than $205 billion between July 2024 and June 2025, according to Chainalysis. Africa saw the fastest relative growth in 2025, increasing crypto users by 19.4 percent, led by Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa.
Enter the Blockchain
The ADI Foundation partnership announced in January 2026 aims to take this grassroots movement institutional. Backed by Sirius International Holding, the digital arm of a $240 billion UAE conglomerate, ADI Chain is the Middle East and North Africa region’s first institutional Layer 2 blockchain network designed specifically for stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets.
“We are excited to partner with ADI Foundation to tap into their expertise around new technologies and how these can transform financial services,” says Sitoyo Lopokoiyit, CEO of M-Pesa Africa, a joint venture between Safaricom and Vodacom.
The partnership will extend blockchain infrastructure to M-Pesa’s user base across Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Lesotho, Mozambique, and Tanzania. A stablecoin for use on ADI Chain is expected to launch in January 2026, according to Huy Nguyen Trieu, council member on the ADI Foundation’s board of advisers.
“M-Pesa has been amazing in terms of financial inclusion,” Nguyen Trieu says. “Our view is that we can push it further again by providing the right digital infrastructure, both for individuals and SMEs. The foundation’s infrastructure can act as the building blocks to accelerate digital transformation.”
ADI Chain comes with heavyweight institutional backing. In December 2025, the foundation announced partnerships with BlackRock, Mastercard, and Franklin Templeton, signaling serious institutional appetite for regulated blockchain infrastructure in emerging markets.
Regulation Catches Up
For years, Kenya’s cryptocurrency ecosystem operated in a regulatory gray zone: not quite legal, not quite illegal. That changed dramatically in November 2025 when the Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASP) Act took effect, establishing Africa’s most comprehensive framework for cryptocurrency regulation.
The law, gazetted on October 21, 2025, designates the Central Bank of Kenya and the Capital Markets Authority as joint regulators of digital assets, with the Central Bank overseeing stablecoin issuers, wallet providers, and payment processors, while the Capital Markets Authority licenses exchanges and trading platforms.
“The Act provides the legislative framework for regulating and supervising Virtual Asset Service Providers,” the regulators said in a joint statement. “The Act further outlines obligations of VASPs in the prevention of Money Laundering, Terrorism Financing, and Proliferation Financing.”
While no licenses have been issued yet (regulations are still being drafted), the framework signals a fundamental shift in Kenya’s approach to cryptocurrency. Rather than prohibition or skepticism, Kenya is embracing regulation designed to enable innovation while protecting consumers.
“We are on the right footing because we now have a proper framework and foundation allowing for the regulation of most of the industry,” says Yellow Card’s Mwangi. “It also shows that regulators are more open to learning more about virtual assets.”
The timing is strategic. Kenya remains under scrutiny from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global money laundering watchdog, and faces pressure to modernize its financial system. The VASP Act helps Kenya meet international anti-money laundering standards while positioning the country as a potential regional hub for digital finance.
The Mercy Corps Moment
The evidence that stablecoins can transform lives is not theoretical. A pilot program by Mercy Corps Ventures tested $5 micropayments from abroad to Kenyan freelancers. Using stablecoins reduced transaction fees from 29 percent to 2 percent, according to the Milken Institute. Users saved more money and accessed their earnings faster, even without a bank account.
That kind of impact matters in a region where the World Bank reports $96.4 billion flowed into Africa in remittances in 2024, approximately twice the level of overseas development assistance. Yet sending money to Africa remains costly, with prices falling from 9.8 percent in Q2 2016 to 8.2 percent in Q1 2025.
For Kenya specifically, the country received over $4 billion in remittances in 2024, ranking fourth in Africa (with the United States and the United Kingdom as the main sending markets). Remittances account for 4.6 percent of gross domestic product and are a leading source of foreign exchange in the country. In November 2025, Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi reported that over 1 trillion Kenyan shillings had been sent home by Kenya’s diaspora, and an increasing share of that flows through stablecoin rails.
“For millions navigating inflation, currency controls and the world’s priciest remittance corridors, stablecoins offer a way to hold value and move money with little more than a phone,” notes a Cointelegraph analysis of African stablecoin adoption.
The Global Context
Kenya’s stablecoin movement exists within a broader global shift toward digital assets. The global crypto market cap reached $3.6 trillion in 2025, with global cryptocurrency ownership estimated at 12 to 15 percent of the population. About 9.9 percent of the total internet population of 5.65 billion holds cryptocurrency, deriving the number of people owning crypto worldwide to approximately 559.4 million.
Stablecoin holders numbered 161 million globally, exceeding the combined population of the 10 largest cities in the world. The global stablecoin supply recorded 54 percent year-on-year growth, underscoring its rising adoption. The IMF reports stablecoin issuance has grown to $300 billion in 2025.
The crypto remittance market is estimated at $25 billion annually, while 46 percent of surveyed merchants have integrated cryptocurrency payments into their accepted payment methods. Stablecoins dominate usage, with USDT representing 33 percent of transaction volume and stablecoins overall making up 76 percent of all crypto payments.
Challenges
The rush to embrace stablecoins raises important questions about financial stability, consumer protection, and monetary sovereignty. Kenya’s inflation stood at 4.5 percent in August 2025, relatively modest by regional standards but enough to drive demand for dollar-denominated assets among traders and savers.
The widespread adoption of dollar-pegged stablecoins could effectively dollarize parts of the economy, potentially undermining the Central Bank’s monetary policy tools. “If we were to see a Kenya shilling backed stablecoin, this would spur tokenisation in the economy,” Mwangi suggests. “Fintech companies would emerge, tokenising stocks in the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) while the government could itself tokenise its bonds expanding the pool of investors participating in auctions.”
Infrastructure challenges persist. A Milken Institute report notes that broadband access remains limited in rural areas, and financial education gaps could leave vulnerable populations exposed to scams and volatility risks. Over $2.17 billion has been stolen from cryptocurrency services in 2025 (mid-year), highlighting security concerns.
The collapse of Terra’s UST stablecoin in 2022, which wiped out billions in value, remains a cautionary tale about the reliability of stablecoin reserves and governance.
Regulatory complexity looms large. The VASP Act’s dual-licensing structure (requiring compliance with both virtual asset and gambling laws for crypto betting platforms, for example) could create prohibitive barriers for smaller players and startups, potentially favoring large international operators over local innovation.
The Silicon Savannah Meets Web3
Despite the challenges, Kenya’s trajectory seems clear. The country is evolving from a mobile money pioneer to what industry observers call a “crypto-compatible finance hub.” The EY report cited by Semafor spotlights Nairobi, dubbed “Silicon Savannah,” as a successful example of a thriving ecosystem to drive financial inclusion, benefiting from Kenya’s regulatory innovation and position as one of East Africa’s most mature fintech landscapes.
The numbers support this narrative. According to Chainalysis, stablecoins now account for roughly 43 percent of all crypto transaction volume in Sub-Saharan Africa, reflecting their growing use for remittances, cross-border trade, and savings. One third of small and medium businesses globally used crypto in 2025, which is double the adoption rate compared to 2024.
For Kenya’s growing class of digital workers (freelancers, developers, designers, and remote workers serving global clients), stablecoins have become essential infrastructure. Startups like Payd are building “financial operating systems for borderless work,” using stablecoin settlement rails while abstracting away the complexity for end users who simply see money arriving in their accounts.
“Most users never interact with wallets, chains, or tokens directly; they simply receive and use money as they would in their bank account,” says Benaiah Wepundi, co-founder of Payd.
The Future
As the M-Pesa-ADI partnership moves from memorandum of understanding to implementation in 2026, Kenya stands at a crossroads. The country that pioneered mobile money for the unbanked now has an opportunity to pioneer blockchain-based financial services for the underserved.
By the end of 2025, M-Pesa’s service revenue is estimated to reach around $2.6 billion, while the total number of M-Pesa customers is projected to reach over 70 million in Africa. The platform is being prepared to integrate AI capabilities focused on fraud detection and proactive protection, while also enabling service personalization based on user behavior.
Kenya’s regulatory framework, if implemented effectively, could serve as a model for other emerging markets seeking to harness crypto innovation while protecting consumers. The stakes are high. With 42 percent of adults in sub-Saharan Africa remaining unbanked, traditional financial systems have left hundreds of millions without access. Yet demand for digital financial solutions is undeniable.
“Stablecoins will also be adopted by some of our biggest financial players in our markets here in Kenya, including banks and mobile network operators,” predicts Mwangi.
For Grace Wambui, the graphic designer in Kilimani, the promise is simple: faster payments, lower fees, and the ability to compete in the global digital economy without being handicapped by her location. Whether that promise extends to tens of millions more across Africa may depend on how successfully regulators, traditional financial institutions, and blockchain innovators navigate the challenges ahead.
*Courtesy of Impact Newswire
