Coinbase Expands To Africa, This Partnership Will Make It Happen

On January 11, crypto exchange Coinbase unveiled its partnership with Yellow Card, the largest and first licensed Stablecoin on/off ramp on the African continent, to expand the access of their products to emerging economies across the African continent.

Coinbase will expand access to its products through this new partnership with Yellow Card, starting with 20 African countries. They will provide millions of African users access to USD Coin (USDC) on the Coinbase Wallet and the Yellow Card app.

Both partners expect to “increase economic freedom” in many of these countries, whose economies have suffered from high inflation and remittance dependency and the lack of a modern financial system vastly sought by the younger generations. As they state in their press release:

Young people are more likely to recognize the benefits of crypto: more than seven in 10 crypto owners globally (72%) are under age 34.

To achieve opening access to a more modern and global financial system, they will facilitate access to USDC on Base for cheaper fees and faster transactions than traditional transfers starting in February 2024.

In the Coinbase Wallet, users will be able to purchase USDC directly from their Wallet app, as well as sending USDC without any fee to messaging and social media apps, as they noted:

Coinbase Wallet users will be able to easily send USDC without fees on any platform where they can share a link — including messaging apps like WhatsApp, iMessage and Telegram, and through popular social media apps and email.

Users of the Yellow Card’s platform can purchase USDC on Base and transfer through the L2 blockchain, benefiting from cheaper fees and easy access to the stablecoin, too.

Chris Maurice, Co-Founder and CEO of Yellow Card, expressed his excitement in an X (formerly known as Twitter) post. Maurice is optimistic about the future of the partnership and the solutions it might bring to African people and businesses.

Beyond excited to bring @coinbase to Africa!

Stablecoins like USDC solve real problems for real people & businesses on the continent.

With @yellowcard_app's regional expertise and Coinbase’s global brand and infrastructure, we will empower the next one billion people. https://t.co/9DOgZ4TKMr

— Chris Maurice (@chrismaurice) January 11, 2024

The partnership aims to protect users’ savings across the African continent from “unstable currencies” and economic volatility due to the high inflation rates of up to 18.5%.

They will offer lower remittance fees, with the maximum fee being 2%. As well as offering access to the global financial system to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) by allowing merchants to set up a Wallet in less than a minute and broadening their growth.

In summary, the Coinbase and Yellow Card partnership will expand solutions for people and businesses in 20 African countries by making the global financial system more accessible.