Cryptoeconomics

News, data and analysis on tokenized assets, market design and digital economic systems.

Payment provider

Yellow Card

Stablecoin payments company founded in 2016 that converts local currency into dollar tokens and back for businesses across African and other emerging markets, holding a Botswana virtual asset service provider licence and a Category I licence from South Africa's FSCA.

Kind Payment provider
Jurisdiction South Africa
Founded 2016
Stories filed 1

The profile

Stablecoin payments company founded in 2016 by Chris Maurice and Justin Poiroux, which converts local currency into dollar tokens and back for businesses across African and other emerging markets and sells that capability as an API and a treasury portal. Its parent is a Delaware corporation registered with FinCEN as a money services business; subsidiaries hold a virtual asset service provider licence from Botswana's NBFIRA issued on 29 September 2022, a Category I financial services provider licence from South Africa's Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSP 53790), an entry in Poland's virtual currency register and financial-crime reporting registrations in Zambia, Uganda, Ghana and Tanzania, while its Nigerian application to the Securities and Exchange Commission's accelerated regulatory incubation programme was recorded as pending in July 2025. It agreed with Visa in June 2025 to test stablecoin treasury operations and Visa Direct cross-border integrations, and in June 2026 added anti-money-laundering affiliation in Switzerland so institutional clients can reach its emerging-market settlement network through a Lugano entity.

Products and services

Yellow Card API
Programmatic access to local-currency collections and payouts settled in dollar stablecoins in the markets where group entities are licensed.
Treasury Portal
Interface through which businesses hold, convert and move local currency and dollar stablecoin balances for cross-border settlement.

Coverage

Developments in which Yellow Card is a named party, newest first.

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