And now let's get to the big story breakdown.
Stablecoins have been making headlines across America.
Circle reporting Q2 revenue that jumped 53% on strong staplecoin growth, and the staplecoin issue saw a meteoric rise since going public in June.
Now Yellowcard is a leading Pan-African stablecoin platform, and it is teaming up with Visa to pilot cross-border payments using digital dollars across.
Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, as well as Africa.
The project will integrate with Visa Direct, letting businesses send stablecoin back payments straight to users' banks or card accounts faster, cheaper, and around the clock.
Now Yellowcard says demand is surging with stablecoin remittances in sub-Saharan Africa, topping 500 billion in a month, while Ethiopia saw low value transfers jump 180% in a year.
Joining me live here at the New York Stock Exchange is Chris Morris, CEO of Yellow Card.
Well, Chris, welcome.
Thank you so much for joining me.
Yes, thank you.
Well, here in the US, many viewers may be familiar with stablecoins, especially with Circle's IPO here at the New York Stock Exchange, but for companies out there, give us an idea of what they're grappling with and what stablecoins strategy actually looks like.
Yeah, I think you know the big thing that stablecoins are doing is they are changing the way that businesses around the world actually interact with the US dollar, right?
The US dollar is still used in 90% of global trade, but it's not actually an easy currency to use, right?
All of it sits essentially in New York, right?
Every transaction has to be approved by New York.
You have time zone issues, you have payment issues, you have liquidity issues, you have communication issues, all of these. issues that businesses and banks deal with on a daily basis just trying to make payments to you know run their business, right?
And so you know stablecoins are the first technology that just changed the way that all of that works, right?
You don't need to ask anybody permission to move your money.
You're holding your dollars, you're able to move them around the world and so it takes the world's reserve currency and the world trade currency and makes it so much easier to use for global trade.
Yeah, and course border payments are something that we might not have to think about stateside until we leave the US, but when we're talking about the sub-Saharan market, give us an understanding of what's actually happening on the ground.
Yeah, well, look, you know, when you look at Africa, you have 54 countries and you know you have.
Borders all over the continent that are how do you say uh looser, right?
You have, you know, so much trade going on between these countries you have, you know, groups of people that cut across these countries, families that cut across these countries that are constantly sending money back and forth and so the need to send money across borders is a lot more prevalent, right?
It would be as if, you know, imagine if there were a lot of friction sending.
Between states in the US, right, and imagine if sending money from, you know, Louisiana to Mississippi or New York to Pennsylvania was, I mean just a complete pain in the ass, right?
That's essentially what people deal with around the world.
And so it's, you know, with stablecoins, it just cuts out so much of that complexity for international transactions.
You don't need to go from, you know, Kenya to New York to be able to get that money to South Africa.
Yeah, and Chris, you bring up an obvious point there.
So when it comes to regulation and compliance, how is yellow card dealing with this?
Yeah, so that's something that you know we've done a lot of work on over the years, right?
I think you know from the beginning we went in and tried to work directly with the, you know, the governments, the regulators to help them understand the space, right?
You know, look, when we started out in 2019, there were no regulations on, you know, crypto itself, never mind stablecoins and stablecoin payments and all of this, and so you know we've done a lot of work over the course of the years with the regulators. to help them understand the space and you really adapt to what's coming because you know again the reality is this is a technology that is, it's coming it's already here and it's happening very actively across the continent.
Yeah, and you're here in New York, here at the New York Stock Exchange.
So what do you make of some of the regulatory hurdles that we're still facing here in the US and what do you expect for legislation?
Yeah, well, hey, look, clearly it's getting better.
I see bullishes branding everywhere, right?
Those guys are, you know, doing their public listing today.
You have Circle from, you know, what I guess a few months ago now.
So I mean, you know, obviously it is getting significantly better in the US.
You have the Genius Act and everything else that you know really sent a wake up call to the rest of the world that You know, the US is not ignoring this technology anymore, right?
So any country around the world that thought that they would be able to be a leader in this technology now has to grapple with the, you know, a sort of pro crypto administration in the US, right?
And so I think you know the US is, I mean, really trying to, you know, promote this industry.
You have obviously all of the legislation that's coming through the you know the way that people are talking about it publicly.
And yeah, I think you know, there's a lot of work now for other countries to do to be able to keep up.
Yeah, and finally, before I let you go, what's behind the name yellow card and if you're saying that stablecoins are the future, give us your take on your vision.
Yes, well, you know, to go anywhere in emerging markets you need to get a yellow fever vaccine, right?
So you can't go anywhere without your yellow card.
I think you know, look, in terms of the future of stable coins, what I would say is within 10 years you're not going to be making an international wire, right?
Now you will still be sending money internationally, presumably, right?
People will still be sending money across borders, but it won't work the same way that it does today, right?
That money, whether it's you know through JPM's coin or Or Citibank's coin or Deutsche Bank or USDC or USDT or any of these tokens, that money is going to flow significantly more seamlessly, right?
You're not going to have all of these restrictions.
You're not going to have SWIFT and correspondent banking the way that you do today, right?
It's going to be just a much more direct flow.
You're going to have a lot more control over your dollars.
You're not going to have to ask permission.
Things are going to be able to move 24/7, which you know the either the US has tried many times and has not been able to make happen.
But you know, finally you have a technology that's going to force the hand.
Well, Chris, great having you here.
Thank you so much for sharing the story of the yellow card.
Thank you.
Thank you.
