Coinbase Partners with Yellow Card to Boost USDC in 20 African Countries
Coinbase has announced a collaboration with the African cryptocurrency exchange Yellow Card. The collaboration aims to significantly improve access to the popular USDC stablecoin across 20 countries in Africa.
The partnership will leverage Coinbase’s global infrastructure and Yellow Card’s existing presence in emerging African economies. Features launching in February are designed to make acquiring and transferring USDC both affordable and convenient for over half of the continent’s 1.4 billion citizens.
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Key takeaways:
- Coinbase Wallet users in the 20 supported countries will soon directly buy USDC crypto assets in the app.
- The countries account for about 52% of Africa’s population.
- The wallet will also enable fee-less USDC transfers via messaging platforms like WhatsApp, iMessage, and Telegram.
- Yellow Card will let its users purchase USDC on Base.
- Many African countries suffer from high inflation and rely heavily on remittances.
The collaboration builds on Coinbase’s “Go Broad, Go Deep” strategy, driving international expansion. It acquired a stake in Yellow Card via its venture capital arm, Coinbase Ventures, back in 2020. For Yellow Card, the alliance strengthens its offerings beyond current stablecoin trading and aims to drive greater adoption.Ā
Broader Coinbase International Growth
The partnership forms part of accelerating global growth plans for Coinbase as it seeks to bring cryptocurrencies to new markets. Recent international initiatives include rolling out spot trading services for non-U.S. institutional clients in December 2022. The company already runs an overseas derivatives trading platform for institutions.
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Coinbase also revealed last week that it intends to obtain an EU investment firm license that would expand its European crypto derivatives capabilities beyond current spot trading.
As both companies focus on increasing access to compliant services, the Yellow Card collaboration represents Coinbase’s latest foreign foray to capture emerging blockchain opportunities.
