Ripple brings its RLUSD stablecoin to Africa with Chipper Cash, Yellow Card, VALR

Ripple, the US-based crypto infrastructure company, is rolling out its dollar-backed stablecoin, Ripple USD (RLUSD), to Africa through new partnerships with fintech startups VALR, Yellow Card, and Chipper Cash, the company announced on Thursday.

The stablecoin will be listed on VALR, South Africa’s largest crypto exchange; offered through Yellow Card’s pan-African payments platform; and integrated into Chipper Cash’s cross-border payments product. This will allow retail users, businesses, and institutions to use RLUSD for remittances, treasury operations, and trading.

Sub-Saharan Africa processed about $54 billion worth of stablecoin transactions in 2024, according to Chainalysis, nearly half of all crypto activity in the region. This surge has made African markets a key frontier for stablecoin issuers seeking wider distribution.

Global players like Tether, issuer of the world’s largest stablecoin USDT, and Circle, the NYSE-listed company behind USDC, have backed blockchains designed to control the rails where stablecoin payments flow. Yet distribution will be key, and Africa—especially Nigeria, one of the biggest markets for USDT where people hedge against the naira—is a critical tent pole. Ripple is now moving to establish RLUSD in that same space.

“RLUSD has quickly become established in enterprise financial use cases, from payments to tokenisation to collateral in both crypto and traditional trading markets,” said Jack McDonald, SVP of stablecoins at Ripple. “We’re seeing demand for RLUSD from our customers and other key institutional players globally and are excited to now begin distribution in Africa through our local partners.”

Ripple launched RLUSD in December 2024 as a compliance-first stablecoin, issued by a New York trust company regulated by the NYDFS. The stablecoin has grown to more than $700 million in market capitalisation but makes up only 0.24% of the $297 billion global stablecoin market. USDT, USDC, and Ethena’s USDe—a newer yield-bearing stablecoin—remain dominant.

Beyond trading and payments, Ripple is also positioning RLUSD for humanitarian and climate use cases. In Kenya, it is working with Mercy Corps Ventures, the impact investment arm of global non-governmental organisation (NGO) Mercy Corps, on pilot projects to use the stablecoin for insurance payouts to farmers facing droughts or floods.

RLUSD is already available globally on exchanges like Kraken, Gemini, and Bitstamp, and integrated into Ripple’s cross-border payments product. With the African rollout, Ripple is seeking to expand adoption of a regulatory-compliant digital dollar while giving fintechs and startups new infrastructure to plug into.

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