Aptos Labs and Yellow Card Partner for Instant Zero-Fee Stablecoin Transfers Across Africa

Aptos Labs and Yellow Card have announced a strategic partnership to facilitate instant, zero-fee stablecoin transfers across 20 African countries. This collaboration aims to provide millions of customers with faster and more affordable access to USDT and other stablecoins supported by Yellow Card. The initiative will enable seamless, low-cost trading of USDT and USDC for Yellow Card customers, leveraging Aptos' integration to ensure that all transfers on the Aptos network settle instantly with sponsored gas fees.

Stablecoin adoption in Africa is rapidly increasing, driven by practical use cases such as small business payments, treasury management, and cross-border transfers. Sub-Saharan Africa now leads globally in stablecoin usage, with over 54 million digital asset customers across the continent. This trend indicates a growing demand for faster, cheaper, and more stable alternatives to traditional financial systems.

With this integration, Yellow Card customers can transfer stablecoins instantly without incurring high fees or experiencing long delays. This benefit extends to various user groups, including small-to-medium-sized businesses managing cross-border payroll, financial institutions facilitating high-volume transfers, and families receiving support from relatives overseas. The partnership ensures sub-second transaction finality and zero gas fees, making it ideal for mobile-first, high-volume markets.

Alex Heuer, Head of Payments at Aptos Labs, expressed excitement about supporting Yellow Card in bringing seamless access to USDT and USDC across 20 countries. He noted that Africa is at the forefront of stablecoin adoption for practical use cases, and Aptos' zero-fee, instant settlement capabilities are well-suited to meet this demand.

This initiative builds on Aptos' integration of major stablecoins, including Tether’s USDT, Circle’s USDC, and USDe, expanding the network's role in global payments infrastructure. In 2024, global stablecoin transfer volume reached $27.6 trillion, surpassing the combined annual volume of Visa and Mastercard.

Gillian Darko, Chief of Staff and Director of Strategy of Yellow Card, highlighted the significance of the partnership in bringing instant, zero-fee stablecoin transfers across Africa. As demand for stablecoins continues to grow, cost-effective and frictionless transactions are crucial. By eliminating gas fees and enabling instant settlement on the Aptos network, the partnership empowers millions to access faster, more affordable USDT and other stablecoins for various purposes, advancing financial inclusion and stability across Africa.

Aptos' architecture is designed to support real-time, high-volume stablecoin transactions. With sub-second finality, extremely low fees, and throughput consistently above 11,000 TPS in production, it offers the performance needed to move stablecoins from niche use cases into everyday payments, especially in high-demand regions like Africa. As stablecoins evolve into critical payment infrastructure, Aptos' scalable design, developer tooling, and support for advanced features make it one of the few blockchains capable of powering instant, cost-effective transactions at scale.

To get started, users can visit or learn more at Aptos. Aptos is a next-generation Layer 1 blockchain designed to power the next generation of financial systems by offering unparalleled high throughput and low latency that can scale to billions of users. Aptos Labs is dedicated to creating network tooling and seamless usability for users of the Aptos network, backed by top-flight investors including a16z, Katie Haun, Apollo Global Management Dragonfly, PayPal Ventures, and Franklin Templeton Investments, among others.

Yellow Card is the largest and first licensed Pan-Africa stablecoin-based infrastructure provider, operating in 20 countries across the continent and in the emerging markets. Their mission is to empower the African continent by making it easy for individuals and businesses of all sizes to make international payments, protect their financial assets, manage their treasury function, and access hard currency liquidity. Leveraging the power of stablecoins pegged 1:1 to the U.S. dollar, they deliver their innovative solutions through their commercial trading function, their B2B products, and their retail and small business platform.