Mastercard selects Yellow Card for EEMEA stablecoin payments

Mastercard named Yellow Card its stablecoin payments partner for Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa in May 2026. The agreement covers initial corridors in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates and adds card-network support to Yellow Card’s payments infrastructure. Visa already uses Yellow Card for treasury and liquidity management.

Yellow Card was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in Atlanta. The firm launched in Nigeria in June 2019 and reports operations across more than 35 countries. It says it has processed over $6 billion in transaction volume through a network of more than 106 Tier 1 banking and liquidity partners and supports payments in more than 50 local currencies. The platform handles stablecoins including USDT, USDC and PYUSD on multiple blockchains.

The company offers two product layers. Its enterprise Payments API lets banks, fintechs and businesses integrate stablecoin and fiat rails without building licensing, banking relationships and compliance frameworks themselves. The consumer layer is a mobile app and exchange that allows users to buy, sell and transfer stablecoins and local currencies. Yellow Card describes its technology stack as an “operating system for modern money movement.”

Platform services include virtual USD and EUR accounts, card issuance for international payments, cross-border remittances, corporate treasury tools and wallet and custody services for institutional clients. The platform supports simultaneous payouts in multiple African currencies from a single integration where local fiat on- and off-ramps are available.

Compliance and licensing are part of Yellow Card’s operating model. In November 2025 the firm obtained a Third Party Payment Provider license in South Africa with Standard Bank as regulatory sponsor. The company reports a compliance stack covering know-your-business and know-your-customer checks, sanctions screening, anti-money laundering monitoring and Travel Rule compliance across its markets.

Yellow Card has raised about $90 million to date from investors including Polychain Capital, Blockchain Capital and Valar Ventures, with a $40 million Series B in 2022 and a $33 million Series C in 2024. The firm employs roughly 295 people and says it operates directly in about 20 African markets with additional corridors into the Middle East.

Use cases the company cites include lowering remittance costs on corridors with fiat on- and off-ramps, enabling businesses to hold dollar-denominated stablecoins for treasury purposes, powering B2B cross-border payments and embedding stablecoin rails into fintech products via its API.

Yellow Card faces regulatory and operational complexity from running services across multiple jurisdictions, each with different licensing and banking requirements. The firm also competes with global players expanding into African corridors, including crypto exchanges and stablecoin payout and custody providers with larger funding bases.