Block’s TBD, a developer platform focused on making the decentralized financial world accessible for everyone, has partnered with Yellow Card to enable the mainstream adoption of bitcoin and stablecoins in commercial and financial applications at scale.
Yellow Card, which offers payments via stablecoins and bitcoin to banks and mobile money operators in 16 countries across Africa, will be one of TBD’s first partners to enable global payments and fiat off-ramps for end consumers to send U.S. dollars (USD), stablecoin, or bitcoin and receive payments in local fiat currencies.
“We’re focused on advancing Block’s purpose of economic empowerment by breaking down the barriers to financial access across the Global South,” said Emily Chiu, TBD’s Co-Founder & Chief Operating Officer. “For TBD, this starts with driving more affordable cross-border payments and commerce to bring us closer to a more efficient and inclusive global economy. Yellow Card’s shared passion and expertise across the African continent makes them a partner we’re excited to accomplish this with.”
Senders are able to initiate a remittance in USD and their intended recipient is able to receive local fiat currency in real time into bank accounts or mobile money wallets, such as M-PESA and MTN. In the background, TBD converts the USD into bitcoin or stablecoin, and works with a network of partners to create liquidity between digital assets and local fiat currencies.
Alternatively, recipients may choose to forgo conversion into local currency and hold their value in bitcoin or USD stablecoins. When the holder of digital assets seeks to off-ramp into local currency (e.g., in order to pay rent or purchase food), TBD facilitates these exchanges via its fiat off-ramps.
TBD’s next goal is to establish decentralized identity, trust, and transaction protocols that enable a ubiquity of decentralized and trusted exchanges to happen, streamlining payments and commerce globally.
“We’re thrilled to work with TBD and the Block team on tbDEX and their global payments initiatives,” said Chris Maurice, CEO & Co-Founder of Yellow Card. “The international payments space, especially in Africa, is in dire need of the innovative solutions we are building together, and this is the culmination of the vision behind Block’s initial investment in Yellow Card in 2021.”