Visa is testing stablecoins for cross-border payments in the DRC

Sending money from one African country to another can still be a frustrating process. There are different currencies, different payment systems and banks involved in moving the money. All of that can add time and cost to a transaction. Visa is now testing whether stablecoins can make some of that easier in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The company is working with M-Pesa Africa and African payments company Onafriq on a pilot that uses stablecoins to settle mobile-money transactions across borders. The person sending the money does not need to own crypto or have a crypto wallet. They can use M-Pesa as they normally would, while the stablecoin is used in the background to settle the payment. That is what makes this worth watching. Visa is not trying to convince people to start using cryptocurrency. It is testing whether stablecoins can help the companies that move the money.

People can keep using M-Pesa

For the customer, not much needs to change. They use their M-Pesa wallet and send or receive money as they normally would. The technology that handles the settlement sits behind the service. Visa’s Visa Pay platform and Onafriq’s payments infrastructure connect the different payment networks, with the stablecoin being used as part of the settlement process. This is probably a more practical way of introducing stablecoins into everyday payments. People do not necessarily want to learn how crypto wallets work just to send money. If the technology can be used without changing the customer experience, it has a much simpler job to do.

The difficult part is moving money between countries

Mobile money has made it much easier for people to send money within their own countries. Cross-border payments are another matter. Money moving between countries can involve different currencies, banks and payment networks. There are also rules and checks that have to be dealt with along the way. Stablecoins give payment companies another option for settling the transaction. A stablecoin is a digital token that is designed to stay close to the value of an underlying currency, often the US dollar. That makes it different from Bitcoin, where the value can change significantly in a short period. Visa is looking at stablecoins because they can be moved digitally and used for settlement. The customer does not necessarily need to know that they were involved.

The company is not starting from zero. Visa and Onafriq launched Visa Pay in the DRC in 2025, connecting Visa’s network to mobile-money wallets including M-Pesa, Airtel Money and Orange Money. The stablecoin pilot builds on that existing connection. That matters because Visa is testing the technology within a payment network that is already being used rather than trying to create a completely new one.

Visa is betting on stablecoins

The DRC project also forms part of Visa’s broader push into stablecoin payments. Visa said in April that its stablecoin settlement activity had reached an annualised run rate of about $7 billion. The company has also been adding more blockchain networks and building tools for financial institutions that want to use stablecoins. In July, Visa launched its Stablecoin Platform for banks and fintech companies. The company clearly sees stablecoins as something that could sit alongside the existing financial system.

Africa already has the payment networks

This is where the African market gets interesting. Mobile money is already widely used across the continent. Visa and other payments companies do not need to convince everyone to start using a new type of money. They can work with systems that people already use and look at whether stablecoins can make the money move between countries more easily. Mastercard is doing something similar with Yellow Card, working on stablecoin-based cross-border payments and remittances in Africa. That tells you where some of the interest in stablecoins is moving. It is no longer just about crypto exchanges and people buying digital assets. Payments companies are looking at whether the technology can help with the less visible parts of moving money.

The pilot still has to prove that it works. Visa and its partners need to show that using stablecoins can actually reduce the time or cost involved in settling cross-border payments. They also have to deal with regulation, foreign exchange and liquidity. There is a big difference between getting a pilot to work and building a system that can handle millions of transactions across several African countries. For now, Visa is testing the idea in the DRC. If it works, people using M-Pesa may not notice anything different. They will still send and receive money through their phones. The difference will be happening behind the scenes. And that could be where stablecoins find one of their more useful roles in Africa.