Building Stablecoin Payment Rails in 16 Emerging Markets

In this episode of Stableminded, Drew sits down with Chris Maurice, Co-founder of @YellowCardFinancial , to explore how they built the largest licensed stablecoin payments infrastructure for emerging markets across Africa, Southeast Asia, and South America.

Chris takes us through Yellow Card's journey from launching in Nigeria in 2019 to becoming the go-to infrastructure provider for major banks, financial institutions, and corporates that need to move money in and out of emerging markets. The company experienced a dramatic inflection point during COVID, going from $1 million per month to $1 million per day almost overnight. But the real transformation came when they listed USDT and watched 99% of their volume shift from Bitcoin to stablecoins within just four months.

That's when they realized customers didn't want crypto for investment—they wanted dollars that actually work for payments.

The conversation reveals why building in Lagos, Nigeria creates a competitive advantage that's nearly impossible to replicate. Chris explains how the real challenge isn't the stablecoin infrastructure—that's relatively straightforward. The hard part is fiat rails.

Yellow Card needs six or more banks in some countries just to ensure a single payment goes through because bank downtime is common in emerging markets. Companies that tried to replicate their network with $30 million in funding failed to even launch a product because they couldn't navigate the complexity of local banking relationships, outdated infrastructure, and cultural differences across markets that are as different from each other as Italy is from China.

Chris also shares why companies that wouldn't take his calls 2.5 years ago are now reaching out post-election asking how to access stablecoin payment rails, and why most large corporates are being sold Bitcoin infrastructure when all they actually need is a way to make payments work in markets where traditional rails fail.

Key Timestamps:
0:07 - Why Nigeria is the ultimate test market for emerging markets
6:01 - The Taco Bell Bitcoin exchange story: selling crypto at 7 college campuses
11:11 - The COVID "oh shit"moment: $1M/month to $1M/day overnight
17:05 - Early traction: $100K to $1M monthly in 6 months
19:54 - The stablecoin pivot: 100% Bitcoin to 99% USDT in 4 months
21:27 - The realization: customers want payments, not investment
23:18 - Monetizing emerging market currencies vs USD stablecoins
29:13 - Yellow Card today: largest licensed stablecoin infrastructure provider
31:41 - Why fiat rails are harder than crypto infrastructure
33:31 - Banking redundancy: needing 6+ banks in some countries
35:15 - Africa isn't a monolith: every country operates differently
40:20 - Playbook for expanding into new emerging markets
42:43 - The current land grab in stablecoin infrastructure
44:39 - Why most corporates are buying the wrong products

Whether you're building fintech infrastructure, expanding into emerging markets, or interested in how stablecoins are solving real payment problems outside the US and Europe, this episode delivers crucial insights from someone who's been in the trenches since 2019.

Season 6 of Stableminded is supported by Rain. Rain helps financial teams build and manage stablecoin-powered card programs with a single API, enabling users to move, store, and spend stablecoins instantly and compliantly in over 150 countries.

Learn more at rain.xyz.

*The content of this podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment or legal advice.