Coinbase has partnered with African stablecoin exchange Yellow Card (a Coinbase portfolio company) to expand access to its products in emerging economies, starting with 20 countries across the continent.
Starting in February, this partnership will enable more than half of Africa’s population to access USDC purchases through the Coinbase Wallet app. Additionally, app users can send stablecoins fee-free via email and popular messaging apps such as WhatsApp, iMessage, and Telegram.
Yellow Card users can also purchase USDC on Base, an Ethereum layer 2 based on Coinbase that offers cheaper transactions.
“Many of these countries have high inflation and are reliant on remittances,” Coinbase said in an official blog post. “This partnership, highlighting USDC, will help increase economic freedom in places where it is lacking and establish a modern financial system where none existed before.”
Yellow Card announced a $1.5 million seed round in August 2020, which included Polychain Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and Celo Ecosystem Fund. The Block also reported a $40 million Series B funding round led by Polychain in September 2022. Series A, worth $15 million, the previous year.
Coinbase’s International Expansion
The San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange noted that its partnership with Yellow Card is part of its “Go Broad, Go Deep” strategy focused on compliant international expansion.
This comes after the exchange made the announcement last week. We plan to acquire a MiFID licensed entity. Expanding derivatives offerings in the European Union. The exchange currently only offers spot trading in the EU, and this license will allow Coinbase to offer cryptocurrency-based derivatives in Europe.
In December, Coinbase expanded its international services to: Spot trading disclosure for non-U.S. entities. Coinbase’s International Division Derivatives trading begins to institutional clients outside the United States last year.
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