Swiss digital asset financial services provider SCRYPT has expanded its stablecoin settlement network to four East African markets, integrating with local payment rails in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Rwanda. The move, announced on July 16, 2026, is designed to facilitate faster and more cost-effective cross-border business payments for corporate clients by leveraging blockchain-based stablecoins for settlement while using existing local infrastructure for final payouts.
The company stated that its network now connects to mobile money and bank accounts in the region through integrations with systems including Kenya's Pesalink, Tanzania's TIPS, Uganda's UPI, and Rwanda's EKash. This allows businesses to send payments that are settled in USDC, a dollar-pegged stablecoin, and then converted into local currency for the recipient via these local rails. SCRYPT emphasises that this model reduces the reliance on traditional correspondent banking, which can be slower and more expensive for cross-border transactions.
In Kenya, the integration with Pesalink, the real-time bank-to-bank transfer service operated by the Kenya Bankers Association, provides a direct channel to local bank accounts. This expansion follows a separate development in the Kenyan payments landscape, where Nigerian-owned payments processor Paystack recently enabled Kenyan businesses to collect payments via Pesalink, highlighting the growing interoperability and competition in the market.
The inclusion of Rwanda in SCRYPT's network coincides with a broader national shift towards payment consolidation in that country. According to a recent report, Rwanda is unifying its digital payments landscape by migrating all interoperable transfers to the EKash platform, a move directed by the National Bank of Rwanda to streamline the ecosystem. SCRYPT's integration positions it to operate within this newly consolidated framework.
SCRYPT's chief executive, Jeremy Cottet, described the expansion as a response to growing demand from its corporate client base for efficient African payment corridors. The company, which is regulated in Switzerland, focuses exclusively on institutional and corporate clients, not retail consumers. Its service is aimed at businesses making bulk payments, such as payroll, supplier invoices, and treasury operations across borders.
The East African region has long been a focal point for fintech innovation, largely driven by the deep penetration of mobile money services like M-Pesa. However, cross-border payments within Africa remain a persistent challenge, often characterised by high costs and lengthy processing times. Solutions leveraging blockchain and stablecoins have emerged as one avenue being explored by various firms to address these friction points, though they operate within evolving regulatory frameworks across the continent.
SCRYPT's model attempts to navigate this by using stablecoins for the international leg of a transaction while settling in local fiat currency, thereby potentially reducing exposure to currency volatility for end-users. The success of such ventures depends heavily on partnerships with local financial institutions and compliance with national regulations, which vary significantly across the four markets the company has now entered.