Africa Turns to IOTA Stablecoins to Power a $70B Trade Revolution

The African Continental Free Trade Area Secretariat and IOTA Foundation have launched a digital trade initiative positioning stablecoin settlement as the cornerstone of continental commerce transformation.

The Africa Digital Access and Public Infrastructure for Trade (ADAPT) will deploy shared, open-source digital public infrastructure across Africa’s 55 member states. The Tony Blair Institute and World Economic Forum are partnership contributors.

Today in Johannesburg, @AfCFTA launched ADAPT – a landmark initiative to build the world’s most advanced digital public infrastructure for trade with the potential to:

🌍 Double intra-African trade by 2035
🤝 Unlock more than $70 billion in additional trade value
📈 Generate… pic.twitter.com/D3AvcLholN

— Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (@InstituteGC) November 17, 2025

The platform enables instant cross-border payments, verifiable digital trade documents, and interoperable digital identities. IOTA Foundation founder Dominik Schiener told CoinDesk that USDT will serve as a primary adoption driver.

Now that we’ve solved the data problem digitizing and authenticating trade documents — we can do the trade finance part

Schiener said

The foundation will offer tokenization of physical assets including commodities and critical minerals.

AfCFTA estimates digitalization could double intra-African trade, unlock $70 billion in trade value, and generate $23.6 billion in annual economic gains. The initiative targets full integration of all 55 nations by 2035.

Stablecoins Address $25 Billion in Transaction Costs

African traders currently face an estimated $25 billion in annual payment transaction fees. Document fraud contributes billions more in losses, according to Monday’s announcement.

Trade logistics remain deeply analog. A single shipment may require 30 entities to exchange 240 paper documents. Kenyan border agents previously needed to log into 13 different systems to verify a consignment.

Pilot deployments in Kenya and Rwanda have delivered measurable results. Kenyan exporters are saving around $400 monthly on printing and documentation. Freight forwarders have cut manual paperwork by up to 60 percent.

Border clearance times have fallen from six hours to roughly 30 minutes. Kenya alone now posts around 100,000 transactions daily to IOTA’s distributed ledger.

We could help a miner in Rwanda get access to onchain trade finance at 50% of the cost, getting paid almost instantly with low transaction fees using USDT

Schiener told CoinDesk

The initiative coincides with clearer regulatory pathways for stablecoins in markets like the U.S. and Hong Kong. Payment volumes and institutional acceptance continue growing worldwide.

Continental Rollout Begins with Three Nations

ADAPT will begin with Kenya, Ghana and a third to-be-confirmed country, likely one in North Africa. Continental expansion begins in 2026.

Meanwhile, on Oct 30, 2025, Nigeria’s largest fintech company Flutterwave is developing a separate cross-border payment platform powered by stablecoins. Bloomberg reported Thursday that Polygon Labs is partnering on the service across 34 countries.

Fresh off the thrill of @money2020, we’re teaming up with @0xPolygon to make cross-border payments faster, cheaper & more accessible than ever!

With Polygon Proof of Stake (PoS) powering our new solution, businesses and individuals will soon be able to move money across borders… pic.twitter.com/7vmr88zy8e

— Flutterwave (@theflutterwave) October 30, 2025

Polygon’s blockchain infrastructure will enhance settlement speed and efficiency. CEO Olugbenga Agboola said the move could transform fund flows across the continent.

Stablecoin adoption will drive more flows into Africa, the initiative has the potential to 10x the volumes we are currently doing.

Agboola said.

Stablecoin adoption is surging across Africa. Tokens such as USDT are increasingly used by locals to hedge against inflation and navigate currency instability.

For African governments, the timing presents an opportunity to leapfrog legacy financial infrastructure. Direct integration into stablecoin rails becoming normalized worldwide offers a strategic advantage.