Aptos Foundation, HashKey MENA, and African payments platform Daya have partnered to establish a stablecoin-powered payment corridor connecting the Middle East and Africa. The initiative is designed to improve the efficiency of cross-border transactions by leveraging blockchain technology and regulated stablecoin infrastructure.
The project arrives at a time when businesses continue to face significant challenges in international money transfers. Traditional cross-border payments often involve high banking fees, foreign exchange costs, and lengthy settlement times. These issues are particularly pronounced in Africa, where remittance and payment costs remain among the highest in the world.
According to data cited from the World Bank, sending $200 to Sub-Saharan Africa incurs an average fee of 7.9%, making it the most expensive region globally for money transfers. The new partnership aims to address these inefficiencies by introducing a payment framework that utilizes stablecoins and blockchain-based settlement.
Aptos Foundation, HashKey MENA, and Daya have launched a pilot program to create a regulated stablecoin payment corridor between the Middle East and Africa, targeting faster and lower-cost cross-border transactions.
How the Payment Corridor Operates
The collaboration is being implemented through what the partners describe as a Corridor Pilot Agreement, which serves as a trial phase for the proposed payment route. The model is designed to streamline the transfer of funds between businesses operating in the United Arab Emirates and African markets.
Under the proposed workflow, a company in the UAE converts local currency into stablecoins through HashKey MENA. These digital assets are then transferred across the Aptos blockchain, where transactions are settled quickly and transparently. Once the funds reach their destination, Daya converts the stablecoins into local African currencies and delivers them to recipients.
The structure is intended to reduce transaction costs, accelerate settlement times, and improve payment traceability while maintaining compliance with applicable regulations. Each participant contributes a specific function within the ecosystem.
HashKey MENA, a Dubai-based virtual asset service provider regulated by the UAE’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority, manages the conversion between traditional currencies and stablecoins. Daya facilitates payment distribution throughout Africa and handles settlement in local currencies. Aptos Foundation provides the blockchain infrastructure that supports the transaction settlement process.
Cross-border payments in Africa can take 3–5 business days, cost too much, and can't be tracked.@Daya_HQ is building stablecoin-powered rails to make it instant—same-day sends and receives, anywhere in the world.@aptAlix sits down with @alephile to break it down. pic.twitter.com/bnnSGDZLv1
— Aptos (@Aptos) June 4, 2026
Growing Stablecoin Adoption on Aptos
The launch of the payment corridor coincides with rapid growth in stablecoin activity across the Aptos ecosystem. The network has experienced significant expansion in the amount of stablecoins circulating on its blockchain, reflecting increasing demand for blockchain-based financial services.
According to figures released by Aptos, the value of stablecoins operating on the network has exceeded $1.9 billion, marking a record high. The stablecoin market capitalization on Aptos reportedly increased from approximately $649 million to more than $1.2 billion during the first half of 2025 before rising beyond $1.9 billion in 2026.
Sub-Saharan Africa: $205B+ onchain volume last year, 43% of that was in stablecoins. Nigeria alone processed ~$22B in stablecoin transactions. 79% of crypto users in Africa's top markets hold them—the highest of any region.
Meeting that demand:
• @Daya_HQ: NGN on/off-ramps
•…— Aptos (@Aptos) June 4, 2026
The initiative utilizes the Aptos blockchain to enable stablecoin settlement, building on a network that now supports more than $1.9 billion in stablecoin circulation.
This growth highlights the expanding role of Aptos as a platform for digital asset transfers and payment infrastructure. The increasing volume of stablecoin activity suggests broader adoption among users and organizations seeking alternatives to traditional financial systems.
Expansion of HashKey’s Global Payment Network
The new Africa-focused corridor also represents the latest expansion of HashKey’s Asia Connect network, which operates on the Aptos blockchain. Since launching its first payment corridor between Hong Kong and the Philippines in June 2025, the network has steadily expanded into additional markets.
Subsequent growth included the addition of Vietnam through collaborations with CAEX and VPBank, followed by expansion into the UAE through HashKey MENA. The African corridor marks the network’s newest and most geographically extensive development to date.
The corridor extends HashKey’s growing international payment network and represents its first major expansion into Africa, one of the world’s most costly regions for cross-border money transfers.
As the pilot progresses, industry participants will closely monitor whether blockchain-based stablecoin settlement can deliver meaningful improvements in speed, cost efficiency, transparency, and regulatory compliance for businesses operating between the Middle East and Africa. The initiative reflects the growing adoption of blockchain technology as a practical solution for international payment challenges.
