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A new initiative backed by AfCFTA, the Tony Blair Institute, and the World Economic Forum aims to deploy stablecoin-based payment rails across all 55 African nations by 2035. Built on IOTA’s infrastructure, the project targets a potential $70 billion in unlocked value. But its success will depend on liquidity, regulation, and whether Africa’s complex trade corridors can support a new digital standard.

Published by CoinEpigraph Main Desk | November 17, 2025

Africa’s Trade Puzzle Has a New Contender: Stablecoin Rails

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) has long recognized a hard truth:
Africa trades more with Europe, China, and the U.S. than with itself.

Only around 14% of African trade happens within the continent — the lowest intra-regional share in the world.

The reasons are structural:

• fragmented payment systems
• inconsistent documentation
• cross-border currency hurdles
• settlement delays measured in days or weeks
• expensive correspondent banking routes
• limited access to trade finance

Into this complexity comes a new proposal:
an Africa-wide stablecoin-powered trade rail built on IOTA’s infrastructure, formally called:

Africa Digital Access and Public Infrastructure for Trade (ADAPT).

Its thesis is simple:
If Africa cannot harmonize its currency systems quickly, it can harmonize its digital settlement layer instead.

The Vision: Stablecoins + Digital Documentation + Trade Finance

Backed by AfCFTA, the World Economic Forum, and the Tony Blair Institute, ADAPT takes a layered approach:

1. USDT-based digital settlement

Instead of navigating dozens of volatile or illiquid national currencies, merchants could settle cross-border trade instantly using stablecoins.

2. IOTA as the infrastructural backbone

IOTA provides the messaging, identity structures, and trade-document verification rails.

3. Tokenized trade documentation

Bills of lading, certificates, customs forms, and clearances become verifiable, digital, and tamper-evident.

4. Trade finance access for SMEs

Tokenized records allow banks and lenders to assess risk faster — unlocking capital for small exporters.

5. A unified continental digital infrastructure

The goal: all 55 AfCFTA nations integrated by 2035.

If fully implemented, backers estimate that ADAPT could unlock $70 billion in new economic value and generate $23.6 billion in annual trade efficiency gains.

That number is not unrealistic when compared with:

• lost settlement time
• border friction
• documentation inefficiency
• liquidity constraints
• currency conversion costs

The opportunity is enormous — and so are the risks.

Early Pilot Results: Real Progress in East Africa

Pilot programs in Kenya and Rwanda have already produced measurable improvements:

• Document verification times reduced from ~6 hours to ~30 minutes
• Fewer back-and-forth manual checks
• Less reliance on physical paperwork
• Faster border clearance
• Improved exporter competitiveness

These are the kinds of improvements that can meaningfully shift trade flows.

If replicated at scale, the combined savings in time, labor, and capital could reshape regional commerce.

Why Stablecoins — and Why Now?

Africa’s financial environment makes stablecoins uniquely suited as settlement tools:

✔ High cross-border friction

Banks often route payments through Paris, London, or New York — even for adjacent African nations.

✔ Volatile and thinly traded local currencies

Many African currencies lack deep markets, making FX unpredictable.

✔ The demand for dollar stability

Businesses want predictable value, not compounding FX risk.

✔ Mobile-money familiarity

Sub-Saharan Africa is already home to the world’s most mature mobile-payment cultures (M-Pesa, MTN, Airtel).

Stablecoins feel like a natural evolution.

And unlike central-bank digital currency (CBDC) projects, stablecoins are:

• faster to deploy
• easier to integrate
• already liquid
• already widely understood
• built for cross-border interoperability

This is not theoretical finance — it is applied infrastructure.

Where IOTA Fits: Trade Data, Identity, and Verification

While USDT serves as the settlement currency, IOTA’s role is infrastructural:

• secure identity
• document hashing
• logistics verification
• auditability
• low-cost messaging
• interoperability between systems

This is IOTA’s historical niche — Internet-of-Things infrastructure adapted for trade.

ADAPT relies on IOTA for the digital backbone, not the monetary instrument.

Stablecoins move the money.
IOTA moves the data.

The Potential Upside: Transforming African Trade

If ADAPT succeeds, the impact could be transformative:

• Lower settlement costs

Cutting USD correspondent bank fees and delays.

• Faster logistics

Digitized paperwork removes chronic bottlenecks.

• SME empowerment

Increased access to trade finance for exporters currently shut out.

• Regional economic resilience

A shared digital layer can reduce dependence on external financial networks.

• Data transparency

Governments gain visibility into cross-border movement without adding friction.

And most importantly:

• A continental trade identity

For the first time, African trade could operate on a single interoperable digital standard, even without monetary union.

This is not minor — it is structural modernization.

The Risks: Implementation, Liquidity, and Regulation

CE readers expect clarity, not celebration.
There are significant headwinds:

1. Liquidity reliability of USDT on the continent

Stablecoin rails require deep, consistent liquidity — not patchwork availability.

2. Regulatory divergence

Africa has 55 nations.
Regulations vary widely.
Stablecoin treatment is not uniform.

3. Banking-sector resistance

Correspondent banks may push back against disintermediation.

4. Infrastructure gaps

Digitization varies drastically across regions.

5. Coordination and governance

Integrating dozens of customs systems, ministries, and trade bodies is a complex political task.

6. Dependence on an external stablecoin issuer

USDT is not African-controlled; this introduces geopolitical and compliance risk.

The project’s success will depend on:

• harmonized regulatory frameworks
• documented operational success
• liquidity partnerships
• cross-border cooperation
• real-world adoption by exporters and SMEs

This is a long road.

Key Developments to Watch

The ADAPT initiative is not a marketing announcement.
It’s an early attempt to modernize Africa’s trade infrastructure with:

• stablecoins
• tokenized documentation
• decentralized identity
• interoperable messaging
• and real-world digital rails

Its progress matters because:

If stablecoin settlement works at scale in Africa, it becomes a global case study for the rest of the developing world.

From Southeast Asia to Latin America, emerging markets face similar cross-border frictions.

Africa may become the proving ground.

Conclusion: The $70B Question Is Not About Technology — It’s About Adoption

The IOTA-backed ADAPT trade rail is one of the most ambitious stablecoin-infrastructure experiments in the world.

It promises tens of billions in unlocked value.

But its fate will depend on the oldest ingredients in global trade:

• trust
• cooperation
• regulatory interoperability
• liquidity
• and merchant adoption

Technology can accelerate trade.
Stablecoins can simplify settlement.
Tokenization can streamline documentation.

But trade only changes when millions of businesses and thousands of institutions decide that a new system works better than the old one.

ADAPT is Africa’s attempt to build that system.

Whether it succeeds — or becomes another ambitious experiment — will be one of the most important economic stories to watch over the next decade.

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