Stablecoins Now Account for 60% of All Trades, Says NoOnes

New research from Global South crypto app NoOnes shows stablecoin use on their platform has grown from less than 25% across all products to almost 60% in the past two years. This sits alongside data showing that stablecoins account for 43% of all cryptocurrency volume in Sub-Saharan Africa, with digital asset users across the continent now topping 54 million. Stablecoins are becoming Africa’s financial rail, and that has implications for how most Africans – particularly the youth – will earn, spend, and save in the future.

For decades, many Africans have taken higher-paying jobs and moved overseas, and most of them remitted money back home. That capital inflow continues to remain important for African economies, and this year Africans working abroad will send between $60-70 billion back home.

However, the employment landscape is changing because the digital economy has created a seismic shift in the way we work. Local freelancers and remote workers are now bringing in overseas income without having to leave home, and many Africans, particularly the youth, are benefiting. The introduction of stablecoins has solved one of the biggest challenges facing freelancers and remote workers – getting paid by overseas companies.

For both local freelancers and overseas ex-pat workers, stablecoins make a huge difference to their lives. Stablecoins not only protect freelancers and ex-pats from the volatility of local currencies, they allow them to get paid by anyone, anywhere in the world. A Kenyan designer doing work for a London-based company, for example, can get paid in stablecoins almost immediately, instead of waiting days for payments to come through from bank wires.

95% of Africans are willing to accept stablecoins

A recent survey showed that 95% of all Africa workers are open to receiving money in stablecoins, highlighting the attraction. In their press release last month, NoOnes gave a clue to how crypto companies are now catering to stablecoin users by hinting at integrated tools like invoice templates with payment links designed specifically for freelancers. NoOnes says the tools they are developing are designed to allow users to “store value, spend what they earn globally, and cash out locally” without the friction associated with the traditional banking system.

It’s not only remote workers and freelancers who are driving stablecoin adoption in Africa.

NoOnes estimates that corporate stablecoin transactions on their platform have grown by over 25% in the past year. There are many examples of SMEs around Africa utilizing stablecoins. A Kenyan electronics importer might pay a supplier in Dubai with USDT, Ghanaian entrepreneurs are sending USDT with mobile money to pay suppliers in China instantly, and scores of local businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, and Cameroon are also benefiting from the utility of stablecoins, according to NoOnes.

When it comes to spending the money they earn, one of the most liberating factors for Africans is how stablecoins allow them to spend their money like the rest of the world. Africa’s fragmented banking system has been a hot topic of discussion in the crypto community for years and steps to improve it had limited effects. Stablecoins sweep problems aside by effectively side-stepping the systemic problems with the banking system that have dogged African economies. In fact, some argue that stablecoins are now an integral part of the banking system itself.

Cross-border transfers are now much faster and dramatically cheaper because of stablecoins. Traditional remittances through the banking system, for example, cost anywhere from 5-12% in fees. Crypto fees are about 1-3%, so many Africans save up to 70% when they use stablecoins. A Kenyan in the U.K. who sends $300 home would pay around $25 using a bank, but only $3 if using a crypto app like NoOnes.

Earning globally only works if you can spend it locally

The ability for Africans to use crypto as a solution to the inequities in the global financial system is the game-changer. It’s just as important for Africans be able to spend their money locally as it is to earn or use it globally. There is no point earning money if you can’t spend it on the things you want and need. The missing link since the widespread adoption of crypto has been off-ramps. So, what’s changed? How do people cash out?

The ‘hack’ has often been cashing-out your crypto to MoMo. While 50% of the African population remains unbanked, there are more than 850 million mobile money accounts, and MoMo exceeds bank access in key markets across the continent. A freelancer who earns stablecoins working remotely can convert their stablecoins to M-PESA, MTN, or Airtel Money etc. in a few clicks.

With fast, low-fee networks such as Solana, Arbitrum, Base, Ton, and USDC on BSC, for example, stablecoins users are getting better service than they get from traditional banks. They are spending the money earned overseas to pay rent, transport, or groceries locally, and they are doing it quickly, with very little friction, and it is costing them less to do it because the fees are much lower.

NoOnes says users of its app can now cash out their USDT to 15 countries, with Cameroon added only two weeks ago. However, initial research findings by NoOnes suggests that remote workers and freelancers are not simply cashing out to mobile money (MoMo) in their local currencies. They want more options. Many are benefiting from low spread swaps between Bitcoin/USDT, for example, and enjoying great margins and increased liquidity, so they hold some money in other coins, especially BTC.

Stablecoins Stability

Stablecoins help solve the problems Africans have receiving income globally and spending it locally, but there is a third reason that stablecoin use has exploded in Africa – savings. African savings have long been at risk from local currency fluctuations, and stablecoins have reduced the risk because holders can now effectively peg their savings to the USD, thereby hedging against unstable exchange rates. Imported products, overseas payments and services all increase in real terms when local currencies fall against the USD.

Africa has been at the forefront of crypto adoption because it solves problems unique to the Global South. Real-world usage (payments, remittances, savings) rather than speculation has been the driving force behind crypto adoption in Africa, and stablecoins have simply added to crypto’s utility.

NoOnes says stablecoins have become the default value layer across their platform, but that has only happened because stablecoins have become the default value layer across the African continent.

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