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Flutterwave has announced a major multi-year partnership with Polygon, a blockchain network, to integrate stablecoin payments, aiming to reduce the cost and time of cross-border transactions across the continent. Polygon will serve as Flutterwave’s default blockchain network for its new cross-border payments product, enabling businesses and consumers to send and receive payments using stablecoins —digital currencies pegged to fiat assets, such as the U.S. dollar. This strategic integration is set to disrupt Africa’s $2 trillion cross-border payments market, which currently suffers from transfer fees averaging above 8 percent and settlement times of several days. The partnership is expected to transform transaction efficiency. Marc Boiron, CEO of Polygon Labs, stated that the move represents a “massive vote of confidence in stablecoins as the future of cross-border payments,” noting that stablecoins on Polygon can advance settlement times from days to seconds and high fees into pennies. “Businesses in emerging economies process billions in cross-border payments annually yet still face high costs and slow settlement times. By partnering with Polygon, we’re introducing a solution that makes international payments even simpler and affordable than many local ones,” Olugbenga Agboola, CEO and founder of Flutterwave, said. The company plans to begin with USDC, the stablecoin issued by Circle, which will also provide liquidity and issuance support. This follows Flutterwave’s earlier announcement in 2025 that it had joined the Circle Payment Network. The rollout will be phased in Pilot Testing (2025), where the service will initially launch with a select group of approved and verified merchants. The first enterprise clients targeted include regional payment users like Uber and Audiomack. There will be a full expansion (2026) where the service will expand to all business and consumer users through Flutterwave’s remittance product, Send App. “We want to make stablecoins another alternative for our merchants, something as easy and accessible as fiat,” Vincent Yang, Flutterwave’s senior product manager for stablecoins and cryptocurrency, said.
