Mobile Money Was Africa's Original Stablecoin - How M-Pesa Predicted Crypto by 20 Years
About this episode
The episode discusses how M-Pesa laid the groundwork for stablecoins in Africa, predicting the crypto trend two decades ahead of time.
Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/qHdoyy_5Cxk In this snippet, Adrian sits down with the team behind PawaPay to unpack one of the most underrated stories in African fintech: how mobile money, starting with M-Pesa in 2007, quietly became the blueprint for everything the crypto world now calls "stablecoin." The core idea is when mobile penetration grew across Africa, people were already handing over shillings, kwacha and cedis to mobile network operators to buy airtime and data. That created a digital store of value, held in custody outside the traditional banking system, instantly transferable and natively digital. Sounds familiar? That's the exact pitch for stablecoin today. Key Topics How M-Pesa turned mobile airtime infrastructure into Africa's first digital store of value Why mobile money is "Africa's original stablecoin" held outside banks, instantly transferable more secure How the continent was 20 years ahead of the global crypto and Web3 conversation How payment aggregators like PawaPay connect mobile money ecosystems to local, Pan-African and international merchants Why stablecoins are the natural next step: more speed, more security, lower cost and less…
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