Circle inks Africa deals for USDC
Circle struck a major deal with Cassava Technologies and a separate collaboration with Sasai Fintech to expand USDC stablecoin access across Africa, aiming for faster, cheaper settlements. Those partnerships underline a shift toward event-driven, multi-region settlement rails and pluggable compliance adapters for regional payout rules. (billionaires.africa), (circle.com)
Circle published the announcement on March 24, 2026, framing the arrangement as a collaboration between one of Circle’s regulated affiliates and Sasai Fintech, a business unit of Cassava Technologies. (circle.com) Bloomberg reports the Sasai money‑transfer app that will integrate the arrangement already operates across roughly 30 African markets and supports both domestic and cross‑border payments. (bloomberg.com) Cassava Technologies is part of an ecosystem led by Strive Masiyiwa, and Bloomberg notes the group has backing from Nvidia; Cassava’s public communications list Sasai alongside units such as Liquid Intelligent Technologies, Africa Data Centres and Cassava AI. (africa.businessinsider.com) (cassavatechnologies.com) Circle’s release reiterates that USDC for this collaboration will be issued through Circle’s regulated affiliates and that USDC remains fully reserved and redeemable 1:1 for U.S. dollars. (circle.com) Circle reported USDC in circulation of $75.3 billion at year‑end 2025 and Q4 2025 total revenue and reserve income of $770 million, figures the company cited earlier as underpinning its ability to scale payments infrastructure. (circle.com) Sasai’s public site lists regulatory details — the Sasai Money Transfer service is registered in England and notes regulation by the South African Reserve Bank for its South Africa operations — and Cassava’s press archive shows prior commercial ties between Sasai and Western Union on a South Africa money‑transfer app. (moneytransfer.sasai.global) (cassavatechnologies.com)
