🟠 Tether fuels $10M in MANSA

USDT issuer Tether leads $10 million funding round in MANSA

Topline:​ Stablecoin liquidity provider MANSA Finance has secured $10 million in funding to scale cross-border payments for remittance firms in emerging markets. (Details)

Driving the news: Tether and Polymorphic Capital led the round. Other investors include Faculty Group, Octerra Capital, and Trive Digital.

• The funding consists of $3M in equity and $7M in liquidity support.

How MANSA works: MANSA provides real-time settlement infrastructure for fintech companies moving money across borders.

• It sources liquidity from DeFi pools and investment funds, operating on Ethereum’s Layer-2 network, Base.
• Since launching in August, MANSA has processed $27 million in onchain transactions.

Coinbase Wallet partners with Onboard for naira-based crypto purchases

Topline: Coinbase Wallet has integrated Onboard’s P2P marketplace, allowing Nigerian users to buy crypto directly with naira (NGN). (Details)

The details: Through Onboard’s escrow-based P2P platform, users can now purchase crypto with naira.

• Transactions under $100 don’t require a know-your-customer (KYC) procedure.

Onboard expansion: In the next 12 months, Coinbase plans to expand this fiat onramp feature to Kenya, India, Indonesia, Argentina and Turkey.

• Onboard is recruiting local agents in these countries to facilitate transactions.

How it works: To purchase crypto with their local currencies on Coinbase Wallet via Onboard, users select the desired assets to purchase and then get matched to Onboard agents in the region. 

• As is typical with P2P platforms, Onboard serves as an escrow between the buyer and the agent, releasing the funds to the agent and the assets to the buyer when trade requirements are met.

Morocco cracks down on crypto real estate purchases abroad

Topline: Moroccan authorities are investigating claims that nationals are bypassing regulations by using crypto to purchase real estate in Spain and the UAE. (Details)

The details: The country’s Foreign Exchange Office is leading the probe after international partners flagged suspicious transactions.

• Officials suspect buyers are using crypto’s anonymity to evade banking regulations and transfer large sums abroad.

Before now: Morocco banned crypto in 2017, yet adoption has grown steadily.

• In 2023, Morocco ranked 2nd in Africa for crypto adoption and was in the top 20 globally.
• A pending crypto regulation bill has yet to be passed despite the government’s promises.

Catch up

🇿🇦 Bitget partners with Callpay to enable South African rand transactions (Mariblock)

🇳🇦 Bank of Namibia mulls CBDC launch for crossborder payments. (Mariblock)

🇿🇦 South African regulator, FSCA, to consider adding ‘certain DeFi use cases’ onto the IFWG Sandbox (BitKe)

🇿🇦 South Africa announces progress on FATF issues, expects to be off the grey-list by October 2025 (BitKe)

Opportunities

• VISA opens applications for Cohort 4 of its Africa Fintech Accelerator Program. Deadline: Mar. 25, 2025. (Details)
• African blockchain talent firm Web3Bridge has opened the waitlist for its 13th cohort. Join the waitlist here.
• USAID announces the Women Entrepreneurship Incubator program in Kenya. Apply here.

That’s it for this week.

Until next time, stay informed.

Cheers,

Ogechi.