MIT DCI Releases in New Collaborative Paper: “Stablecoins in Africa:Translating Global Principles into Local Regulatory Practice Paper”

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Stablecoin adoption is accelerating globally, with particularly significant implications for African markets where cross-border payments remain costly, foreign currency liquidity is uneven, and financial inclusion gaps persist. Across the continent, stablecoins are already being used for remittances, peer-to-peer transfers, trade settlement, and as a store of value in response to currency volatility. Regulatory approaches must therefore respond to an active and evolving ecosystem rather than a purely emerging one.

Against this backdrop, this African Chapter of GDF’s Global Stablecoin Regulatory Playbook is strategically important. It provides a contextual lens to translate the regulatory principles identified in the Playbook into approaches that reflect African market realities. Its purpose is to support the consistent and practical implementation of these principles in ways that are aligned with both the relevant recommendations by international standard setting bodies and local market realities, development objectives, and institutional capacities.

The scope of this chapter is focused and aligned to the Global Stablecoin Regulatory Playbook. It examines the regulatory treatment of fiat-backed stablecoin issuers, recognising their growing relevance across African markets. It does not intend to categorise, define, or prescribe regulatory approaches for the broader universe of digital assets, such as tokenised deposits or other crypto-assets. Instead, it concentrates on how the core stablecoin principles presented in the Playbook can be applied in practice within African market contexts…