Alliance-backed Daya wants to help businesses manage money using stablecoins

## Unlocking Global Trade: Stablecoins Challenge Traditional Finance for African Businesses

The enduring paradox of modern global commerce is striking: while digital communication allows instant connections across continents, the movement of money for business transactions often remains bogged down in a system that can take days. This friction, acutely felt by enterprises navigating international supply chains, is precisely the problem new ventures like Daya aim to resolve through the integration of stablecoins.

Tomiwa “Aleph” Lasebikan, a former head of product at Y Combinator-backed crypto startup Helicarrier, observed this disconnect firsthand. Businesses frequently grappled with the delays in receiving dollars, paying overseas suppliers, and cross-border money transfers. Founded by Lasebikan and Paul Joe in October 2025, Daya directly addresses this challenge by building a payments platform designed to provide businesses with dollar liquidity and settle international transactions using dollar-backed digital currencies. The startup has already secured $350,000 from Alliance DAO, a US-based crypto accelerator, in 2025, signaling investor confidence in its blockchain-based solution.

The ambition of Daya and similar firms reflects a broader industry shift: leveraging blockchain to overhaul cross-border payments, much like the internet transformed communication. The sheer scale of stablecoin adoption underscores this potential. According to US-based investment manager Ark Invest, stablecoins settled a remarkable $15.6 trillion in transactions globally in 2024. This figure surged by 79% to $28 trillion by 2025, as reported by blockchain research firm Chainalysis, dwarfing Mastercard’s transaction volume and rivaling Visa’s. Crucially, Chainalysis identifies the primary drivers of this growth as economic activities, including business-to-business (B2B) payments, treasury management, and remittances.

### Key Insights: A Shifting Financial Landscape

1. **Economic Efficiency for B2B Payments:** Daya’s focus on connecting traditional banking with blockchain networks to facilitate dollar-denominated accounts and stablecoin settlement addresses a massive, underserved market. The global B2B cross-border payments market was valued at $31.7 trillion in 2024 and is projected to reach $47.8 trillion by 2032, according to FXC Intelligence. This segment significantly overshadows consumer remittances, which totaled $905 billion globally in 2024. Streamlining these transactions offers substantial economic benefits, reducing delays and potentially costs for businesses engaged in international trade.

2. **Disruption of Legacy Infrastructure:** The growth in stablecoin usage, particularly for B2B payments and treasury management, signals a direct challenge to the correspondent banking infrastructure that currently underpins most international business transactions. As Lasebikan noted, while communication is “incredibly fast,” sending money across borders remains “horrendous.” Companies like Daya are not merely incremental improvements but represent a fundamental re-architecture of payment rails, promising greater speed and potentially lower friction.

3. **Maturing Crypto Use Cases:** The significant increase in stablecoin transaction volume, particularly for practical economic applications, demonstrates a maturing phase for blockchain technology beyond speculative trading. The data from Ark Invest and Chainalysis indicates a tangible shift towards stablecoins as reliable instruments for commercial activity, providing stable value and efficient settlement mechanisms for businesses seeking dollar liquidity and faster international transfers.

### Analysis: The Cost of Slowness

The implications of slow cross-border payments for African businesses, such as a Nigerian firm attempting to pay a Chinese supplier, are multifaceted. Delays translate into working capital tied up, increased risk due to currency fluctuations, and operational inefficiencies that can impede growth. Daya’s model, by converting incoming payments into stablecoins for settlement and enabling rapid cross-border movement or conversion to local currency, directly attacks these pain points. This matters because it potentially liberates African businesses from the constraints of outdated financial infrastructure, allowing for quicker inventory turns, better cash flow management, and more competitive global engagement.

This development signals a profound shift in how global commerce could be conducted. It underscores the practical utility of blockchain for real-world economic problems, moving beyond the often-abstract discussions surrounding cryptocurrencies. Businesses stand to benefit from enhanced liquidity and reduced transaction times, which are critical for supply chain resilience and global competitiveness. Conversely, traditional financial institutions relying heavily on legacy correspondent banking models may face pressure to adapt, innovate, or risk losing market share to agile, blockchain-native solutions.

### Broader Context: A Leap for African Markets

For Kenya and the broader African economic landscape, the advent of platforms like Daya offers a crucial pathway to greater participation in global trade. The ability for businesses to move money as quickly as they communicate dismantles a significant barrier to international expansion and efficiency. While the source details a Nigerian context, the challenges are ubiquitous across African markets where access to dollar liquidity and efficient cross-border settlement remains a hurdle. By offering a robust, blockchain-agnostic bridge between traditional banking and digital currency networks, Daya is poised to help businesses manage their international financial flows with unprecedented agility. This signals a broader trend where localized, tech-driven solutions are carving out essential infrastructure to plug Africa into the global economy more seamlessly.

### Conclusion

Daya’s entry, backed by significant early funding and built upon a rapidly expanding stablecoin economy, marks a compelling development in the quest for truly globalized and efficient business payments. By tackling the “horrendous” reality of cross-border money movement with a stablecoin-centric approach, the startup illustrates how innovative financial infrastructure can transcend geographical limitations and legacy system inertias, promising a faster, more integrated future for international commerce, particularly for dynamic African enterprises. The era of waiting days for a transaction while emails fly in seconds is steadily being rendered obsolete. The question now is how quickly the rest of the financial world will catch up to the efficiency of the blockchain.