Tether has announced a brand new strategic collaboration with Kenyan fintech HoneyCoinaimed toward pushing USDT-backed payments delve deeper into on a regular basis trade across Africa.
In an official update on its website, Tether says the partnership:
- Start a cashless point-of-sale (POS) platform where dealers can accept USD₮ (USDT) directly on the checkout in physical stores.
- Integrate USDT into HoneyCoin's existing payment stack for businesses to handle Online and in-person payments in stablecoins.
- Add Real-time FX conversionstarting with Kenyan Shilling (KES) to USDTto make it easier for merchants and consumers to modify between local currency and dollar-pegged balances.
The initial focus is Sub-Saharan Africawith in-store stablecoin payments highlighted first Kenya before HoneyCoin is rolled out more broadly because it scales.
Who HoneyCoin is and why it matters
HoneyCoin is a payment orchestration platform founded in Nairobi that builds bridges traditional finance and stablecoin rails for firms and developers.
Current funding reporting states that HoneyCoin:
- Processes over $150 million per 30 days in stablecoin-based payments in dozens of markets.
- Serves Hundreds of corporate customers and a growing consumer base through its apps and APIs.
- Grown up roughly $4.9 million in seed financing led by Flourish Ventureswith support from Visa VenturesTLcom, Stellar Development Foundation and others.
In practice, HoneyCoin already enables:
- Multiple currencies Wallets and Payments.
- Foreign exchange and treasury tools for firms.
- On/Off Ramp APIs This allows firms to integrate stablecoin settlement into their very own products.
That makes it a natural partner for Tether's push to maneuver USDT out of purely crypto-native contexts on a regular basis merchant payments.
How the USDT POS and merchant stack should work
The partnership is predicated on two vital product pillars:
1. USDT enabled POS terminals and QR payments
HoneyCoin will introduce one cashless POS network This allows traders to:
- Accept USDT on the physical checkouteither via dedicated terminals or QR-based payment streams.
- Price goods in local currency while settling in USDT easy FX conversion within the backend.
- See USDT receipts in Merchant dashboardsamongst other payment methods.
For buyers, the experience should feel much like the present experience mobile money and QR based paymentsbut with the opportunity of paying in a Dollar-pegged stablecoin as an alternative of a volatile local currency.
2. Integrated online and offline stablecoin payments
Beyond the terminal itself, USDT might be integrated into HoneyCoin's broader stack, allowing traders to:
- Accept USDT in E-commerce checkouts and web or app-based processes.
- To plug in, use HoneyCoin's API layer Stablecoin settlement integrate into their very own platforms.
- Access Real-time FX rates (for instance KES/USDT, NGN/USDT) and manage Balance in multiple currencies in HoneyCoin's treasury tools.
From a retailer's perspective, it's all about lower fees, faster processing and a strategy to keep a few of their working capital in a single Dollar-pegged asset as an alternative of entirely in local currency.
Why stablecoin rails are gaining traction in sub-Saharan Africa
Tether's announcement very explicitly frames the HoneyCoin deal as financial inclusion And Currency risk Story.
The major realities identified by the press release:
- Many African consumers and small businesses face this high inflation, exchange rate volatility and limited access to banking.
- Stablecoins like USDT can provide a possibility to do that Inventory value in dollarswhile still sending and receiving money quickly via your mobile device.
- Between mid-2024 and mid-2025, sub-Saharan Africa received over $200 billion in on-chain valuewhich makes it one among the fastest growing crypto regions worldwide, with stablecoins accounting for a big portion of this activity.
In this context, a USDT-based POS and payment network isn’t nearly adopting cryptocurrencies as an end in itself. It's a direct attempt:
- Reduce Cross-border payment costs and processing times.
- Give retailers and freelancers the chance to do that Invoice in dollars and convert to local currency provided that mandatory.
- Provide an alternate layer of rail on the locations Mobile money and banks don’t all the time offer low cost, interoperable FX.
Where this matches into Tether’s broader Africa strategy
This isn’t Tether's first move on the continent. In recent months the corporate has:
- Invested in How much wagesa Kenyan on/off ramp provider constructing stablecoin-based cross-border infrastructure.
- Signed Letters of Intent with regional authorities (reminiscent of the Zanzibar E-Government Authority) to supply support Education about digital assets and blockchain adoption.
- Supported on-chain infrastructure firms like Enter digital that deal with African financial rails.
The HoneyCoin collaboration matches this pattern Front-end merchant and consumer layer for USDT in Africa:
- Kotani Pay and similar partners are working on this Rail level connectivity between banks, mobile money and blockchains.
- HoneyCoin focuses on Merchant acceptance, POS and APIsThis allows these rails for use at checkout and in business processes.
Overall, the strategy is about making USDT not only a trading pair on exchanges, but one Means of payment throughout the local economy.
Competition and Regulatory Considerations
The deal also lands in a competitive environment where:
- USDT Already dominates using stablecoins in Africa, but faces competition USDC and regional currency-backed tokens.
- Established mobile money providers like M-Pesa still control a big portion of on a regular basis digital transactions.
- Regulators are combating classification and monitoring Stablecoin based paymentsparticularly after they overlap with exchange controls and anti-money laundering regulations.
HoneyCoin's positioning as compatible payment orchestration platformplus the support of Visa-linked investors, suggests that each side expect to operate inside, quite than outside, the emerging political framework.
At the identical time, the adoption of USDT in POS environments is prone to attract more attention from:
- Central banksconcerned about dollarization and capital flows.
- Payment regulatorswho want clear guidelines on KYC, travel compliance and consumer protection.
How these discussions develop might be crucial to how quickly the HoneyCoin-Tether model can scale beyond early adopters.
What to look at next
For observers following this story, some concrete signals will show how substantial the partnership is becoming:
- Merchant acceptance metrics: How many merchants in Kenya (and later other markets) accept USDT through HoneyCoin POS and online checkouts?
- Transaction volume: Will HoneyCoin's already significant stablecoin volume experience a major increase driven by USDT POS usage?
- User Experience vs. Mobile Money: Are consumers actually selecting USDT payments over established mobile wallets for on a regular basis purchases, or is the feature primarily used for high-value cross-border transactions?
- Regulatory reactions: Will Kenyan or regional regulators issue recent guidance on using stablecoins in retail payments as deployment increases?
These data points determine whether it’s primarily a PR and pilot story or the start of 1 scaled USDT dealer network throughout Africa.
Diploma
Tether's partnership with HoneyCoin brings its USDT stablecoin one step closer real money registers in one of the dynamic but financially strained regions on the earth.
By combining HoneyCoin's merchant and API infrastructure with USDT's liquidity and brand recognition, the collaboration goals to scale back payment costs, alleviate FX concerns and supply access to African businesses dollar-denominated digital money at the purpose of sale.
Whether this becomes a cornerstone of on a regular basis trading or stays a distinct segment option will depend upon merchant adoption, user behavior and the convenience of regulation. Currently, it’s a key indicator of how quickly the stablecoin rails are developing Crypto exchanges into physical stores and native economies.
The post Tether and HoneyCoin Bring USDT Point-of-Sale Payments to African Merchants appeared first on Crypto Adventure.
