> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://corridor.udokaam.dev/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# First market: Africa

> Why Corridor starts in Africa: five years of on-chain value in Sub-Saharan Africa, the share already moving in stablecoins, and the trade flows behind it.

Corridor is built for cross-border payments anywhere (see [The global opportunity](/market/global-opportunity)) and starts in Africa, where stablecoins are already the settlement asset of choice for cross-border flows. The rails exist; what is missing is the ledger that lets licensed payment companies run on them across providers and chains.

## Five years of on-chain value

On-chain value received in Sub-Saharan Africa, from Chainalysis' annual Geography of Cryptocurrency reports (July-to-June years, labelled by the year they end):

| Period | Value received | Change |
| - | - | - |
| Jul 2020 – Jun 2021 | **\$105.6B** | |
| Jul 2021 – Jun 2022 | **\$100.6B** | −5% |
| Jul 2022 – Jun 2023 | **\$117.1B** | +16% |
| Jul 2023 – Jun 2024 | **\$125B** | +7% |
| Jul 2024 – Jun 2025 | **\$205B** | **+52%** |
| **Five-year total** | **\$653B** | |

```mermaid theme={"dark"}
xychart-beta
  title "On-chain value received, Sub-Saharan Africa ($B)"
  x-axis ["2021", "2022", "2023", "2024", "2025"]
  y-axis "USD billions" 0 --> 220
  line [105.6, 100.6, 117.1, 125, 205]
```

The last year made Sub-Saharan Africa the third fastest-growing crypto region in the world, behind Asia-Pacific and Latin America. Nigeria alone received more than \$92 billion.

## The stablecoin share

Stablecoins account for **43% of the region's on-chain transaction volume**, which puts last year's stablecoin flow at roughly **\$88 billion**. Chainalysis also reports frequent multi-million-dollar stablecoin transfers linking Africa, the Middle East and Asia for energy and merchant payments: trade settlement, not speculation.

<Info>
  No one publishes stablecoin volume for licensed PSPs on their own. Corridor sizes its opportunity against the region's total stablecoin flow and positions itself as the licensed layer on top of it. The [business model](/market/business-model) shows revenue at different shares of that flow.
</Info>

## The trade behind the flows

| Measure | Value | Source |
| - | - | - |
| Africa's merchandise trade with the world, 2024 | **\$1.5 trillion** (+13.9%) | Afreximbank African Trade Report 2025 |
| Intra-African trade, 2024 | **\$220.3 billion** (+12.4%) | Afreximbank African Trade Report 2025 |

Every import is a payment out of Africa, and every export a payment in. Corridor serves both directions on the same hub: collections in, payouts out.

## Why now

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="A payments chain exists" icon="zap">
    Tempo, incubated by Stripe and Paradigm, is built for stablecoin payments: memos on every transfer, gas paid in stablecoins, sub-second finality.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Bridging is commoditised" icon="arrow-left-right">
    Across moves USDC between Tempo, Base and Solana in seconds for fractions of a cent, so the hub is never isolated.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Ramps have APIs" icon="plug">
    African ramp partners such as Paj expose business APIs with signed webhooks that settle on Solana.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Privacy is production-grade" icon="shield">
    Zcash's Ironwood pool, FROST threshold signing and scoped viewing keys make private supplier payments auditable.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Sources

* Chainalysis, *Geography of Cryptocurrency* reports: [2025](https://www.chainalysis.com/blog/subsaharan-africa-crypto-adoption-2025/), [2024](https://www.chainalysis.com/blog/subsaharan-africa-crypto-adoption-2024/), [2023](https://www.chainalysis.com/blog/africa-cryptocurrency-adoption/), [2022](https://www.chainalysis.com/blog/sub-saharan-africa-cryptocurrency-geography-report-2022-preview/), [2021](https://www.chainalysis.com/blog/africas-grassroots-cryptocurrency-adoption/)
* Afreximbank, [*African Trade Report 2025*](https://www.afreximbank.com/afreximbank-launches-2025-report-on-african-trade-in-a-shifting-global-financial-landscape/)


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