Kredete Enters South African Market Through Acquisition of CASP-Licensed Entity
Kredete acquires an FSCA CASP-licensed entity in South Africa, combining local regulatory access with its Gravv stablecoin payment rails.
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What to know
- Kredete has acquired an entity holding a Crypto Asset Service Provider (CASP) licence from South Africa’s Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA). The deal was all-share; its value was not disclosed.
- It follows the 21 September Gravv acquisition: Gravv supplies payment rails; the licence permits it to use them in South Africa.
- South Africa has licensed 310 of 533 CASP applicants, yet its industry is fighting draft cross-border crypto rules.
Kredete, a stablecoin payments fintech serving African diaspora and emerging-market customers, has entered South Africa by buying a company that already holds an FSCA crypto licence. The deal, executed through a specialised stablecoin infrastructure subsidiary, gives Kredete a direct, regulated operating bridge in one of Africa’s primary financial hubs.
Founded in 2022 by Adeola Adedewe, Kredete lets consumers, businesses and institutions move and convert money across more than 60 countries. The company says it has 6.5 million users and has processed about $18 billion in annualised payments volume after raising $22 million in a Series A funding round in September 2025, led by AfricInvest with Partech and Polymorphic Capital.
Kredete’s Head of Legal, Tobi Adebowale, said the deal reflects the company’s belief that stablecoins are “the future of finance in Africa” and its aim to deliver faster, cheaper payments for South African customers.
He also added that the deal demonstrates Kredete’s commitment to “providing secure and compliant financial infrastructure for the diaspora communities and businesses we serve, both in South Africa and everywhere else we operate.”
Kredete says it is pursuing licences market by market. The company already holds virtual asset and payment authorisations in Argentina and a money transfer licence in Ghana. The South African acquisition lets the platform offer fully compliant, stablecoin-powered remittance and payment services to retail consumers and corporate clients locally.
The Strategy: Licensing Meets In-House Infrastructure
The South African expansion is part of a broader infrastructure push. On 21 September, Kredete acquired Gravv, a stablecoin infrastructure platform. Before the acquisition, Gravv had processed over $3 billion in annualised volume for more than 1,000 businesses.
Kredete CEO Adeola Adedewe described the move as “building the autonomous middleware for the global money movement.”
By pairing Gravv’s settlement stack with a formal FSCA CASP licence, Kredete is pursuing a clear dual-track strategy: owning the technology and maintaining regulatory autonomy. By owning the rails, via Gravv, it eliminates reliance on third-party middleware for routing, FX conversion, and liquidity management.
The company is also securing native licenses to interface directly with local banking and payment rails, without exposure to intermediaries.
Tapping South Africa’s High-Growth Market
Kredete’s move aligns directly with shifting market dynamics in the region. Regional data show Nigeria and South Africa lead cross-border crypto flows, driven by cross-border trade, diaspora remittances, and inflation hedging. South Africa also had about $35 billion in on-chain value between July 2024 and June 2025, out of $205 billion for Sub-Saharan Africa, making it the second-largest market in the region.
South Africa’s stablecoin spending has expanded rapidly in recent years. Recent data show that stablecoin spending grew from 2% to 44% within Three Years. Stablecoins have evolved from a speculative asset class into a mainstream payment mechanism accepted at major national retail chains.
By embedding stablecoin rails directly into local clearing channels, Kredete positions itself to capture expanding merchant and B2B settlement volume.
Navigating the FSCA Perimeter
The acquisition comes amid an intense regulatory battle in South Africa, as the industry pushes back against regulations that would affect, among other things, stablecoins. Despite this tension, South Africa still has one of the most mature regulatory landscapes in Africa.
The FSCA has issued 310 CASP licenses to operators in the region and provided operational guidelines for CASPs. South Africa’s established CASP regime offers institutional clarity.
Rather than navigating the framework from scratch as a new applicant, acquiring an established CASP holder lets Kredete bypass long licensing queues while staying fully aligned with FSCA mandates. Kredete is betting on South Africa’s licensing regime while its cross-border rules remain unsettled.
