Table Of Content
Key Takeaways:
- Yellow Card has secured an AML regulatory affiliation in Switzerland, allowing it to provide regulated virtual asset services through a Swiss entity.
- The approval provides institutional clients with a compliant gateway to Yellow Card’s stablecoin infrastructure across Africa and other emerging markets.
- The move comes months after Yellow Card exited retail trading to focus exclusively on B2B stablecoin infrastructure.
- The development reflects a broader trend among African crypto firms seeking licences in major global financial centres to attract institutional capital and banking partnerships.
Yellow Card has secured regulatory anti-money laundering (AML) affiliation in Switzerland as a supervised financial intermediary.
Institutional and corporate clients interested in entering emerging markets with stablecoins can now consider Yellow Card’s Swiss offshoot as a regulated entry point.
Yellow Card’s Swiss regulatory approval is an extension of the global network. The company is one of the world’s licensed providers of stablecoin infrastructure, especially in emerging markets. They operate in 34 countries, 20 of which are in Africa.
Regulation Has Become a Competitive Advantage
One of Yellow Card’s competitive advantages is its regulatory and compliance structure.
In 2022, Yellow Card made history as the first company to secure a Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) License in Africa.
Securing this license in a region that was only just shifting its stance on crypto was a win for Yellow Card. Securing a Swiss licence boosts the company’s credibility.
Switzerland’s crypto framework and oversight rules for financial intermediaries rank among the most demanding in the world. Yellow Card says its subsidiary was built to meet them in full.
General Counsel for Yellow Card, Craig Stoehr, understands and positions the framework as a commercial advantage.
For our banking partners and international clients, the compliance framework is not a formality, but rather a foundation.
Combined with the licensed infrastructure already in place across our global network, this standard provides our partners a rare combination of regulatory confidence and real operational reach.
Craig Stoehr
Yellow Card is establishing a permanent presence in Lugano, a move that puts it in proximity to like-minded companies and investors. “Lugano’s Plan ₿” has seen the city transform into the European centre for crypto and blockchain innovation. The city has partnered with Tether, the issuer of the largest stablecoin, USDT, to advance this plan.
In 2023, the city started accepting municipal payments in Bitcoin and USDT. By 2025, the city had completed its fourth digital bond issuance, a CHF100 million ($121 million) blockchain bond.
In April 2026, six Swiss banks launched a sandbox to test the potential uses of a CHF-denominated stablecoin.
A reflection of the growing interest of banks in integrating digital currencies into their payment systems.
From Exchange to Infrastructure Provider
In October 2025, Yellow Card announced that from January 2026, it would focus on B2B operations and infrastructure, discontinuing its retail trading operations.
The company claimed a sustained increase in interest and demand from businesses in need of “seamless cross-border payments and treasury management,” informed their decision.
Yellow Card is betting that the next wave of revenue comes from enabling transactions for banks, payment processors, and multinational businesses that need stablecoin infrastructure without regulatory exposure.
In line with that goal, Yellow Card announced a partnership with Mastercard in May 2026 to build stablecoin-powered payment infrastructure across Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EEMEA).
Now, through Yellow Card’s Swiss subsidiary, those clients can engage Yellow Card to access stablecoin infrastructure across its operating markets.
The Race to Build Global Stablecoin Rails
Yellow Card’s move is part of a larger race.
The use case for Stablecoins has expanded beyond regular trading to include remittance payments and corporate treasury management. The expansion has led to a surge in competition to build compliant, operational stablecoin infrastructure.
Flutterwave, Africa’s largest unicorn, has built stablecoin partnerships with Tempo and Ripple.
HashKey, the largest licensed virtual asset exchange in Hong Kong, in partnership with Aptos Foundation and Daya, is exploring a Middle East-Africa stablecoin corridor.
WapiPay recently obtained a Canadian MSB License, expanding its operations into North America.
Western Union, one of Yellow Card’s partners, has introduced its own stablecoin, USDPT. Visa and Mastercard, still partners of Yellow Card, in partnership with Stripe, are reportedly developing their own stablecoin to challenge the USDC.
The move for financial institutions in 2026 seems to be to embed stablecoin infrastructure into their own payment rails.
African Firms Are Going Global
African fintech and crypto firms are increasingly pursuing licences in Western markets such as Switzerland, the UK, Canada, and the UAE.
The goal, it seems, is to secure regulatory approval to do business with the global institutions that control the largest pools of capital.
Regulators in Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, South Africa, Kenya, and other countries across the continent have become more open to creating frameworks for digital assets.
Local licences matter for local operations. But for the firms aiming to become part of the global financial system, credibility in established financial centres is increasingly non-negotiable.
Why This Matters
The deeper implication of Yellow Card’s Swiss approval is that it answers the question of who will drive the next phase of stablecoin adoption.
It won’t be retail traders. It will be banks, payment processors, corporate treasury teams, and institutional investors. For these types of participants, regulatory certainty matters as much as transaction speed or liquidity depth.
The company that once introduced millions of Africans to crypto trading has recast itself as a regulated financial infrastructure. The Swiss approval is a sign of where Yellow Card and, perhaps, the stablecoin industry are headed.
