STABLECOINS | How Nigerian Fintech, OneRemit, Processed Over $20 Million in H1 2025 via Stablecoins

Nigerian cross-border payments startup, OneRemit, is quietly building something powerful.

In mid-2025, the payments platform passed key milestones – processing over $10 million in international transactions by June 2025, and reaching more than $20 million in the first half (H1) of 2025. These figures aren’t just numbers. They illustrate a new model of trust, transparency, and foreign payments built for real businesses, not just crypto-hype.

Early Days: Learning by Doing, Bitcoin-Style

While the formal launch of OneRemit came around 2023, its foundation goes deeper. Co-Founder, Hammed Afenifere, first started to tinker with cross-border value flows around 2015 while in Ibadan:

• Using LocalBitcoins, he was converting Naira to Bitcoin, then swapping into other currencies to help people pay tuition overseas or send money to vendors abroad.
• These ‘informal successes‘ highlighted persistent issues: high foreign exchange spreads, slow payments, opaque fees.

These experiments taught him more than just technical tricks. They revealed:

• Where trust breaks down
• What delays businesses, and
• What they value: speed, predictability, and transparency.


The experience in Ibadan gave a base of relationships, trust and credibility that would prove vital when scaling.

The OneRemit Model: Concierge Care + Stablecoins

OneRemit’s current success is based on blending hands-on service with blockchain-enabled tools. Here are some key features:

Milestones & What They Signal

• By June 2025, OneRemit had processed over $10 million in international transactions.
• In H1 2025, that grew to over $20 million, showing rapid uptake.
• Most of their transactions are still through over-the-counter (OTC) channels for large B2B clients; smaller/SME clients can use their online self-service app.

Looking Forward: Expansion and Currency Diversification

OneRemit is planning to widen its footprint:

• Expand currency-options beyond the current six (USD, GBP, EUR, CNY, CAD, AUD), to include currencies like UAE Dirham, Moroccan Dirham, Brazilian Real, Indian Rupee, etc. Some already supported in OTC, being made available on the online platform.
• Begin ‘retail‘ service offerings in addition to their B2B-focus.
• Possibly pursue licenses in the UK and Europe, further formalizing their compliance and cross-border capacity.

“We’ve seen firsthand how stablecoins help African businesses and families send and receive money with speed and reliability,” the CEO shared during a recent summit.

“This is about giving people access in ways traditional banking has often struggled to deliver.”

Why This Matters for Nigerian SMEs & Corporate Imports

• Businesses that used to wait weeks or pay large spreads to move money abroad now have corridors that promise 1–3 day processing, sometimes hours.
• Transparent FX rates: no hidden fees; markup is built into the rate rather than surprise charges.
• Stablecoins offer an alternative medium when the traditional banking routes are slow or expensive. This matters in global trade (importing inputs, paying for education, shipping costs) where timing and costs can make or break margins.

OneRemit is a reminder that fintech innovation in Africa is often less about flashy features and more about fixing core frictions:

• Trust
• Cost
• Speed

By beginning as a grassroots, crypto-aware experiment in Ibadan, and then formalizing with licenses, stablecoins, and a concierge model, they’re demonstrating a path other payment providers could follow.

Their journey suggests that for many Nigerian businesses, the future of cross-border payments will combine both the digital (stablecoins, apps) and the human (relationship, trust). And that combination seems to be what’s helping them scale beyond millions to tens of millions of dollars in transactions.

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