Stellar-Powered Decaf Brews Up Financial Freedom in Latin America
- The Decaf platform helps users in Latin America send payments, remittances, and on/off-ramps seamlessly through the Stellar network and MoneyGram ecosystem.
- With thousands of Latin Americans already using Decaf and the Stellar network, the platform reported $200k worth of USDC off-ramped weekly through MoneyGram.
The Stellar (XLM) network has been at the forefront of mainstream cryptocurrency adoption through regulated channels with the help of traditional payment platforms and Web3 protocols. In Latin America where most investors are still sidelined by the traditional banking system, the Stellar ecosystem in close collaboration with the Decaf web3 protocol has stepped in to fill in the void.
Notably, the Decaf protocol is a blockchain-based project that focuses on streamlining remittances, payments, and digital wallets, and enabling crypto transactions at the point-of-sales system. Currently, the Decaf platform has a notable user base in Mexico, Venezuela, Argentina, Colombia, and Nigeria with a keen interest in expanding further in Africa and Latin Africa.
With most investors in Latin America having adopted digital assets to facilitate cheaper, secure, and faster remittances, the collaboration between Decaf protocol and Stellar Network is expected to play a crucial role in pushing mainstream adoption further.
Moreover, most Latin American nations are suffering from hyperinflation leading to the devaluation of investors’ funds at a higher rate, hence making the use of digital assets essential for the financial stability of the region
“The Stellar network is super-efficient and it costs almost nothing to send money abroad or conduct a transaction. The speed is really fast, making a payment feel nice when it’s just a matter of seconds rather than days in traditional banking. But the real beauty of the Stellar network is not just the technology, but that it is also trusted,” Rick Martin, Co-founder of Decaf, noted.
Closer Look at Decaf Protocol and Stellar Network
The Decaf team intended to make crypto usable in daily activities without compromising users’ data, hence the collaboration with the Stellar ecosystem that involves Circle USDC, and MoneyGram. Notably, the Decaf protocol enables users to on-ramp their fiat into Circle’s USDC through the Stellar network and back into fiat through MoneyGram’s vast network of physical booths.
As a result, Decaf protocol has registered a lot of users since its inception, whereby it reported a volume of about $200k in USDC per week,
1/ Traditional banking tends to underserve Latin America & Africa, making it hard for residents to receive international payments or protect their money from devaluation. Here’s how @Decaf_so—built on #Stellar—comes in 👇
— Stellar (@StellarOrg) November 2, 2023
The collaboration is mutual as the Stellar network will be helping the MoneyGram company survive amid the web3 takeover. Additionally, the Stellar network is significantly benefiting from the Decaf collaboration by increasing the adoption of XLM coin that is used in fe payments, thus adding more value to the holders.
As of this reporting, the Stellar XLM traded around $0.122, having gained about 19 percent in the past four weeks. Notably, the Stellar XLM network has a market capitalization of about $3.4 billion and an average 24-hour trading volume of around $192 million.
Meanwhile, the Decaf protocol is helping democratize the Circle USDC that is also backed by the leading fund manager in the world, BlackRock.