PumpPay Uses ZARP to Enable Real-Time Fuel Payments and Settlement in South Africa

Introduction

South African fuel-payments platform PumpPay is using the brand-denominated ZARP stablecoin as an in-platform settlement layer, demonstrating how blockchain infrastructure can support commercial payments without requiring customers to interact directly with cryptocurrencies.

The deployment allows approved fuel transactions to be pre-authorised and settled in real time while remaining denominated in South African rand. Fleet owners and merchants continue to purchase, account for and settle fuel in a familiar currency, while ZARP operates behind the scenes to move value between participants.

The partnership represents a practical application of stablecoins in a high-volume, low-margin industry where transaction costs, settlement delays, reconciliation processes and payment failures can have an immediate operational impact.

Addressing the Complexity of Fleet Fuel Payments

Fleet fuel payments involve considerably more information than an ordinary retail transaction.

Before a payment can be authorised, the platform may need to verify the vehicle registration, odometer reading, tank capacity, required fuel grade, driver details, geolocation and applicable discounts or rebates. The transaction must also comply with the fleet owner’s internal risk and purchasing controls.

After the vehicle has been refuelled, the final transaction must be settled and reconciled between the fleet owner, merchant and other parties involved in the fuel-payment process.

PumpPay concluded that conventional card-based payment models did not provide the degree of control, transaction information and settlement speed required for its platform. The company therefore sought infrastructure capable of supporting immutable transaction records, immediate settlement, real-time information exchange and a different allocation of transaction risk.

ZARP became the rand-denominated settlement component within that infrastructure.

How ZARP Fits Into the PumpPay Platform

PumpPay manages the customer-facing platform, transaction logic, authorisation, risk controls, application programming interfaces, reporting and reconciliation.

ZARP provides the digital settlement layer that transfers rand-denominated value within the system.

Once a transaction passes PumpPay’s authorisation and risk checks, settlement can take place alongside the underlying fuel purchase. This allows the network to operate on a delivery-versus-payment basis, linking the transfer of value more closely to the delivery of fuel.

Transaction-risk visibility remains with the fleet owner, which receives tools to define and manage its own controls. Where a rare discrepancy arises, the platform can prioritise settling the merchant before resolving the exception separately.

Each ZARP transaction also produces an immutable on-chain record. PumpPay can use this record as a fixed point of reference when reconciling payment, settlement and transaction information or investigating a dispute.

How a PumpPay Fuel Transaction Works

A typical transaction follows six stages:

1. Transaction initiation: A fleet user begins a fuel purchase through PumpPay.
2. Risk assessment: PumpPay evaluates the transaction using information such as geolocation, vehicle registration, odometer readings, fuel requirements and vehicle telemetry.
3. Pre-authorisation: An estimated transaction value is pre-authorised on-chain before the final amount of fuel is known.
4. Refuelling: The vehicle is refuelled, and the actual purchase value is calculated.
5. Settlement: The final amount is settled, with any difference between the pre-authorised value and the actual purchase returned through the settlement process.
6. Reconciliation and reporting: PumpPay distributes transaction records, reconciliation information and reports to the relevant participants through its platform and APIs.

ZARP is directly involved in the pre-authorisation and settlement stages, while PumpPay manages the broader payment and information workflow.

Keeping Blockchain Behind the Customer Experience

PumpPay initially considered using a non-custodial model, which would have required customers to manage their own digital wallets. Feedback from fleet owners and merchants indicated that customers wanted the operational benefits of the technology without having to interact directly with blockchain infrastructure.

The platform was consequently designed to keep the customer experience simple and familiar.

Card payments and ZARP settlement can both operate within the PumpPay network. At some locations, a card transaction may take place while ZARP handles settlement in the background. Other sites can operate entirely through ZARP. PumpPay selects the appropriate mechanism for each location and use case.

This approach illustrates an important direction for enterprise stablecoin adoption: the technology does not necessarily need to be visible to the end user. Its value may instead lie in improving the infrastructure beneath an existing payment experience.

Early Network Performance

According to figures approved by PumpPay for publication:

• 31 highly active sites operate entirely on ZARP within PumpPay’s broader acceptance network.
• The platform’s current transaction failure rate is 0.018%.
• Vehicle-rental activity accounts for 54% of current merchant activity.

Vehicle-rental refuelling is a particularly relevant use case because it brings together payments and detailed vehicle information. PumpPay can integrate GPS tracking and telemetry, fleet controls, enterprise-resource-planning systems, pump controllers, and both depot and on-road refuelling options.

Combining these systems with payment, settlement and reconciliation data gives fleet operators greater visibility over fuel purchases and vehicle activity.

Why Settlement Efficiency Matters in Fuel Payments

Fuel retail operates on narrow margins, making transaction charges, reconciliation costs and manual exception handling commercially significant.

PumpPay treats authorisation, settlement, reconciliation and data exchange as components of one connected system rather than separate processes. ZARP’s role is to move value, create an immutable settlement record and reduce friction among fleet owners, merchants, fuel agents and the platform.

The stablecoin was therefore adopted as a practical infrastructure tool rather than as a customer-facing cryptocurrency product.

Its use addresses specific operational requirements: faster settlement, more efficient reconciliation, lower transaction friction and clearer allocation of payment risk.

Building Deeper Infrastructure Integration

PumpPay is now working towards deeper integration with point-of-sale systems at fuel stations. The objective is to automate more of the transaction-confirmation process and reduce the number of manual steps required.

The relationship between PumpPay and ZARP is also expected to become more API-driven, particularly in areas involving liquidity management.

The deployment offers a useful example of how stablecoins could move beyond trading and consumer wallets to become embedded settlement infrastructure within established industries. In this case, the end customer pays for fuel in rand through a familiar process, while blockchain technology supports pre-authorisation, settlement and reconciliation behind the scenes.

As African businesses explore stablecoins for commercial payments, the PumpPay deployment suggests that adoption may increasingly be driven by operational outcomes rather than the technology itself. The strongest use cases will be those that solve specific problems—reducing settlement delays, improving transaction visibility, lowering friction and integrating smoothly with systems that businesses already use.