Yellow Card Expands Global Footprint Into North America with Alkepay

Introduction

Yellow Card has expanded its global footprint into North America through the launch of Alkepay Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary operating in Canada.

The expansion gives Yellow Card a regulated presence in the Canadian market as it builds beyond its pan-African foundations and develops a wider international stablecoin infrastructure network.

Alkepay is registered with the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada as a Money Services Business. It is also registered with the Bank of Canada as a payment service provider under the Retail Payments Activities Act.

Through Alkepay, Yellow Card can now offer foreign-exchange dealing and cross-border funds-transfer services to clients in Canada.

The launch comes as stablecoins increasingly develop into infrastructure for international payments, treasury operations and institutional settlement. According to the figures cited by Yellow Card, annual stablecoin transaction volume exceeded $33 trillion in 2025, while the total value of the market is projected to surpass $2 trillion by the end of 2028.

Yellow Card’s Canadian expansion at a glance

The announcement brings together several important operational and regulatory developments:

• Alkepay Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Yellow Card.
• Alkepay is registered with FINTRAC as a Money Services Business.
• The company is registered with the Bank of Canada as a payment service provider.
• Its Canadian services include foreign-exchange dealing and cross-border funds transfers.
• Yellow Card’s infrastructure supports more than 50 currencies.
• The company has processed more than $10 billion in volume.
• Yellow Card has more than 65 active banking partners.
• Its USD wire and stablecoin network reaches more than 190 countries.
• Yellow Card has previously partnered with Visa, Mastercard, Western Union, Thunes and MoneyGram.

Together, these figures position the Canadian launch as part of a broader effort to build regulated infrastructure connecting businesses and institutions across multiple currencies, banking systems and jurisdictions.

From a pan-African company to a global infrastructure provider

Yellow Card’s expansion into Canada forms part of a strategic shift from its pan-African origins towards becoming a global company.

In recent months, the business has made strategic hires in Latin America and Southeast Asia as it develops its presence in both regions. The Canadian launch adds North America to that international expansion.

Yellow Card has also strengthened its European regulatory position. Earlier in 2026, the company announced that its Swiss virtual asset service provider, StaaS Fintech Services SA, had become affiliated with SO-FIT, a self-regulatory organisation recognised by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority.

That affiliation provides institutional and corporate clients with a supervised entry point into Yellow Card’s infrastructure in Switzerland. Alkepay now extends the company’s regulated international build-out into Canada.

The emerging footprint therefore covers several distinct but connected initiatives:

• Yellow Card’s original pan-African infrastructure and operating experience
• A supervised Swiss entry point for institutional and corporate clients
• A regulated Canadian subsidiary serving North America
• Strategic team development in Latin America
• Strategic team development in Southeast Asia

This expansion suggests that Yellow Card is applying experience gained in complex African payment markets to a broader global infrastructure model.

Building the operational layer behind cross-border payments

Yellow Card’s Vice President of Global Operations, Lasbery Chioma Oludimu, highlighted the work required before a new market can become operational.

According to Oludimu, each expansion involves connecting banking partners, testing settlement and ensuring that local operating requirements are correctly implemented. The Canadian launch is intended to give clients the same reliability and speed that Yellow Card provides across its other markets.

This operational work is significant because stablecoin-based international payments still depend on connections between digital assets and traditional financial systems.

A provider may be able to transfer stablecoins across a blockchain network, but institutional clients also need access to banking partners, foreign-exchange services, local settlement channels and regulatory frameworks. Effective infrastructure must therefore manage both the digital transfer and the regulated financial processes surrounding it.

Yellow Card’s combination of currency support, banking partnerships and global reach indicates that the company is positioning itself as an infrastructure provider rather than simply a stablecoin trading platform.

Its network currently supports more than 50 currencies. Combined with more than 65 active banking partners and access to over 190 countries through USD wire and stablecoins, this creates a framework through which businesses and institutions can move value across different financial environments.

This is where Yellow Card is seeking to differentiate itself. Its stated advantage is not simply access to stablecoins, but the operating infrastructure required to move money across markets where financial connectivity can be difficult to establish.

Regulation as a foundation for expansion

The Canadian launch also illustrates the importance of regulation in the next phase of stablecoin adoption.

Alkepay’s registration with FINTRAC establishes its status as a Money Services Business, while its registration with the Bank of Canada places it within the framework applying to payment service providers under the Retail Payments Activities Act.

These registrations provide the foundation for the company’s foreign-exchange dealing and cross-border funds-transfer services. They also give institutional and business clients greater clarity about the entity through which Canadian services are being delivered.

Yellow Card says it maintains licences, authorisations and registrations across its operating markets. As stablecoin services become increasingly integrated with corporate payments and international settlement, this regulatory footprint could become as important as transaction speed or geographic reach.

Businesses moving money internationally must evaluate more than technology. They also need to understand which entity is providing a service, where it is registered and how funds move between banking and digital-asset infrastructure.

An African-founded infrastructure company enters its next phase

Yellow Card’s expansion into Canada is an important milestone in its transition from a pan-African stablecoin company into a global financial-infrastructure provider.

The launch of Alkepay gives the group a regulated operating presence in North America, complementing its existing African footprint, its supervised Swiss entry point and its developing presence in Latin America and Southeast Asia.

Yellow Card enters this next phase with more than $10 billion in processed volume, over 65 active banking partners, support for more than 50 currencies and reach across more than 190 countries through USD wire transfers and stablecoins.

These figures demonstrate meaningful scale, but the company’s longer-term position will depend on its ability to maintain reliable settlement, regulatory compliance and banking connectivity as its network expands.

The Canadian launch shows how Yellow Card intends to pursue that growth: market by market, through locally registered entities, banking partnerships and regulated connections between traditional finance and stablecoin infrastructure.