Nigeria’s Daya taps Aptos to power Africa-Middle East stablecoin payments

Daya, a Nigerian B2B stablecoin payments startup, has partnered with Aptos Foundation and Dubai-based crypto exchange HashKey MENA to launch a pilot stablecoin settlement corridor connecting businesses in Africa and the Middle East.

The partnership will allow businesses to convert local currencies into stablecoins, settle transactions on the Aptos blockchain, and receive funds in local currencies at the destination. 

The move marks Aptos’ latest effort to push into Africa. The Layer 1 blockchain, originally built in 2021 to power decentralised finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and gaming, is now increasingly positioning itself around cross-border payments infrastructure in emerging markets.

Under the pilot, HashKey MENA will provide regulated fiat on- and off-ramps in the Middle East, while Daya will facilitate payment flows across African markets, including the Nigerian Naira and other local currencies. The corridor will also support bank transfers, virtual local-currency accounts, and payment application programming interfaces (APIs) that businesses and fintechs can integrate into their operations.

The pilot is part of HashKey’s Asia Connect network, which links payment corridors across Hong Kong, the Philippines, Vietnam, the UAE, and now Africa.

“Africa is already a front-runner in stablecoin adoption. What’s been missing is the regulated infrastructure and scalable liquidity to connect that demand to the rest of the world,” Paul Joe, co-founder of Daya, said. “By joining HashKey’s Asia Connect network as the African node, with settlement on Aptos, we’re plugging into a network that already runs from Hong Kong to the Philippines to Vietnam to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).”

In July 2025, Aptos partnered with pan-African stablecoin payments startup Yellow Card to power cross-border transactions in 20 African countries. 

For blockchain firms, these partnerships are distribution strategies. In October 2025, Flutterwave, Africa’s largest payments startup, partnered with Polygon; eight months later, it expanded its blockchain settlement strategy with Tempo. Separately, Nigerian fintech Paga partnered with Sui in May 2026 to build stablecoin infrastructure. 

By integrating with fintechs and payment providers that already serve businesses and consumers, networks such as Aptos gain access to real-world payment flows that can drive transaction volume, deepen liquidity, and strengthen network adoption. 

The Aptos payment push with Daya and Hashkey MENA targets a longstanding challenge in emerging markets, where cross-border payments often move through correspondent banking networks and foreign currencies before reaching their final destination, increasing costs and settlement times for businesses. 

Founded in October 2025 by Tomiwa “Aleph” Lasebikan, a former co-founder of Y Combinator-backed crypto startup Helicarrier, and Joe, Daya provides stablecoin-enabled cross-border payment infrastructure for African businesses. The company is backed by New York-based crypto accelerator Alliance DAO.

The Aptos blockchain will serve as the settlement layer for the corridor, while Daya and HashKey MENA handle fiat connectivity and local payment distribution. 

Aptos has a market capitalisation of $568.7 million and has processed about 7.9 million stablecoin transactions in the last 30 days, according to US-based stablecoin analytics platform Artemis, far fewer than other native blockchains like Base, Binance Smart Chain (BNB), and Solana that have recorded over 100 million transactions in the same period.