Click to watchZepz, the remittance group powering WorldRemit and Sendwave, has launched Sendwave Wallet, its stablecoin-powered offering.
Sendwave Wallet comes three months after Zepz said it was exploring stablecoins to power its operations.
Now partnering with Circle (USDC issuer), Solana (blockchain network), and Portal (wallet provider), it’s putting stablecoins directly in users’ hands.
Sendwave already helps over a million users send money, in fiat, to just about 45 countries due to restrictions. Starting with the US, users can now open a USDC balance on Sendwave and send money to over 100 countries.
“There are a lot of borders in sending money,” said Mark Lenhard, CEO of Zepz, in an exclusive media roundtable involving Condia. “We are removing the borders for all our customers, allowing them to send, save and hold digital dollars in over 100 countries.”
With this rollout, Zepz, like its competitors, will focus on abstracting the complexities of “crypto” and provide users with a seamless, fiat-like experience. “[While] we ride on stablecoins, we are trying to make the product simple for people who don’t even know about the technology behind it,” Lenhard added.
It will lean on its extensive payout network to support users in offramping their USDC to fiat.
In the future, Sendwave Wallet customers will be able to pay bills, spend with cards, and earn rewards.
There’s debate over whether users should earn rewards—essentially “interest”—on stablecoin balances. Stablecoins are treated as e-money, and most regulations, including the GENIUS Act, bar e-money issuers from paying interest on deposits.
In exchange, these institutions benefit from lighter regulatory obligations, such as lower capital requirements.
Still, crypto companies have found creative ways around this rule by rebranding interest payments as “rewards.” For example, Coinbase offers U.S. customers 4.1% annual rewards on their USDC holdings. Nigeria’s SEC chief called out the loophole in a white paper.
In some sense, crypto provides a faster, cheaper, and more flexible alternative for cross-border transfers. Major financial institutions have observed the space for years but only began rolling out products after the GENIUS Act passed in the US.
Last month, MoneyGram announced a similar offering, a wallet for customers to hold and deal with stablecoins. In Africa, remittance operators have leveraged stablecoin-powered accounts to issue USD virtual accounts. Africhange, in particular, has launched a solution for diasporans to pay for their fiat remittance transactions with crypto.
For stablecoins to be truly cost-effective, the onramping and offramping costs need to go down. Likewise, the yield on fiat reserves needs to be shared with more participants to support their cost of providing the infrastructure. Also, dispute handling needs to be a thing, as money sent to the wrong address cannot be recovered. On its website, Sendwave excludes USDC transactions from “…refunds”.
By enabling stablecoin transfers, remittance companies can acquire the recipients. Sendwave Wallet, for instance, offers a “Universal Wallet” to recipients.
With traditional fiat remittances, once the sender completes a transfer, the money leaves your ecosystem. This is because you don’t control the recipient’s endpoint—such as a bank account or mobile money wallet. But by capturing the recipient through a Universal Wallet, you effectively onboard them as a customer. This lets you earn from their idle balances but also enables you to monetise them.
“Today, Sendwave is moving beyond remittances to more holistically support the financial lives of our customers,” says Lenhard.
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