Tether’s CEO props stablecoin as iShowspeed shops with USDT in Nigeria

Paolo Ardoino, the chief executive officer of Tether, has shared a video featuring popular internet personality iShowSpeed using Tether’s USDT for shopping in Nigeria. 

The video featured iShowspeed purchasing earrings worth 2.3 million naira ($1500). The shop dealer stated he would accept USDT, and within seconds, the transaction was completed.

Nigeria is Africa’s only representative in the top 10 of the global adoption index, ranking sixth. stablecoins enable remittances and spending amid naira volatility. According to Chainalysis, 7% of purchases in Nigeria were made using USDT, compared with 5% in USD-based markets. 

Stablecoin payments surpass mainstream payment options

Before iShowSpeed could make a payment using USDT, he asked the owner of the shop if he would accept payments using Apple Pay. However, the dealer replied that he does not accept payments using Apple Pay. This is an indication of the difficulties that popular payment systems face when trying to enter the Nigerian market.

Currently, Apple Pay is available in Nigeria primarily for online transactions and at select POS terminals via fintech integrations like Nomba. It allows global payments, but local Naira cards generally cannot be added. 

This makes it mostly a tool for international transactions or for visitors using foreign cards, rather than for daily transactions by Nigerian citizens.

Earlier in the week, Nigerian fintech company Payaza announced the integration of Google Pay and Apple Pay into its payment platform. According to the company, it is positioning itself to capture a significant share of Africa’s $95 billion annual diaspora remittance market.

At the same time, PayPal announced that it was finally going live in Nigeria through a partnership with Paga. It promised that Nigerian users could now link their accounts, receive international payments, and withdraw funds in Naira.

However, within hours of the announcement, Nigerian users began reporting the same problems the platform has struggled with since its Africa operation began in 2004. Accounts were getting locked, verifications were failing, and funds were being held. The same cycle of problems that drove millions of Africans away from it over the past two decades was repeating itself in real time.

Meanwhile, Nigeria remains the undisputed heavyweight of crypto in Africa, boasting a transaction value of $92.1 billion. This figure is almost half of the region’s total volume and something that Apple Pay is only dreaming of.

The growth is visible. At the beginning of 2020, the total stablecoin market cap was only $5 billion. The peak of stablecoins was in March 2022, reaching $181.7 billion, and then declining after the fall of Terra’s stablecoin UST. However, the market has now grown to $312 billion in 2026.

USDT’s 60% adoption dominates Africa’s market

Africa’s peer-to-peer (P2P) economy, fueled by stablecoins such as USDT, has risen to a $6 billion market size. Chainalysis found that 9.1% of global crypto transactions originated in sub-Saharan Africa. USDT dominated 60% of the peer-to-peer trading volume. This translates to approximately $3.6 billion in monthly transactions in countries such as Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa.

Stablecoins have helped traders in Africa bypass the banking challenges, whereby the cost of transactions can be as high as 7-10%. The banking challenges involve a waiting period of days to process transactions. The fact that 70% of the population of Africa is below the age of 30, coupled with the fact that mobile penetration is over 85% in major markets, has helped Binance register a 120% increase in P2P USDT trading in Nigeria.

The World Bank states that the sub-Saharan Africa digital economy has been growing at an annual rate of 15%, thanks to the secure and transparent nature of blockchain transactions. Geopolitical risks, with the number of global trade barriers tripling, have driven African users to USDT. This is to avoid the risks associated with local currencies such as the Nigerian naira, which has fallen by 40% against the USD.

The digital economy has enabled micro-entrepreneurs, who make up 80% of African peer-to-peer users, to easily access global markets.

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