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Thunes exists because moving money across a fragmented world of local banks, mobile wallets, and payment rails shouldn't require a separate integration for every market, that's the entire pitch behind its Direct Global Network. But stablecoins reintroduced a version of that same fragmentation into Thunes' own stack: moving value in and out of digital assets still meant routing through intermediaries the network hadn't already absorbed.
Rather than build that licensing and compliance layer itself, Thunes did what it tells its own customers to do: plug into an existing network built for exactly that gap.
Yellow Card, as one of Thunes' partners for stablecoin settlement, gives Thunes a licensed rail for that layer instead, while giving Yellow Card a ready-built payout network across markets it would otherwise connect to one at a time.
How It Works
Initiate: An enterprise sends a cross-border payout instruction into the Thunes network, exactly as it would for any standard payment.
Settle: Thunes routes the value to Yellow Card, which converts it into a stablecoin such as USDC or USDT for instant cross-border movement instead of a multi-day correspondent chain.
Deliver: Yellow Card converts the stablecoin into local fiat currency on arrival and completes the payout through its local banking and mobile money connections. The same rail runs in reverse, letting Yellow Card route local fiat through the Thunes network to settle obligations abroad.
Built to Scale
Complementary Networks, Not Overlapping Ones: Thunes brings global payout reach; Yellow Card brings a stablecoin-to-fiat conversion layer. Neither side had to rebuild what the other already does well.
Deep Local Coverage: Yellow Card's direct connections to local banks and mobile money operators mean funds clear quickly once they land in-market.
Regulatory Defensibility: Yellow Card operates with stringent compliance and regulatory licenses across its markets, giving Thunes a compliant path into stablecoin settlement without carrying that licensing burden itself.
The Bigger Picture
Yellow Card's stablecoin infrastructure lets banks, telcos, and PSPs run their treasury, liquidity, and digital asset operations on one rail:
Bank and settle globally: open USD, GBP, and Euro accounts in your business name, all on a single platform, to send, receive, and convert funds without a separate banking relationship in every market.
Ramp on and off: buy and sell USDT, USDC, PYUSD, and other stablecoins against 50+ major and local currencies.
Manage digital assets at scale: set up custodial and self-custody wallets, internally or for end users, across 30+ blockchains.
Launch a local stablecoin: mint, burn, and convert a custom, local currency stablecoin to and from fiat, on demand.
Yellow Card abstracts away the complexities of blockchain integration and emerging market compliance, so enterprises can focus on capturing market share and launching new revenue streams.
The Takeaway
By plugging a licensed stablecoin rail into an existing 140-country payout network instead of building one from scratch, Thunes turned a compliance gap into a distribution advantage. It didn't need to become a stablecoin company to offer stablecoin settlement, it needed the right partner underneath its existing network.
That's a model other established payout networks can follow without disrupting what already works for their members. Yellow Card can extend the same rail to the next network looking to add stablecoins without rebuilding its own infrastructure.
Speak to someone on our team. Book a call today.
