Stablecoins, Sovereignty, and Survival: Why CARICOM and Africa Might Leapfrog the Financial Status Quo

In the glittering towers of Wall Street and the boardrooms of Silicon Valley, stablecoins are often pitched as a revolution in payments, a frictionless, programmable money layer that bypasses the fees and inefficiencies of the legacy banking system. Yet for all their promise, stablecoins remain curiously absent from the daily lives of most consumers in developed economies. The technology is advanced. The user experience is not. The incentives are unclear. And the trust deficit is severe.

As global systems shift, stablecoins offer CARICOM and Africa a new path—secure, connected, and untethered from legacy finance.

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But while stablecoins flounder in search of a purpose in New York or London, in the Global South, they may already be a quiet revolution in motion. In particular, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the African continent. These two regions have long been constrained by fractured banking systems, high remittance costs, volatile currencies, and colonial-era financial dependencies. Perversely they would seem to stand out as fertile ground for the real-world use of stablecoins. Not as speculative assets, but as survival tools, sovereignty instruments, and digital bridges to a more inclusive financial future.

In developed economies, stablecoins are "a solution looking for a problem." Consumers enjoy seamless payments via Apple Pay, low-friction card transactions, and rewards programs. The status quo works, so there’s little urgency to adopt a clunky, high-friction alternative that offers no obvious benefit.

Adoption is hindered by merchant risk, regulatory fog, banking hostility, and a dreadful user experience. It’s like being told to build your own power plant to save on your electric bill. Stablecoins may theoretically save merchants 2–4% in fees, but the practical cost in software, compliance, and consumer confusion is far greater.

However, in CARICOM nations like Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, Barbados, St Kitts & Nevis, and in many African countries including Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe, the current financial systems don’t work. Or at least, not for everyone.

Consider CARICOM's economies are fragmented by geography, disparate islands with limited domestic markets, weak regional integration, and sluggish correspondent banking services. The result? Cross-border payments within the Caribbean can be as slow and expensive as sending money across continents. Worse still, the de-risking practices of U.S. and European banks have crippled correspondent banking relationships in the region, severing financial lifelines and leaving many economies vulnerable. According to the Caribbean Development Bank, more than 25% of the region’s banking relationships were lost between 2015 and 2022 due to compliance fears from overseas banks.

In Africa, the story is similarly bleak. Continental trade is hamstrung by currency volatility, limited convertibility, and punitive forex controls. Businesses face delays, bureaucratic barriers, and exorbitant costs just to pay a supplier across the border. Enter stablecoins.

For Caribbean and African users, dollar-pegged stablecoins like USDC, Tether (USDT), and emerging Africa-focused tokens like Celo or XOF-backed initiatives represent more than a technological novelty, they are tools of financial self-defence.

In Zimbabwe, plagued by hyperinflation, holding stablecoins offers a hedge against local currency collapse. In Nigeria, where the naira has lost over 60% of its value since 2022, freelancers and SMEs increasingly use USDT to get paid in a stable currency, bypassing the expensive and unreliable formal banking system.

In the Caribbean, platforms like Bitt Inc., headquartered in Barbados, are building central bank digital currency (CBDC) and stablecoin infrastructures aimed specifically at solving these problems. The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank’s DCash initiative, though still in its pilot phase, points to a real appetite for digital Yet there are both questions of trust and regulation to be fully resolved. From TerraUSD’s collapse to FTX’s implosion, many potential users hear “crypto” and think of scams and meltdowns.

For stablecoins to gain true traction in the Caribbean and Affrica, that perception must change.

This means moving away from opaque “algorithmic” coins and focusing on fully reserved, transparent, and auditable tokens, preferably issued or regulated by central banks or credible local institutions. Initiatives like Africa Stablecoin Consortium or Central Bank of Nigeria’s eNaira (despite its slow uptake) reflect a regional attempt to own the infrastructure rather than import it from Silicon Valley.

What’s more, cross-border regulatory cooperation is vital. Africa’s AfCFTA (African Continental Free Trade Area) and CARICOM’s push for financial integration must incorporate stablecoin standards and interoperability frameworks as part of their digital strategies.

Perhaps most importantly, stablecoins real promise lies not in overthrowing the dollar regime but in democratizing access to its stability while enabling regional financial autonomy and innovation in the longer run. Stablecoins allow them to access dollar liquidity outside of the U.S. banking system. This is both a benefit and a geopolitical risk. Washington’s weaponization of SWIFT, sanctions, and bank compliance regimes makes stablecoins an attractive alternative for nations seeking monetary resilience and digital sovereignty.

For instance, St Kitts and Nevis or Jamaica could, in theory, issue their own CBDC or partner with regional peers to launch a Caribbean stablecoin, backed by a basket of local currencies, commodities, or even regional SDRs, providing a digital hedge against dollar volatility and foreign policy shocks. Consider a transaction where a Lusaka-based electronics importer pays a Chinese supplier in USDT, avoiding delays in USD bank wire transfers and minimizing conversion losses. Furthermore, with stablecoins, Zambians can access global investment platforms or DeFi protocols offering USD-denominated returns. For example, young Zambian investor can use stablecoins to buy tokenized U.S. Treasury bills or participate in decentralized savings platforms offering yield on USDC.

Stablecoins are not failing; they’re being born at the edges. Where traditional finance is broken or exclusionary, stablecoins offer a compelling fix. In the developed world, they remain a theoretical upgrade to a system that mostly works. In CARICOM and Africa, they are already filling cracks, building bridges, and creating parallel paths.

The future of stablecoins won’t be determined in Washington or Frankfurt, it will unfold in Lusaka, Basseterre, and Lagos. Not because it’s trendy, but because there is no alternative.

And if the Global South succeeds in building stablecoin ecosystems that are trusted, accessible, and locally governed, the rest of the world may one day follow, not out of necessity, but envy.