A cluster of coordinated announcements outlines emerging infrastructure to move regulated stablecoins and self-custodial wallets across Africa and the Gulf/MENA corridor. Tetherâs strategic investment in Abu Dhabi-based Shiga Digital and the product plans from Tether and Shiga together aim to deliver self-custodial access to USDâź, Bitcoin and tokenized gold (XAUâź) via two complementary products: ENTA for individuals and businesses and Pulse for banks and fintechs. Shigaâs Enta wallet replaces seed phrases with passkeys and biometric authentication, supports USDT, Bitcoin and XAUâź, and the company reports having processed over $350 million in transaction volume. Shiga holds a DIFC Innovation License and works with licensed transmitters across multiple African and Gulf countries, while its Nigerian Digital Asset Intermediary licence remains subject to final approval.
At the infrastructure level, both ENTA and Pulse will use Tetherâs open-source Wallet Development Kit (WDK), a modular multi-chain toolkit that Tether says lowers the barrier for building secure self-custodial wallets. ENTA customers will be able to fund wallets with local currency, U.S. dollars or Bitcoin and then hold and transfer USDâź, Bitcoin and XAUâź; institutional Pulse customers can either use Shiga-managed infrastructure or run the wallet software in their own environment, keeping control of keys, data and funds. The announcements did not include launch dates, initial country rollouts, or fee schedules.
Separately, a three-way pilot between the Aptos Foundation, HashKey MENA and Pan-African payments startup Daya targets a regulated B2B stablecoin settlement corridor linking the UAE and broader MENA region with African markets, starting with Nigeria and the naira. That pilot cites an average remittance cost of 7.9% on a $200 transfer as a market pain point. HashKey MENA brings a VARA license in Dubai for fiat-to-stablecoin ramps, Daya contributes local-currency off-ramp and smart routing infrastructure and was an early recipient of $2.4 million in pre-seed funding that included the Aptos Foundation. Aptos is the chosen settlement layer; stablecoin activity on Aptos grew to over $1.9 billion in the period leading to the announcement.
Taken together, the TetherâShiga product plans and the AptosâHashKeyâDaya pilot illustrate two complementary approaches: one focused on self-custodial consumer and institutional wallet software built on a reusable WDK, the other on a regulated corridor with licensed fiat rails and an enterprise settlement chain. Both efforts emphasize compliance and enterprise deployability as prerequisites for scaling cross-border stablecoin flows in the AfricaâGCC/MENA corridors.