HesabPay Processes $154M in July as Stablecoin Rails Prove Real in MENA

Stablecoin settlement in the Middle East and North Africa is no longer a theoretical pitch. Movement, the infrastructure provider, points to Afghan payments platform HesabPay as proof that adoption is generating real transaction volume, according to an analysis published by Torab Torabi.

Cross-border money movement in the region remains slow, fragmented and expensive. Legacy payment chains introduce delays, manual steps and fees on everyday flows. Even where average remittance costs compare favorably with other developing areas, the system retains unnecessary complexity, Movement said.

HesabPay is the most documented case. In July 2026 alone, the platform recorded more than 1 million transactions and processed AFN 10.1 billion, equivalent to roughly $154 million. Over the 30 days prior to the analysis, the transaction success rate exceeded 96%. More than 52,000 unique senders and 38,000 unique recipients used the network, Movement said.

The institutional profile behind those numbers is concrete. UNHCR used HesabPay’s prepaid cards to support more than 625,000 returnee refugees and 17,500 displaced individuals in Afghanistan, channeling more than $35 million in assistance. Since 2023, the partnership with the World Food Programme has helped 49,000 people open digital accounts, including 20,600 women through the World Bank-backed Mother and Child Programme.

The launch of up to 1 million Visa cards for Afghan customers through Visa Pay extends the infrastructure into everyday services: mobile top-ups, utility payments, transfers and cash operations. The most recent activity is concentrated in Kabul and Herat, with signals also emerging in other Afghan markets and incipient cross-border flows, Movement said.

Movement provides the settlement layer underneath those products. The company argues that progress in regions like MENA will not come from generic promises about blockchain efficiency. It will come from teams that already understand users, corridors and local constraints. HesabPay’s data is repeated use, operational flow and concrete payment activity, not speculative noise, Movement concluded.

Separately, Mastercard and Borderless.xyz are testing shared identity checks in a stablecoin credential pilot, another sign that the infrastructure layer is being built out.