Velocity, the infrastructure platform bringing financial institutions and global businesses onchain, and CrissCross, the payments and FX infrastructure platform across African markets, announced a strategic partnership to expand access between global stablecoin liquidity and local financial infrastructure across Africa.

The partnership will combine Velocity’s institutional network and stablecoin infrastructure with CrissCross’ reach across local markets, giving financial institutions and enterprises a more direct way to move between onchain liquidity and the currencies and payment systems they use locally.

For Velocity, the partnership extends its network across 30+ additional markets in Africa. For CrissCross, it creates greater connectivity between its regional infrastructure and the financial institutions, liquidity providers and enterprises increasingly using stablecoins for payments, settlement and treasury and increasingly moving money within African markets.

The companies will also work together to develop new capabilities around the intersection of stablecoins, real-time payment rails and virtual account infrastructure.

Across Africa, stablecoins are already playing an increasingly important role in cross-border money movement. But moving liquidity globally is only one part of the equation. Institutions still need to collect, convert, hold and pay out funds through domestic currencies, accounts and payment systems.

Connecting those layers is central to the partnership.

“The opportunity is to connect global liquidity much more effectively with the infrastructure businesses rely on in each market,” said Olann Kerrison, Chief Network Officer at Velocity. “CrissCross has built strong local payments and FX capabilities across a region where stablecoins are already widely used. Combining that reach with Velocity’s institutional network allows us to build more complete payment and treasury solutions for institutions moving money across these corridors.”

Together, the companies aim to reduce the fragmentation that has traditionally characterised cross-border money movement, where access to global liquidity and access to domestic payment infrastructure have often been managed through separate providers and integrations.

“Cross-border payments increasingly depend on being able to move between different forms of money and different payment systems without adding complexity for the customer,” said James Cope, General Manager at CrissCross. “We have focused on building the local infrastructure and liquidity required to operate effectively across African markets. Partnering with Velocity extends that connectivity into a broader institutional stablecoin network, giving global financial institutions and enterprises a more direct route into the markets we serve.”

The partnership reflects a shared view that stablecoins will increasingly operate alongside, rather than separately from, existing financial infrastructure. Global liquidity can move onchain, while local accounts, currencies and payment rails remain critical to how businesses ultimately receive and deploy those funds.

By connecting these systems, Velocity and CrissCross are building infrastructure that allows institutions to use the most appropriate rail for each stage of a transaction, from global liquidity and settlement through to local collections and payouts.