MoneyBadger Data Shows Stablecoins Rising in SA Checkouts

In Short

• MoneyBadger says stablecoins are taking a larger share of real retail payments in South Africa.
• In 2026 so far, Bitcoin was 39.9% of checkout spending on its network, USDT was 36.1%, and ZARU was 7.7%.
• MoneyBadger says USDT and ZARU together were nearly 44% of total transaction value.

What Happened

In a post dated 20 October 2026, MoneyBadger said stablecoins are now a major part of checkout activity on its payment network. A stablecoin is a crypto token designed to track a real currency 1:1, like a digital version of cash.

The company’s data focuses on verified merchant transactions, not trading volume. That matters because stablecoin headlines often track how much is issued or exchanged on crypto markets, which does not show whether people are paying for goods and services.

MoneyBadger said the pattern looks like “tokens for specific jobs.” Stable-value tokens are being used for day-to-day spending, while Bitcoin is more often held as a long-term asset.

The post also highlights two rand stablecoins now in market. ZARsc launched in November 2025 under the Supercoin brand and is issued on Solana, a high-speed blockchain network. ZARU launched in February 2026 through a partnership that includes Luno, with Sanlam managing the underlying rand reserves and Standard Bank and Absa as banking partners.

MoneyBadger said ZARU checkout value rose from about R484,207 in June to about R1,276,650 in September. It linked part of that growth to cashback rewards via Luno Pay and workplace adoption campaigns.

Why It Matters

For merchants, stablecoin checkout growth suggests crypto payments are shifting from niche use to repeat, small-ticket purchases. That is closer to a “payments rail” than an investment product.

For fintechs and exchanges, rand stablecoins could reduce price swings at the till. But adoption still depends on how easy it is to buy, store, and redeem tokens back into bank money, and on how regulators treat these assets over time.