The Next Payments Race Is Going Cross-Border

Hey Payments Fanatic!

For years, the payments industry has focused on making cross-border transactions faster and cheaper.

The next challenge may be making them native to digital currencies.

China has completed its first cross-border payment with the digital yuan to Singapore, using its Digital Currency Express platform to settle an international commercial payment on the same day.

The amount itself isn't what matters. What's interesting is that China is beginning to use the digital yuan for real cross-border trade, moving beyond domestic pilots and into commercial transactions with overseas counterparties.

You'll also find my roundup of How Payments Companies Performed Last Week, covering the companies, results, and trends that shaped the industry over the past seven days.

Now, let's dive into today's biggest Payments stories. 👇 See you tomorrow!

Cheers,

Marcel

HOW PAYMENTS COMPANIES PERFORMED LAST WEEK

📈 From rallies to pullbacks, here’s how listed Payments Companies performed last week:

NEWS

🌎  Unlimit and Xiaomi GetApps have expanded their partnership to help game studios scale globally by combining app distribution and cross-border payment infrastructure. Developers using Unlimit can access opportunities on GetApps, while GetApps partners can use Unlimit’s accounts and payment solutions to manage international operations.

🇺🇸 Mastercard has partnered with Manifest Financial to launch a business debit card for creators. The card combines a business account with tools to manage income, expenses, invoices, taxes, payments, and cash flow, helping creators handle multiple revenue streams and faster payouts.

🇺🇸 Mastercard is powering instant deposits for DoorDash Crimson through Mastercard Send and Astra’s Payments Cloud. The integration enables eligible gig workers to receive earnings in real time, expanding Mastercard’s role in digital payout infrastructure beyond traditional card payments.

🌎 Airwallex has launched Additional Payments for Shopify Checkout, enabling merchants to offer 80+ local payment methods directly within checkout without redirects. The solution supports options such as WeChat Pay, KakaoPay, GrabPay, PayNow, Bancontact, TWINT, and BLIK to simplify cross-border payments.

🇺🇸 Coinbase Business users can now accept payments from AI agents through the x402 protocol, enabling businesses to receive USDC with no additional setup. The update also introduces new tools for agentic trading and an x402 SDK that lets developers integrate AI payments into APIs and web services.

🇺🇸 Stripe is reportedly in talks to acquire OpenRouter, an AI marketplace that helps developers access and compare hundreds of AI models. The startup, valued at $1.3 billion in May, could fetch around $10 billion in a deal. The acquisition would expand Stripe’s push into AI infrastructure.

🇮🇳 Indian payments firms oppose one-click UPI checkout proposal, citing competition risks. Several Indian digital payments firms have opposed the proposal, which would allow merchants to store customers’ preferred UPI option for one-click checkouts. They argue the change could strengthen the dominance of larger payment apps by making it harder for smaller providers to compete.

🇸🇬 Ant International has expanded the Alipay+ network with new banking partners, enabling more banks to offer cross-border mobile payments through a single integration. The platform is accepted in over 220 markets and supports QR code payments across more than 55 countries and regions.

🇬🇳 Guinea has launched NimbaPay, its national instant payment system, enabling secure and interoperable real-time payments between banks, electronic money institutions, and microfinance institutions. The platform aims to expand financial inclusion and modernize the country’s payment infrastructure.

🇨🇳 Visa and Lianlian completed the first live B2B agentic transaction in Greater China using LoopXPay, an AI agent that sourced products, compared suppliers, placed an order, and executed payment in one workflow. The collaboration aims to help SMBs streamline purchasing through trusted AI-driven commerce.

🇸🇬 China has completed its first cross-border payment to Singapore using the digital yuan through the Digital Currency Express platform. The transaction involved around 10 million yuan in import shipping fees and highlights China’s efforts to expand digital yuan use in international trade payments.

🇦🇿 Azerbaijan’s Central Bank held discussions with Visa on expanding the country’s digital payments infrastructure. The talks focused on optimizing payment acceptance costs, strengthening fraud prevention, improving risk management, and developing initiatives to enhance the security and efficiency of digital payments.

🇨🇴 Banco Caja Social has enabled businesses to generate QR codes linked to their Bre-B keys through its online business portal. Companies can register, manage, and update their Bre-B keys while creating QR codes instantly, allowing them to receive secure real-time payments at any time.

🌎 Capi becomes the first FinTech to secure a cross-border payments license in the UEMOA region. The authorization allows businesses to move money internationally up to five times faster than traditional banks through a regulated banking intermediary framework across eight countries.

🌎 Druo processed nearly $160 million in payments during the first half of 2026, up 61.7% year over year. The FinTech plans to expand into Chile and Brazil by year-end after tripling transaction volumes and surpassing one million transactions in June. Continue reading

Want your message in front of 315.000+ FinTech fanatics, founders, investors, and operators?

Shoot me a message on LinkedIn or send me an  e-mail.