TL;DR
- Circle Foundation is funding new digital-payment initiatives with UNDP and WFP to explore regulated stablecoins for development and humanitarian programs.
- UNDP will establish a Digital Asset Innovation Pool, while WFP plans to test two to three payment corridors over three years.
- The projects will examine payment speed, costs, transparency, compliance and resilience, potentially expanding the role of stablecoins in international aid delivery.
Circle Foundation is expanding its work with United Nations agencies as UNDP and WFP begin new trials examining how digital payments, including regulated stablecoins, can improve development and humanitarian aid. The initiatives announced on September 25 focus on reducing payment friction while maintaining compliance and existing financial channels.
The United Nations Development Programme will create a Digital Asset Innovation Pool designed to help country offices apply lessons from previous digital-payment experiments. The pool will provide guidance on local regulations, operational processes and safeguards while allowing UNDP teams to evaluate payment speed, costs and reach.
Circle said the initiative builds on earlier UNDP pilots in countries including Syria, Haiti, Guatemala and The Gambia. Previous experiments explored digital cash-for-work payments, transfers in areas with connectivity constraints and links between digital wallets and existing cash networks. UNDP has also reported significant reductions in distribution costs in some previous blockchain-based programs.
Circle Foundation Expands Stablecoin Payment Infrastructure
WFP will approach the project from a different stage. Its grant, awarded through World Food Program USA, will support the infrastructure required to evaluate stablecoin payments before conducting trials across two to three country corridors during the next three years. The work includes governance frameworks, risk controls, treasury management, reconciliation and compliance systems.
WFP also plans to connect payment infrastructure with local fintech companies and mobile-money providers. This could allow digital transfers to interact with financial services already used in individual markets instead of requiring humanitarian organizations to replace established systems.
The trials will generate data on transaction efficiency, transparency and resilience while supporting research into costs and operational requirements. WFP Global Accelerator and Ventures director Bernhard Kowatsch said the funding will allow the organization to examine regulated stablecoins in real-world humanitarian settings.
The latest grants extend Circle Foundation’s broader engagement with the UN. In January, the foundation announced funding for the UN Digital Hub of Treasury Solutions, a platform involving 15 organizations and focused on modernizing cross-border financial operations. Circle has also pointed to earlier USDC-based humanitarian payments as evidence that digital financial infrastructure can improve speed, traceability and cost efficiency.
