An institutional-grade stablecoin is finally on chain, and you can now move instantly between $USDC, $USDT and $ZARU, 24/7 in four African countries. You can now trade $ZARU / $USDT and $ZARU / $USDC directly on @LunoGlobal in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda, making it simpler to move between rand exposure and dollar-denominated digital assets. To celebrate the launch, trading fees on both pairs are reduced for the first 90 days, from 6 August until 3 November 2026. Thereafter, standard trading fees will apply. The more you trade, the lower your taker fee, while makers earn a rebate at every tier. Start trading @ZARUniversal pairs now on Luno: bit.ly/45SRSZv

ZARU is live on @arc. As a founding currency pair on @circle StableFX, the ZARU/USDC pair now trades onchain, 24/7, in fully reserved stablecoins with near-instant settlement. How it works: the ZARU/USDC pair executes through StableFX's Request-for-Quote engine and settles atomically on Arc. Both legs of a trade settle together, or neither does. That manages the counterparty risk carried by traditional FX, where ZAR settlement has depended on correspondent banking and limited trading windows. The evidence behind the pair: ✅️ Issued by @BlockTowerTech under FSCA licence ✅️ Fully reserved and independently attested monthly ✅️ Backed one-to-one by rand held onshore in South Africa @LunoGlobal is the primary exchange venue for @ZARUniversal /USDC liquidity, bringing regulated trading infrastructure and an institutional client base to the network. Investing in Crypto assets may result in the loss of capital. BlockTower SA (Pty) Ltd is an authorised FSP (55172).

As the issuer, our job is the reserve. Every @ZARUniversal is backed one-to-one by rand held onshore, FSCA-licensed, and independently attested monthly. Now live on @circle StableFX. This is what a fully reserved digital rand looks like. Read further in the announcement below or visit circle.com/stablefx to learn more about StableFX.

With @ZARUniversal now live on @arc™, South African businesses and individuals can move digital rands globally, faster and more transparently 🌍🇿🇦 From cross-border payments and international settlements to spending and digital investing, ZARU opens up new ways to use the rand in a connected digital economy. No waiting, no unnecessary intermediaries. Check out on this video to see what you can do with ZARU More on the ecosystem: arc.io · @arc Arc is a trademark of Circle Internet Group, Inc. and/or its affiliates. Investing in Crypto assets may result in the loss of capital. BlockTower SA (Pty) Ltd is an authorised FSP (55172).

What could institutional stablecoins look like in emerging markets? At the very end of #LIDAC KL 2026, we’ll take a closer look at the @ZARUniversal ( $ZARU ) — a South African Rand-denominated stablecoin initiative developed through a collaborative framework involving BlockTower, regulated banking partners, and licensed asset managers. The last session will offer an observational view of how financial institutions and digital asset platforms are working together to develop 24/7 liquid settlement infrastructure on public blockchains. Speaker: Vighnesh Patel – CEO, @BlockTowerTech Host: Roshan Kanesan – Producer & Presenter, @BFMradio Explore the practical considerations behind institutional stablecoins, cross-border payments and central bank innovation across emerging markets. 🎟️ Join us for the final session at #LIDAC KL 2026. Secure your pass: lidac.io

What is @arc, and what does it make possible for South African users? Arc™ is an open Layer-1 blockchain purpose-built for financial markets and real-time money movement. Think of Arc as giving a rand-pegged stablecoin like @ZARUniversal a passport. The rand stays the rand – South African, trusted, regulated, onshore – but now it can travel at the speed of the internet. Learn more about ZARU on Arc: zaru.network/blog/zaru-goes-… Explore the ecosystem: arc.io · @arc Arc is a trademark of Circle Internet Group, Inc. and/or its affiliates. Investing in Crypto assets may result in the loss of capital. BlockTower SA (Pty) Ltd is an authorised FSP (55172).

On-chain Rand, without the friction. @ZARUniversal brings institutional ZAR on-chain, and moving between ZAR and ZARU on @LunoGlobal is a simple 1:1 swap, zero fees, and instant. For traders: Select Buy → Select Crypto → Choose ZARU. Enter the amount from your ZAR wallet. Review the quote, zero fees shown. For developers using the API: Use the Convert endpoint in the Luno API. Stable value, Rand-denominated, settling at the speed of crypto.

Stablecoins can make cross-border payments faster, but recipients may still need to off-ramp into local currency to pay suppliers and merchants. That's where local-currency stablecoins can make a difference, connecting global stablecoin liquidity with local payments, treasury, and settlement needs. Nkahiseng Ralepeli, Director of Strategic Operations at @BlockTowerTech, explained back in June at #LIDAC Cape Town why emerging-market stablecoins paired with dollar-denominated ones close that gap: no forced off-ramp, no delay in paying your supplier. That's exactly what @ZARUniversal going live on @arc unlocks: rand-denominated value that moves globally, converts seamlessly with @USDC, and still settles as final payment onshore. 👉 See how ZARU works with Arc: zaru.network/blog/zaru-goes-…

From South African rands to global money movement. @ZARUniversal is now live on @arc, an open network for moving money globally in real time. As the issuer of ZARU, BlockTower has been part of this from day one. "With ZARU live on Arc Mainnet, the rand now has global institutional reach, backed one-to-one by reserves held onshore in South Africa. Programmable money supported by institutional market makers on-chain. The infrastructure is now in place." — Vighnesh Patel, CEO, BlockTower. More to come.

New milestone for @ZARUniversal $ZARU (ZAR Universal Network) is now listed on @coingecko, making it easier to access and track its market data in one trusted place. One of several steps toward broader market access. More to come.

Our ambition is not building @ZARUniversal alone. @BlockTowerTech has a mission to be the emerging-market stablecoin issuer and wallet-as-a-service provider of choice for capital markets and the payments industry, with launches planned across key African and APAC markets. Once several emerging-market stablecoins are on-chain, cross-peg pairs between them become possible, creating liquidity pools and network effects that did not exist before, particularly with established financial institutions involved. This is a starting point, and we want to build more. Interested in building with Blocktower? Contact us here: blocktower.tech/

The @ZARUniversal today welcomes @Absa, one of Africa's largest banking groups, as a banking partner supporting the ZARU ecosystem. Absa brings national coverage, deep settlement infrastructure, and the standing of one of the continent's most established institutions, strengthening both the capacity and the resilience of the network. ZARU is now supported by two of South Africa's largest banks, Standard Bank and Absa. For institutions, this means the following: multiple independent routes between the rand and the chain, banking coverage across the country, and settlement capacity built to institutional standard from the start. Learn more: blocktower.tech/insights/zar…

What makes @ZARUniversal different? Back in June at LIDAC Cape Town 2026, the CEO of BlockTower, Vignesh Patel, broke down why $ZARU is built to be more than one thing. ZAR is designed to serve multiple purposes at once: payments, retail investing, and capital markets. But there is a story far more than that, and it's what sits underneath it. The rails, the partnerships, the liquidity, the market makers. That infrastructure we built around it is the actual differentiator. For institutions weighing whether to build their own stablecoin, that means skipping the hard part. No standing up a new issuer, no fragmenting liquidity across chains, no years-long buildout before you can show results. Plug into a network that already trades globally against USDC and USDT, with reserves held onshore in South African debt and T-bills, and you leapfrog straight to deploying your own branded stablecoin. 👉 Learn more on how BlockTower builds ZARU infrastructure: blocktower.tech/

Why did we build @ZARUniversal? Rand FX is already a global market, but it’s never had a regulated home on-chain. According to South African Reserve Bank data, more than 80% of Rand foreign exchange volume, by value, is executed outside South Africa’s borders. That flow has never had a regulated, on-chain venue to settle in until now. The timing isn’t accidental. Non-USD stablecoin supply has grown 50x since 2020, from $44 million to $2.20 billion (Keyrock & Bitso), with emerging market currencies leading the shift. The Rand ranks among the world’s most liquid and heavily traded emerging market currencies. ZARU exists to give it what it’s always been missing: a continuous, on-chain market it can finally call its own. It’s South Africa’s digital currency for the world. A fully reserved, Rand-backed stablecoin issued by @BlockTowerTech, collateralised 1:1 and independently attested monthly.

ZARU is live on @base. A rand stablecoin built for settlement. Payments that took one to three business days now settle in seconds, onchain, around the clock. Low cost, secured by Ethereum. Backed 1-for-1 by rand reserves.

We are excited to announce that @ezeebit has integrated @ZARUniversal into its merchant payment infrastructure, adding a rich ecosystem for commerce partners you can pay and be paid in $ZARU. As the merchant base grows, more real-world transactions are being settled in $ZARU, reinforcing its role as a functional, bank-backed digital asset for payments. More platforms. More merchants. One $ZARU.

Stablecoins are becoming the infrastructure layer for how money moves globally. At LIDAC KL 2026, our penultimate panel examines stablecoins from both local and global perspectives, from the live BNM-sanctioned ringgit pilots to how Malaysia’s approach stacks up against Singapore, Hong Kong, and the EU. Our speakers will share hard-won learnings from recently launched local-currency stablecoins, and what it takes to move from pilot to real-world infrastructure. Panelists including: Gerard Ang — Head, Financing & Securities Services (Malaysia), @StanChart Eddy Christian Ng — Expansion Lead, @tether Vighnesh Patel — CEO, @BlockTowerTech Moderated by @Vincent_FongKw — Chief Editor, @FintechNewsMy If you work across banking, investment, treasury, or compliance, this is an event worth making time for. Members of @theaicb, @FiMMOfficial, and @cpaaustralia can claim CPD points for attending. Secure your spot or learn more at lidac.io

Liquidity is in place. Now, commerce. Meet @ZARUniversal's new partner, @MoneyBadgerPay. A licensed Crypto Asset Service Provider putting $ZARU in front of 650,000+ merchant locations across South Africa, settled in rand, with no crypto exposure and no change to how merchants operate. This builds on the liquidity foundation @CURRENCYHUB_CHM established. Institutional liquidity, now paired with live commerce. Together, these layers connect the loop: liquidity on one side, real-world payment utility on the other. Real utility. Live adoption. Connected infrastructure.

Spend crypto like cash. Nearly everywhere. With Luno Pay, you can use your crypto for everyday purchases at close to one million merchants across South Africa. Your crypto is converted instantly at the point of payment, with zero transaction fees. Pay with @ZARUniversal and earn 15% back in @tethergold every time you spend.* Dinner. Groceries. Online shopping. All from the @LunoGlobal app. Start paying with crypto today: bit.ly/4zcx1O9 *This Luno Pay rewards campaign runs from 1 June 2026 to 31 January 2027. Terms & conditions apply.