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-…

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.

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.

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

The financial rails powering cross-border trade, payments, and institutional liquidity are shifting on-chain. For years, South Africa's rand economy has lacked a native digital asset built for that shift. @ZARUniversal ( $ZARU ) changes that. Read the @ZARUniversal white paper to explore how $ZARU bridges traditional financial architecture with 24/7 blockchain settlement—bringing speed, transparency, and programmable liquidity to South Africa's Rand economy. 📖 Read the full white paper here: zaru.network/blog/zar-univer…

$ZARU trading pairs are now live on @LunoGlobal. For the first time, an institutional-grade ZAR stablecoin has been listed on a large, regulated crypto exchange. The result: the Rand now has a continuous, on-chain secondary market. Luno customers in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda can now trade $ZARU/ $USDT and $ZARU/ $USDC, without being tied to banking hours. Move in and out of @ZARUniversal whenever you need to, day or night. The listing follows ZARU's launch on Luno's instant Buy and Sell, alongside a @tether campaign paying Luno Pay customers up to 15% back in @tethergold at 1M+ South African merchants. Learn more bit.ly/4fBY9yv

According to the @WorldBankGroup (Q3 2025), South Africa has the highest remittance costs of any G20 country: 15.65% on average. That figure is the sum of several friction points: correspondent-banking hops, FX margins, and settlement that runs T+1 to T+3. For a treasury or a PSP, it lands as working-capital drag. Value sits in transit instead of on your balance sheet, on rails that don't operate outside banking hours. @ZARUniversal is a fully-reserved, Rand-backed stablecoin. One Rand, one $ZARU. Every token is backed 1:1 by reserves held at @StandardBankZA, independently attested each month, and the attestation is published, so you can verify it before you transact. The underlying assets remain in the South African financial system. What $ZARU changes is how the Rand moves. It settles on-chain in seconds, 24/7. Same Rand, same regulatory perimeter, settlement measured in seconds rather than days. @BlockTowerTech, issuer of @ZARUniversal ( $ZARU ). Register your interest in using ZARU today. If you move Rand across borders, apply to become a $ZARU distribution partner at zaru.network

Introducing @CURRENCYHUB_CHM as @ZARUniversal's dedicated market maker for the $ZARU / $USDT and $ZARU / $USDC trading pairs. This marks another step in strengthening ZARU’s institutional foundation. With Currency Hub providing dedicated market-making services, ZARU is backed by institutional support across both reserves and liquidity. As $ZARU’s market maker, Currency Hub covers $ZARU / $USDT and $ZARU / $USDC, including global pairs that facilitate cross-border stablecoin FX at scale. Institutional liquidity. Built for global scale.