Airtm has partnered with BVNK, a stablecoin infrastructure provider owned by Mastercard, to bring wallet-native payments to users in emerging markets.
The partnership was announced at the Stellar Meridian Conference, alongside Airtm’s launch of Airtm Connect. The service allows digital asset companies globally, including BVNK, to build wallet connections with Airtm’s user base. Through the integration, Airtm users will be able to spend funds held in their wallets at participating retailers enabled by BVNK. In addition, they will also gain new ways to fund their wallets and receive money.
Linking on-ramps to commerce
The agreement connects two stages of the stablecoin payment flow. BVNK handles origination through compliant on-ramping. Airtm positions itself as the destination layer, where users hold and spend digital dollars. Rubén Galindo Steckel, CEO of Airtm, said that stablecoin payments only work when origination and destination are closely connected. The official added that the company has spent the past decade building that destination layer for the global dollar economy, as the stated aim is a complete on-ramp-to-commerce flow for emerging market users.
BVNK’s position within Mastercard extends the scope of the arrangement. Airtm will gain access to the recently launched Mastercard Global Money Platform, a full-stack, modular infrastructure layer for fiat and stablecoin accounts, payments, and money movement. Under this set-up, Airtm keeps the customer relationship and avoids integrating multiple providers separately.
Kimberly Mescal Julien, Global Head of Partnerships at BVNK, described Airtm Connect as an example of fintech platforms treating wallets as distribution channels for real-world commerce rather than as standalone silos.
The integration will run on the Stellar blockchain, which the companies describe as a high-speed, low-cost payment rail. BVNK recently added Stellar to its platform as part of its multi-chain stablecoin infrastructure. The Airtm partnership is one of the first applications of that integration to be made public.
A multi-provider approach in fragmented markets
BVNK will join Airtm’s existing financial infrastructure partners rather than replace them. The addition gives Airtm more options for serving customers across different funding paths and geographies.
This matters because of where Airtm operates. Its network spans multiple jurisdictions in the Global South. In many of these markets, stablecoins are increasingly used both for payments and as a store of value. Regulatory certainty varies from one market to the next, and liquidity corridors are fragmented.
Rubén Galindo Steckel, CEO of Airtm, said the company’s infrastructure strategy has consistently centred on choice for both the company and its users. According to him, Airtm is not relying on a single provider or payment rail. It is instead building a distributed last-mile network, which BVNK’s capabilities are intended to strengthen.
For the wider ecosystem, the partnership places a Mastercard-owned stablecoin infrastructure provider directly in the payment flow of an emerging market wallet network. It links card network-backed money movement infrastructure with last-mile distribution in regions where access to dollar-denominated value remains uneven.
