The World Bank's financial inclusion unit CGAP cited an Algorand-based stablecoin pilot in Afghanistan that reduced humanitarian payment delivery costs by 29 percent across 840 recipients, according to research released in July.
The pilot, run by Mercy Corps Ventures, deployed an afghani-pegged stablecoin called HAFN using offline-capable physical cards to deliver funds directly to recipient wallets across 100 farming households in Afghanistan. CGAP, which sits within the World Bank and focuses on financial inclusion in developing markets, included the case in its formal research output on stablecoin use in humanitarian aid delivery.
The 29 percent cost reduction tracked the difference between traditional remittance and aid delivery methods, which involve correspondent banking, currency conversion, and physical cash distribution networks, and direct wallet-to-wallet settlement on the Algorand blockchain. Mercy Corps Ventures documented in its pilot report that the savings came from eliminating intermediaries in the payment chain and reducing the time funds spend in transit.
A parallel pilot in Syria using the same infrastructure reduced payment delivery times from 28 days to under one day, the organization said. The Syria deployment faced different constraints than Afghanistan; the country's financial system operates under international sanctions and lacks formal banking access for much of its population. Mercy Corps moved funds across borders and into recipient hands without relying on licensed money transfer operators.
Algorand's role in the Afghanistan pilot centered on its ability to settle transactions without constant internet connectivity. Recipients could load digital afghani onto physical cards issued by the pilot and spend or withdraw them offline; the blockchain layer reconciled balances once connectivity returned. Recipients in farming communities often have unreliable or expensive internet access.
CGAP included the Algorand pilot in its formal research output alongside similar work on other blockchains. The World Bank has historically approached cryptocurrency with caution; a CGAP acknowledgment of a specific blockchain project marks a shift in how the institution evaluates digital payment rails for aid distribution.
Mercy Corps Ventures is an impact investing arm of the larger Mercy Corps nonprofit and focuses on financial technology pilots in conflict and fragile states. The organization has run similar stablecoin and blockchain infrastructure trials in multiple countries; the Afghanistan and Syria pilots represent among the largest field tests of offline-capable digital wallets for aid delivery to date. The 840-person scale across 100 farming households offers real-world data on cost and operational friction rather than a theoretical model.
The cost savings and time reduction documented across both pilots were 29 percent and 27 days respectively. Adoption at scale depends on regulatory clarity in recipient countries and comfort with stablecoin custody among aid workers and beneficiaries. CGAP's formal research output provides one of the first institutional validation points for the economics.
