In West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU), grassroots adoption of virtual assets is growing, appropriate regulation is lagging, and financial risks are piling up. Somewhere in Dakar, a freelancer is being paid in USDC because her client has no other way to send money across borders cheaply. In Abidjan, a trader is using a P2P platform to convert CFA francs into dollars before an import order. In Cotonou, a family is receiving remittances via a stablecoin wallet because the Western Union fee was simply too high. None of these people are waiting for a regulatory framework before quietly routing…
