How do African e-commerce sellers receive cross-border payments within 3 seconds? Huma Finance's PayFi network disrupts traditional settlement
Introduction: On the streets of Lagos, e-commerce seller Amir used to wait 14 days to receive payments from European buyers, but now through Huma Finance's PayFi network, his USDC wallet receives funds within 3 seconds after transaction confirmation—this is not a science fiction scenario, but a reality created by Huma's collaboration with Arf and Geoswift to launch a cross-border settlement solution. This blockchain network, covering payment institutions in 47 countries, is reshaping the trillion-dollar cross-border payment market.
In-depth Analysis:
Huma's instant settlement system breaks industry deadlocks through three innovations:
1. Liquidity Pool Sharing Mechanism: USDC staked by regular users forms a capital pool, allowing payment institutions to borrow on demand for instant payments, increasing capital turnover by over 6 times. When a Mexican cross-border seller needs to pay a Chinese supplier, the Huma network automatically completes the on-chain exchange and transfer of USDC, taking only 10 minutes and reducing costs to $1.5.
2. Compliance Infrastructure: By acquiring the licensed institution Arf Financial to obtain an MSB license and combining it with Chainlink oracles to verify reserves in real time, it ensures that the collateralization ratio is always above 120%. The cross-border stablecoin clearing framework in collaboration with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) enables Huma to become the first PayFi protocol tested through a regulatory sandbox.
3. Smart Contract Automation: When Southeast Asian fast fashion brand StyleHub ships to European buyers, Huma's smart contract automatically generates accounts receivable NFTs and uses them as collateral to release liquidity. Once the buyer confirms receipt, the payment will prioritize loan repayment and trigger supplier payment, all without manual intervention.
Data Evidence: As of Q1 2025, Huma's total locked value (TVL) on-chain has surpassed $1.8 billion, covering payment institutions in 47 countries and processing an average of 42,000 transactions daily. This efficiency improvement has accelerated the supply chain turnover speed for small and medium-sized enterprises by an average of 87%, avoiding high-interest bridge loans with an annualized rate of 30%.
