Tether and Shiga plan self-custodial wallets for Africa and the GCC

Tether and Shiga have announced plans to bring self-custodial wallets for USD₮, Bitcoin, and Tether Gold to individuals and institutions across Africa and the Gulf Cooperation Council.

Tether said in its Sep. 28 announcement that both products will use its open-source Wallet Development Kit, or WDK. Shiga will offer one product directly to users and another to institutions building payment and treasury services for their customers.

The plan extends a relationship that began with Tether’s investment in Shiga Digital in June 2025. At the time, crypto.news covered the investment and Shiga’s existing services for African businesses, including virtual accounts, foreign exchange, treasury management and over-the-counter transactions.

Shiga’s ENTA will put three assets in user-controlled wallets

Under the new plan, ENTA will serve individuals, high-net-worth users and businesses. Tether said customers will be able to add funds using local currency, U.S. dollars, or Bitcoin, then hold and transfer USD₮, Bitcoin and XAU₮ from self-custodial wallets.

The funding options and the assets held in the wallet serve different roles. A customer adding local currency, for example, would use it to fund access to the supported digital assets; the announcement does not say that ENTA will hold local currency as a wallet asset. Tether also did not give a launch date, list the countries where ENTA will first be available, or set out the fees customers would pay.

Shiga’s focus on cross-border transfers comes amid high remittance costs in the region. The World Bank’s remittance price report put the average cost of sending money to Sub-Saharan Africa at 8.46% in the third quarter of 2025, the highest average among the receiving regions it tracked. Neither Tether nor Shiga provided a comparable cost estimate for transfers through ENTA.

Tether chief executive Paolo Ardoino said WDK would let companies build products in which users retain control of their assets.

“Together with Shiga, we are bringing that infrastructure to markets where people and businesses face real challenges protecting savings and moving money across borders,” Ardoino said.

The three-asset approach gives customers access to a dollar-linked token, Bitcoin and tokenized gold within the planned product. Tether has also worked with Opera on MiniPay, a separate self-custodial wallet serving markets that include Africa. In February, the MiniPay wallet expansion added access to USD₮ and tokenized gold, according to the companies’ announcement covered by crypto.news.

Pulse will let institutions choose where to run the software

For banks, fintech companies and other institutional clients, Shiga plans to offer Pulse as a platform they can adapt to payment corridors, treasury work and settlement flows. Chief executive Abiola Shogbeni said the company would tailor the product to each institution’s operations instead of supplying the same wallet interface to every client.

Tether said institutions will have two deployment choices. They can use WDK infrastructure managed by Shiga, or operate it in their own environment while keeping control of their keys, data, and funds. The second option is intended for clients with requirements governing where data is held and who controls the systems used to sign transactions.

WDK supplies the wallet software beneath both ENTA and Pulse. According to Tether, a single integration will allow Shiga to support the blockchain networks available through the toolkit. Tether describes WDK as open-source infrastructure for building self-custodial wallets, with support for assets including Bitcoin, USD₮ and XAU₮.

The institutional product is planned for the Africa–GCC corridor, but Tether has not named a bank or fintech company that has agreed to deploy Pulse. The announcement also does not identify an initial payment corridor or transaction volume for either product.

Within the Gulf, XAU₮ already has a specific regulatory designation in Abu Dhabi Global Market. In July, Abu Dhabi recognized XAU₮ as an Accepted Spot Commodity. That status permits firms with the relevant ADGM approvals to provide services involving the token; it does not grant Shiga or every firm in the financial center automatic approval.

Nigerian licence remains under review

Shiga chief operating officer Dami Etomi said the company is in the final stage of approval for a Digital Asset Intermediary licence in Nigeria. If approved, the licence would authorize Shiga to provide regulated digital asset dealing, broking and custody services to individuals and institutions in the country. Shiga has not said that it holds the licence yet.

Etomi also said Shiga will operate ENTA on the platform it offers to institutional clients. Prospective Pulse customers would therefore be able to examine a live Shiga product using the underlying infrastructure, although the company has not specified when ENTA will go live.

For U.S. readers, the announcement concerns products planned for Africa and the GCC; it does not announce U.S. availability. U.S. Treasury’s August rulemaking proposal separately addresses when U.S. digital asset service providers may offer foreign-issued payment stablecoins. Tether and Shiga did not describe the planned products’ U.S. access or their treatment under that proposed rule.