Zoth Enters Strategic Partnership MOU with Bakkt for Cross-Border Stablecoin Payments

Zoth, a stablecoin-focused neobank for emerging markets, and US digital asset infrastructure firm Bakkt have signed a memorandum of understanding to develop compliant cross-border stablecoin payments spanning South Asia and the Middle East/North Africa. Zoth said the arrangement could help scale its total payments volume to $1 billion annually.

Under the MOU, Zoth will operate as an Authorized Agent within Bakkt Financial Solutions I, LLC, a Bakkt subsidiary holding money transmitter licenses across the US, a New York BitLicense, and FinCEN MSB registration. The collaboration was first previewed at Bakkt's Investor Day on March 17, 2026. For Zoth's institutional clients and money transfer operator partners, Bakkt's licensing stack provides a US-licensed counterparty needed to clear compliance requirements and close deals.

Zoth runs active payment corridors in high-growth markets, including US-to-South Asia, US to Philippines and Nigeria, US to the Middle East, UAE to South Asia, and several Sub-Saharan African countries. The company says it already processes $300 million in annualized total payment volume and has sold over $75 million in yield products. It is backed by SOSV, Taisu Ventures, Borderless Capital and Blockchain Founders Fund, and has existing partnerships with Chainlink, Intellistake and Standard Chartered's Olea trade finance platform.

"Stablecoin infrastructure is ready. What large institutions have been waiting for is the regulatory configuration that gives them confidence to sign," said Pritam Dutta, co-founder and CEO of Zoth. He said the partnership creates a template for moving cross-border payments in the Global South from pilots to production at scale.

Zoth described Bakkt's licensing stack as a structural compliance advantage that competing payment infrastructure providers cannot easily replicate. For Bakkt, the deal extends its licensed US infrastructure into some of the world's fastest-growing remittance corridors, particularly the US-to-South Asia route, which Zoth calls the single largest remittance corridor globally.