BP Ventures and the Freedom Development Foundation are extending a Stellar-based self-custodial wallet with gift card purchases and mobile top-ups, using an integration with zendit. The announcement targets users in The Gambia and Tanzania and describes everyday purchases as a practical use for digital assets.

The update allows wallet users to spend USDC on merchant gift cards and add mobile credit. According to the companies, the gift card catalog covers hundreds of options across multiple countries. Zendit, part of IDT Corporation, supplies the digital-services integration.

Anthony Barker, BP Ventures’ co-founder, said the aim is to make cryptocurrency useful for needs such as groceries and phone credit. The Freedom Development Foundation is a UK-based charity working with communities in The Gambia and Tanzania and is using BP Ventures’ wallet solution to support that work.

The source release cites 2023 African mobile-money figures of 237 million active accounts and $919 billion in transactions as context for the initiative. Those regional figures describe the wider market, rather than usage of the BP Ventures wallet.

The release describes BP Ventures as a Stellar integration partner and Circle Alliance Member. It presents the wallet update as an effort to connect digital assets with everyday services, using gift cards and phone credit as ways for recipients to use their balances.

The partnership combines BP Ventures’ wallet technology with the foundation’s work in the two countries and zendit’s catalog of digital services. Barker frames the integration as a link between conventional purchases and cryptocurrency payments.