Circle Foundation Funds UNDP and WFP Stablecoin Payment Trials

Circle Foundation has announced two separate grants to help the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Food Programme (WFP) test digital payments for development work and humanitarian aid.

In its Sep. 25 announcement, the foundation said the grants will support efforts to examine whether digital payments, including regulated payment stablecoins, can deliver funds to recipients faster and at lower cost. Payment stablecoins are digital tokens designed to hold a steady value against a reference currency, typically the U.S. dollar — the property that keeps the amount a recipient receives predictable.

The two grants fund different stages of that work. UNDP will focus on scaling payment methods already tested in individual projects to more country offices, while WFP will build the controls required to test stablecoin payments alongside local financial services. UNDP has previously trialed digital payment methods in several countries and will use its grant to support their use in regular programs. The WFP-related grant, made to World Food Program USA, will pay for the systems and partnerships needed before trials across two to three country corridors.

UNDP to Establish Digital Asset Innovation Pool

Under its grant, UNDP will establish and operate a Digital Asset Innovation Pool. According to Circle Foundation, the pool will help country offices adopt regulated payment stablecoins where they suit a development program, with guidance on local rules, day-to-day operations, and safeguards for people receiving funds.

The pool will also give UNDP tools to measure how long payments take, what they cost, and how many people they reach. UNDP said the mechanism will provide another option when ordinary payment systems create high costs, delays, or barriers to access, and it will continue using established banking channels.

Earlier pilots give UNDP a starting point. In Aleppo, Syria, the agency tested digital payments for a cash-for-work project. In Haiti, it tested disbursements designed for limited connectivity. A Guatemala project linked remittances to community investment, while work in The Gambia connected mobile wallets to existing cash-agent networks.

crypto.news covered UNDP's expanded Stellar partnership in July, after 16 months of blockchain payment tests. UNDP reported that the Syria pilot reduced distribution costs from 10% to 2%, and that a Haiti pilot kept processing payments during a cellular network outage. The gap between those two figures is where the significance sits: costs at 2% instead of 10% leave more of each disbursement for the program itself rather than its delivery, while the Haiti result pointed to a different advantage — aid payments that keep moving when local networks go down. Those results came from earlier projects; the new pool will help country offices decide how to apply the lessons from them.

Robert Pasicko, team lead at UNDP's Alternative Finance Lab, said the pool will support payments that are "faster, more affordable and easier to access," particularly for people underserved by conventional banking. The lab led the agency's Sustainable Development Goals Blockchain Accelerator, through which the earlier payment solutions were tested.

WFP to Test Country Corridors Over Three Years

WFP's grant will support the payment infrastructure behind its proposed trials. According to Circle Foundation, WFP and its Innovation Accelerator will develop governance and risk rules, treasury and reconciliation systems, and compliance tools that can work across multiple country operations.

Reconciliation matters when an aid organization needs to match money sent through a payment system with its own records and the amounts received locally. WFP will also connect the planned payment systems with local fintech firms and mobile-money providers, so a digital transfer can reach people through services available in their markets.

Over the next three years, WFP plans to test two to three country corridors linking its payment system with local financial providers and markets. Circle Foundation said the tests will produce evidence on payment efficiency, transparency, and resilience. The grant will also support independent research into costs, speed, and whether stablecoin payments can work in humanitarian operations. Which corridors are selected, and what the independent research reports on costs and speed, are the concrete checkpoints to watch as the trials progress.

Bernhard Kowatsch, director of WFP Global Accelerator and Ventures, said the funding will let WFP explore regulated stablecoin payments in "real-world contexts." WFP will use the trials to develop the evidence, partnerships, and systems needed to assess their use.

Grants Build on Circle's Existing UN Payment Work

The two grants follow Circle Foundation's first international award, announced in January for the Digital Hub of Treasury Solutions. UNHCR launched that shared UN platform in 2021 to modernize financial operations, and Circle said 15 organizations participate, including UNDP and WFP. The January funding supported work on cross-border transfers, conversion into local currencies, and links between financial systems. Because both agencies already participate in that platform, the new grants extend payment work they are already part of.

As previously reported by crypto.news, the foundation announced its first U.S. grants on Sep. 22, awarding funds to Accion Opportunity Fund and Pacific Community Ventures for lending and data tools serving small businesses.

The U.S. connection also runs through Circle Internet Group, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker CRCL and supports the foundation through a commitment of about 1% of its equity. Circle's filings, cited in the earlier report, show that its board reserved up to 2,682,392 Class A shares for foundation contributions over ten years. Circle Foundation operates as a donor-advised fund managed by Fidelity Charitable.

The Sep. 25 announcement identifies World Food Program USA as the recipient the WFP-related grant and says its funding will support the payment work of WFP and the WFP Innovation Accelerator.