Buy USDC with M-Pesa or Airtel Money — Onramp Is Now Live

Buy USDC the way you already pay for everything else

Onramp is live. Pay with M-Pesa or Airtel Money and receive USDC on Base or Celo, or USDT on Celo, straight to your wallet. No card-only exchange. No week of paperwork just to top up a small amount. Just the same payment flow you already use to send rent or top up airtime.

At a glance

• What's new: Buy USDC (Base or Celo) and USDT (Celo) using KES from your M-Pesa or Airtel Money line.
• Who it's for: Anyone in Kenya who wants dollar-denominated stablecoins without a card or international exchange.
• How long: A single payment prompt on your phone. Funds usually land in your wallet within minutes.
• What you need: A wallet address on Base or Celo, a phone with M-Pesa or Airtel Money, and enough KES to cover the amount plus the fee shown in-app.

Why it matters

Most people in Kenya already live on mobile money. M-Pesa and Airtel Money handle rent, family transfers, and daily business. The gap has always been the other direction — getting dollar-denominated stablecoins into a wallet you control without paying a stranger on Telegram or routing through a global exchange.

Onramp closes that gap. Pay in KES, receive USDC or USDT on the same chains your apps and creators already use. Once it's in your wallet you can hold it, spend it on Farcaster, earn yield on it automatically, or offramp back to M-Pesa when you need shillings again.

Before you start: pick the right network

⚠ Read this before you paste an address. Stablecoins sent to the wrong chain can be very hard or impossible to recover. In your wallet, confirm you're looking at the same network you selected in Minisend — Base or Celo — and copy the address from that exact account.

A few things to have ready:

• A wallet address on Base or Celo. Coinbase Wallet, Rainbow, MetaMask, and Rabby work for Base. Valora, MiniPay, and MetaMask work for Celo.
• A phone number registered for M-Pesa or Airtel Money, with enough KES to cover the purchase plus the fee shown in-app.
• A few minutes of clear signal so the payment prompt doesn't time out.

How it works

1. Open Minisend and tap Buy to start the onramp.
2. Choose what you want to receive: USDC on Base, USDC on Celo, or USDT on Celo.
3. Enter the amount in KES, or in USDC/USDT — the app calculates the other side. Review the rate and fee shown before you confirm.
4. Paste the wallet address that should receive the stablecoins. Double-check the network matches.
5. Enter the phone number you're paying from in 2547XXXXXXXX format — no +, no leading zero.
6. Approve the payment on your phone: an STK Push for M-Pesa, or a PIN prompt in the Airtel Money menu. Complete it before it times out.
7. Once the mobile money side clears, stablecoins land in your wallet, usually within minutes. You'll see the balance update on Base or Celo.

Paying with Airtel Money? The steps are identical — pick Airtel as the payment method in step 1 and approve the debit through the Airtel prompt in step 6.

After you receive your stablecoins

Hold them in your wallet, use them in Farcaster apps on Base, send them to a friend, or let them sit and earn up to 4.59% APY automatically in your Minisend wallet. When you need KES again, the same app offramps back to M-Pesa or your bank in minutes. Both Base and Celo are part of the four chains we settle from, so the same balance moves freely across the rest of Minisend.

FAQ

Do I need to do KYC?

For small amounts, no — your phone number and wallet address are enough. Above a daily limit shown in-app, Minisend will ask for a quick verification step. This keeps the product compliant without slowing down everyday users.

What if the M-Pesa or Airtel prompt times out?

You can usually retry from the same session without re-entering your details. If the payment never debited, no funds move. If your phone debited but the prompt closed, contact support from the app — your reference is logged.

Which wallets should I use?

Anything that supports Base or Celo. Common picks: Coinbase Wallet, Rainbow, MetaMask, Rabby for Base; Valora, MiniPay, MetaMask for Celo. Just confirm the network is set correctly before you copy your address.

Is the onramp available outside Kenya?

Right now it's live for Kenya — M-Pesa and Airtel Money only. More markets are on the roadmap. If you're moving in the other direction, the offramp already supports more rails.

Why USDC on Base and Celo, but USDT only on Celo?

USDT liquidity sits primarily on Celo for our current settlement path. We'll expand assets and chains as the underlying liquidity supports it.

Try it

Open Minisend → app.minisend.xyz

Or open the Farcaster miniapp and buy without leaving your feed.