Gold-Backed Stablecoin Debuts As Payment Method For African Content Creators

Own. app, a decentralized social media platform focused on creator monetization, on Thursday announced it has partnered with Ubuntu Tribe to integrate GIFT Gold, a gold-backed stablecoin, into its ecosystem.

This marks the first gold-pegged payment integration designed specifically for Africa's creator economy, a sector projected to surpass $30 billion by 2027.

Under the partnership, creators using Own. app in markets like Kenya, Nigeria and Côte d'Ivoire will now be able to receive loyalty rewards, tips and subscription payments denominated in GIFT Gold, a digital asset backed 1:1 by audited physical gold reserves.

The move addresses the volatility of fiat and crypto payments, which often limit consistent income for digital entrepreneurs across African nations.

GIFT Gold provides an alternative, functioning as a medium of exchange and store of value and offering users a path to long-term wealth generation without exposure to inflation or token price swings.

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"This isn't just another tech partnership, but rather an opportunity to build financial and creative sovereignty," said Mamadou Kwidjim Toure, CEO of Ubuntu Tribe. "We're merging Africa's legacy of gold with the future of work."

Own. app plans to launch the pilot with 1,000 early creators, with ambitions to scale access to 100,000 users across the continent and the African diaspora by 2026.

A full deployment of the app's plug-in architecture will roll out in late 2025, further embedding GIFT Gold and related financial products into the platform.

Katia Zaitsev, COO and co-founder of Own. app, added that the integration aligns with the platform's mission to "return power to the creators" and offer a decentralized financial infrastructure that matches real-world user needs.

An in-person event is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2025 to engage local creators, demonstrate the integration, and host roundtables on policy and decentralized finance.

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