Unlocking Global Opportunity: How Cenoa and Bridge Empower Entrepreneurs in Emerging Markets
Introduction
Traditional banking systems weren’t built to meet the needs of people in emerging markets like
Turkey and Nigeria who want to sell products and services globally. Collecting in local currencies often means losing money to FX volatility and high transaction fees, while opening US or EU accounts through traditional providers is slow, costly, and unreliable. Furthermore, most important marketplaces like Amazon do not even allow non-US sellers to open a store and sell in the US without a US bank account.
Cenoa is a next-generation financial platform designed to unlock economic opportunity in emerging markets. Built on blockchain technology, Cenoa gives solopreneurs, freelancers, and small businesses access to stable, global financial infrastructure so they can pursue ecommerce exporting and international trade opportunities.
“Countries like Turkey and Nigeria are among the world’s fastest adopters of stablecoins not just because of economic instability, but because of their large, young, and highly tech-savvy populations. These users are eager to adopt decentralized technologies to solve real financial problems and access global markets,” said Seckin Caglin, Cenoa’s Cofounder and Co-CEO. “We are lifting a lot of young people in these emerging markets out of poverty and putting them on equal footing with their Western counterparts.”
Challenge
From day one, Cenoa’s goal was to build a new type of global financial platform that would help
emerging market entrepreneurs overcome several key challenges:
- Lack of access to global banking infrastructure: E-commerce sellers, freelancers, and solopreneurs in markets like Turkey and Nigeria need US bank accounts to go global—whether it's selling on Amazon, getting paid through Upwork, or scaling their Etsy store. However, traditional services make it nearly impossible to open accounts quickly, affordably, or reliably.
- High transaction costs: Many payment platforms charge up to 8% in FX fees to settle transactions in local currencies, forcing sellers to raise prices, accept razor-thin margins, or lose profits entirely. On top of that, hidden fees often slip by unnoticed—quietly chipping away at hard-earned revenue.
- Unreliable and opaque systems: Sellers in these emerging markets often experience account freezes, unexplained delays, or sudden loss of funds when using legacy providers, making cross-border commerce risky.
To fulfill its mission, Cenoa needed a partner that could deliver stablecoin-native infrastructure, seamless fiat integration, and the ability to open thousands of compliant accounts without requiring Cenoa to become a licensed financial institution.
Solution
After evaluating several providers, Cenoa chose Bridge for its stablecoin-native architecture, global-first approach, and executional readiness to support a financial platform of this scale. More than just a vendor, Bridge became a foundational partner—helping Cenoa build, launch, and evolve a next-generation payment platform for emerging markets.
Cenoa and Bridge worked hand-in-hand to tailor infrastructure to Cenoa’s needs. Together, they introduced virtual accounts, streamlined compliance workflows, and accelerated onboarding flows that could support rapid scale without compromising trust.
“We did a lot of brainstorming together, and we were able to make our onboarding process much more streamlined and efficient. We solved the problem together, and the future looks brighter for it,” said Emre Ertan, Cenoa’s Cofounder and Co-CEO.
Cenoa uses Bridge’s Virtual Account API to instantly issue virtual USD accounts to users across emerging markets like Turkey, Nigeria, and Mexico. When funds are deposited, they’re automatically converted to USDC and routed to users’ wallets, giving users immediate, reliable access to stable digital dollars while bypassing the delays, FX markups, and restrictions of legacy banking.
Bridge’s modular APIs and fast deployment enabled Cenoa to go from integration to live rollout in under a month. Their collaboration continues to expand, with joint efforts to unlock new markets like Mexico through localized account infrastructure and dramatically cheaper FX.
Results
The partnership between Cenoa and Bridge accelerated Cenoa’s ability to build and scale its platform in 40+ markets across EMEA, LATAM, and Southeast Asia.
Bridge makes it easy for Cenoa users to open USD or EUR accounts, send and receive international payments, and convert funds from USD to local currencies. Compared to providers like PayPal, Wise, and SWIFT, Cenoa delivers up to 10x lower overall costs with 80% lower cross-border payment fees, helping users keep more of what they earn.
Within six months of launching its virtual USD accounts, Cenoa onboarded more than 10,000 users in Turkey, saw 30x transaction volume growth, and processed over $5 million in monthly volume. Cenoa’s customer onboarding time dropped to under three minutes, while its customer retention rate increased thanks to instant, reliable access to funds.
Cenoa is using Bridge’s MXN virtual accounts to help its customers unlock new opportunities in Mexico. Mexican e-commerce entrepreneurs can now convert pesos to USDC at 10x better FX rates than what platforms like Amazon typically offer, while allowing Turkish and Nigerian entrepreneurs to transact more efficiently with customers and partners in Mexico.
“Through Bridge, we empower users with the tools they need to confidently participate in the global economy,” Seckin Caglin said.
Conclusion
With fast onboarding, significantly lower costs, and seamless access to dollars, Cenoa is helping thousands of users in emerging markets build real businesses, participate in global trade, and gain financial stability. By leveraging stablecoins as a tool for economic inclusion, Cenoa is achieving its vision of helping millions of entrepreneurs in emerging markets to overcome systemic barriers and build a better future.
“For people in countries like Turkey and Nigeria, stablecoins and access to USD banking rails solve the biggest challenge in their life–not their banking life, but their whole life. It’s giving millions of sellers and freelancers the opportunity to access global opportunities. That’s why Cenoa grew 30x in 5 months. In 10 years, people will look back and say this was the most impactful use case for stablecoins.”
“We’ve talked with more than 100 partners across banking, payments, and crypto infrastructure. By far, the Bridge team has been the most reliable, responsive, and professional we’ve worked with. They are open to feedback, and the tech they’ve built works very well. They are a world-class team with world-class infrastructure.”
