Companies like Optasia leverage mobile phone usage data from telecom partners to provide small loans to millions of unbanked individuals. This model of financial inclusion has created highly valuable "unicorn" companies on the continent.

Visa's moat is threatened less by traditional competitors and more by sovereign payment systems. Government-backed networks like India's UPI and Brazil's Pix facilitate direct bank-to-bank transfers, bypassing Visa's rails. In China, state control and super apps like Alipay have effectively blocked Visa from the market.

VEON's 85% stake in the publicly listed Ukrainian telecom Kyivstar is valued at ~$2.8B. With VEON's total enterprise value at ~$4.9B, the market is effectively valuing all of its other high-growth assets in Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Kazakhstan for a small fraction of their standalone worth.

To counter the rise of free, government-backed account-to-account (A2A) payment systems, Visa is building its own A2A network. It then monetizes these flows by adding value-added services like real-time fraud detection and global interoperability—features that basic, local bank-transfer systems cannot match, turning a commodity threat into a premium offering.

Buried within VEON's portfolio, its Pakistani fintech arm JazzCash processes $60 billion in transactions annually. This represents 15% of Pakistan's total GDP, signaling a dominant, systemically important asset that has never been independently valued by the market.

The market values VEON as a simple emerging market telecom, overlooking its rapidly growing digital financial services like JazzCash. These "super apps" have tech-like growth and could be worth more than the entire company's current enterprise value if valued separately, creating a significant valuation disconnect.

The $21-82 billion revenue at risk from digital asset adoption is concentrated in core banking functions: cross-border payments, liquidity, and collateral management. This shows the threat is not at the fringe but targets the fundamental, high-margin operations of global wholesale banks.

VEON operates in markets where the average age is 22-29, compared to 40 in the US. With low internet and banking penetration, this young, growing population provides a powerful, long-term secular tailwind for data consumption and digital services adoption, independent of short-term market noise.

Remitly thrives by offering a service that is cheaper and more efficient than traditional players like Western Union, yet remains integrated within the established banking system. This unique position allows it to serve users' needs without triggering the regulatory skepticism faced by decentralized solutions like stablecoins.