• Weekly Brief 2026/19
  • Pick n Pay — Bitcoin at Thousands of Stores
  • Unbankworld — $40M via BTCPay in Six Months
  • Merchant Growth
  • Infrastructure
  • Ground-Level Proofs

§Weekly Brief 2026/19

Pick n Pay is accepting Bitcoin at thousands of stores across South Africa. BTCPay Server says one operator pushed $40M through open-source rails in six months. BTC Map logged 2,500 net new merchants in April. Afribit Kibera counts 400-600 active users in Nairobi. 98 students at Kenyatta University practiced self-custody and paid for meals with 21 sats. The numbers are compounding.

§Pick n Pay — Bitcoin at Thousands of Stores

Pick n Pay accepts bitcoin via QR through AquaBitcoin. Groceries, airtime, municipal bills. Thousands of stores. One of the continent’s largest chains.

Source: https://x.com/BitFitness21M/status/2051336870852759938

§Unbankworld — $40M via BTCPay in Six Months

Unbankworld — one of the oldest BTC ATM networks in the U.S. — surpassed $40 million across 41,416 transactions in its first six months on BTCPay. Open-source, self-hosted, eight-figure volume. No vendor lock-in.

Source: https://x.com/BtcpayServer/status/1892257773397672067

§Merchant Growth

BTC Map: 2,500 net new merchants in April. South Africa leading. Saved places and custom activity feeds shipped.

Source: https://x.com/btcmap/status/2052369192251191366

South Africa — PeachPayments batch: TravelwingsZA (safaris, holidays), Flook (sports, hospitality), Plume Africa (tourism), Lug to Lug (watches). Same processor, four verticals, one week.

Source: https://x.com/MoneyBadgerPay/status/2052012742316310670

Bolivia: 15+ pizzerias accepting bitcoin.

Dominican Republic: BTCPay POS outreach ahead of Pizza Day. ~12 pizza shops contacted, 1 interested, meeting set. “Adoption starts with one conversation.”

§Infrastructure

Square Lightning: 28% of U.S. merchants. Ryan Gentry called it the biggest development for bitcoin as a MoE. Lightning as the fast lane between side systems, exchanges, payment environments.

Routstr goes live. Open-source AI inference marketplace. Nostr + Cashu. Fund via Lightning, mint ecash, attach to each request. No accounts, no OAuth. Hundreds of models at chat.routstr.com. Lightning Enable expanded L402 endpoints — SEC data, stock quotes, FX, nutrition, geocoding, scholarly search — 1-10 sats per challenge.

Source: https://x.com/callebtc/status/2050978892207493448

NumoPayApp at Busan flea market. South Korea. Small signal, new geography.

§Ground-Level Proofs

Afribit Kibera, Nairobi: 400-600+ active users. Real transactions. Growing local economy. “Trust first, Bitcoin second.” “Create earners before merchants.” Soccer players, boda-boda riders, reformed car wash members.

Kenyatta University: 98 students enrolled. Self-custody via fedibtc. Faucet claims → real transactions. Meals at 21 sats. Tools: Minmo, Tando.

Source: https://x.com/BitEduhub/status/2052306937342267414

Bitcoin Chama Obomo: 1,100 sats pooled weekly. Each Sunday the pot buys household goods for one member. Mattress. Seat cushions. Water tank. Mutual aid in sats.

Maputo Bitdevs: 63 people. Self-custody wallets installed. 12 words written offline. First Lightning transactions completed. “People did not just hear about Bitcoin. They used it.”

Source: https://x.com/BitcoinFamba/status/2051012566130848069

Cross-market: Cooking gas in Ekiti. Snacks in Calabar. Rice, soap, tealeaves, water in Kenya and Zambia. Laundry, beauty parlours, printing shops. Same rails, everywhere.

From thousands of Pick n Pay stores to 1,100 sats pooled on a Sunday — same protocol, radically different scales. The pattern is compounding.

Full brief on Blink: https://www.blink.sv/blog/weekly-brief-2026-19