Malmö, April 23, 2026.
Resilience in payments has rapidly moved from a technical consideration to a strategic priority across the Middle East and Africa. Recent world events, including incidents affecting cloud infrastructure, have exposed the vulnerability of payment systems dependent on continuous connectivity. As a result, ensuring payment continuity under all conditions is now at the top of the agenda for financial institutions, payment systems, and regulators.
Against this backdrop, Crunchfish announces a partnership with UAE-based payment infrastructure provider, Mercury, to deliver secure transactions across multiple payment rails in Middle East and Africa. This partnership has been initiated by Crunchfish's Danish sales partner SaaS Expand, leveraging its regional network and market presence.
Through this collaboration, Crunchfish's governed architecture will be integrated into Mercury's infrastructure, enabling secure payment processing across:
- Card Networks
- Instant Payment Systems
- Stablecoin Platforms
- Emerging Sovereign Digital Currencies
Mercury operates payment infrastructure across multiple markets in the MEA region, positioning the partnership to support both closed-loop systems as early adopters and broader open payment infrastructures at scale.
From system dependency to governed execution
Crunchfish's solution enables payments to execute independent of system availability, while maintaining:
- Central ledger authority
- Regulatory control
- Bounded and governed risk
Unlike legacy offline approaches that move risk to devices or introduce credit exposure, Crunchfish's model is based on pre-reserved liquidity, ensuring that:
- Funds remain within regulated institutions
- Transactions can execute even during outages
- Settlement occurs without credit risks when systems are restored
This makes the solution applicable not only to offline scenarios, but to resilient execution across all digital payments, online and offline.
Pilot and deployment scope
The collaboration will initially focus on:
- Integrating governed offline capabilities into Mercury's infrastructure
- Enabling interoperability across multiple payment rails
- Demonstrating resilient execution within regulated environments
The project will showcase how a single governed architecture can support diverse payment ecosystems while meeting regulatory and operational requirements.
Muzaffer Hamid, CEO of Mercury, comments:
"Resilience has become a strategic requirement across the markets we serve. Payment systems can no longer rely on continuous availability of networks and cloud infrastructure. With Crunchfish, we are introducing a fundamental new approach where payments can execute even when systems are unavailable, without compromising control, compliance, or security. This strengthens Mercury's ability to deliver robust, future-ready infrastructure across major payment rails in the region."
Joachim Samuelsson, CEO of Crunchfish, comments:
"What we are seeing in the Middle East is a clear shift. Resilience is no longer optional, it is becoming a requirement. This partnership with Mercury demonstrates how governed payments can be deployed at infrastructure level across multiple payment systems card networks, instant payments, CBDCs, and emerging digital money platforms. The resilient governed architecture enables payments to continue even when systems fail, without moving money out of the system and without facing credit risks. That is the foundation for resilient digital payments at scale."
For more information, please contact:
Joachim Samuelsson, CEO of Crunchfish AB
+46 708 46 47 88
joachim.samuelsson@crunchfish.com
This information is Crunchfish AB obliged to publish in accordance with the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was provided by the above for publication on April 23, 2026 at 13:05 CEST.
Västra Hamnen Corporate Finance AB is the Certified Adviser. Email: ca@vhcorp.se. Telephone +46 40 200 250.
About Crunchfish - crunchfish.com
Crunchfish is a deep fintech company developing patented governed offline payments technology for payment systems, banks, and payment applications. Its reservation-based Layer-2 architecture enables offline payments to operate as digital money, preserving central ledger authority, bounded exposure, and liquidity anchored within regulated institutions. By structurally aligning banking economics, scalable deployment, and governance continuity, Crunchfish enables offline capability at institutional scale without creating parallel forms of money or unmanaged credit risk. Crunchfish is listed on the Nasdaq First North Growth Market.
About Mercury - mercury-pay.com
Mercury is a Middle East and Africa-focused payments technology infrastructure and services provider to central banks, financial institutions, and national payment utilities. Headquartered in the UAE, Mercury designs and operates secure, scalable, and interoperable payment ecosystems that advance digital transformation and support financial sovereignty across emerging markets.
