QUSD: The Digital Dollar Under Cuba’s Private-Sector Boom
Since QvaPay launched in 2020, Cuba's private sector has grown faster than at any time since 1959. QvaPay grew with it.
Tim Parsa · Co-Founder & CCO, QvaPay · 25 August 2026 · 3 min read Subscribe
Erich launched QvaPay in Cuba in March 2020. Eighteen months later Cuba legalized private small and medium businesses for the first time since 1959. What followed: the fastest growth of private enterprise the island has seen in more than sixty years, and QvaPay has been a dollar rail under it.
The numbers
Why the two grew together
A private business needs money that holds its value, customers who can pay it, and suppliers it can pay. The state offered none of those in dollars. QvaPay offered all three: dollar accounts, payments in from abroad, and a peer market for pesos. The dollar in those accounts is QUSD: a digital dollar on a phone, backed one to one by USDC. Every new MIPYME is a potential QvaPay business account, and every QvaPay account is a potential customer of a MIPYME.
Erich built QvaPay in Cuba for the people who watched his channel. In 2023 we formed QvaPay, Inc. in Delaware; in May 2026 it took over the service and registered with FinCEN. The boom was built by Cubans; the rail under it is now a U.S. company under U.S. law.
Remittances fund the boom, business accounts run it, and the peer market prices it.
| Flow | How we grow it | U.S. tech meets Cuban talent |
|---|---|---|
| Remittances Permitted · 31 CFR §515.570 (U.S. senders) | Marketing by use case to the diaspora in Miami and beyond; every sender and recipient screened. | Diaspora dollars become working capital for families and the private businesses they start. |
| MIPYME business accounts QvaPay's position · pending with OFAC (Case CU-2025-1426925-1) | MIPYME accounts marketed by use case, supported from our Miami HQ; financing for Cuban buyers once OFAC clarifies it. | Cuban entrepreneurs buy U.S. equipment and software and run their companies in dollars. |
| P2P forex Pending with OFAC · no authorization asserted | SkyMind matches orders and more screened traders join. | Every trader is a small business: Cubans earn a spread connecting dollars and pesos. |
The potential. Remittances into Cuba run an estimated $1.1–2B a year (2024; estimates vary). At the Dominican Republic’s rate per person, Cuba would receive about $9.8B, five to nine times today. That is the market QvaPay is built to serve.
| Market | Cuba today | Cuba at the Dominican Republic’s rate per person |
|---|---|---|
| Remittances received | $1.1–2B 2024 est., estimates vary | $9.8B DR total $11.9B (2025) |
A scenario, not a forecast. The Dominican Republic received $11.9B in remittances in 2025 across 11.4 million people, about $1,040 a person; at that rate Cuba’s 9.43 million people would receive about $9.8B a year, five to nine times today. Method and sources.
Cuban private firms rank real, autonomous access to foreign exchange among the three things they most need, and 76% are optimistic about their own 2026. On cubanew.com ↗
Sources
- EFE/Swissinfo, private SMEs approved in Cuba since 2021 exceed 11,000 ↗
- Directorio Cubano, private sector overtakes the state in retail sales ↗
- Erich García Cruz, Bachecubano (YouTube) ↗
- FinCEN, MSB registrant search ↗
- Periódico Cubano, Cuba’s private sector imported nearly $1.2 billion in the first half of 2025 ↗
If this was useful, pass it to someone building in Cuba.