A digital payments network has now served more than 600,000 refugee returnees in Afghanistan. Digital payments, in this context, means money moved electronically through a connected device rather than in physical cash or through a conventional bank branch. The Algorand Foundation released the count on July 15, 2026, framing it as new operational data and positioning the figure ahead of the Humanitarian Payments Council's next summit in Washington, D.C.
What HesabPay does and who it reaches
HesabPay is the Algorand Foundation's payments platform, built on the Algorand blockchain and deployed in Afghanistan. Blockchain, here, means a digital ledger that records transactions across a distributed network rather than inside a single institution's database. Refugee returnees are people who left the country during conflict or instability and have since come back.
Crossing the 600,000-person mark in that population moves the program out of the category of small-scale humanitarian pilots. The Algorand Foundation described the progress as a shift from pilot projects toward a larger operational phase, though it did not specify what the next milestone looks like or include transaction volumes, disbursement amounts, or per-user figures alongside the headline count.
The council's path from Berlin to Washington
The Humanitarian Payments Council is the coordinating body organized under the Algorand Foundation for digital payment work in humanitarian and displacement settings. Its prior formal gathering was in Berlin; the 600,000-person figure covers what the council's programs have accomplished since that meeting.
Washington, D.C. is next on the schedule. The foundation published the operational data as a press release from Dover, Delaware, where it is incorporated. Releasing operational numbers ahead of a summit is a standard way to set the agenda, and here the count is the lead argument.
The foundation described the Berlin-to-Washington period as one of momentum. What the Washington discussions produce, and what targets the council will carry into them, was not included in today's release.