OBOOK Holdings Inc. (OWLS) and Hope for Haiti Power Cross-Border Humanitarian Aid with OwlPay Harbor Payment Infrastructure

Rhea-AI Summary

OBOOK Holdings (NASDAQ: OWLS) announced that Hope for Haiti adopted OwlPay Harbor to modernize cross-border humanitarian payments, converting USD to a regulated dollar-pegged digital currency for faster, traceable transfers. The pilot processed over $100,000, settled in seconds, supported 300+ local beneficiaries, and reduced transfer costs by 93%.

This integration records transactions on a public distributed ledger (Stellar) to provide donor transparency and aims to scale digital-currency settlement across the United States, Asia, and emerging markets to improve humanitarian fund delivery.

Positive

• Pilot transactions exceeded $100,000
• Transfer costs reduced by 93% vs traditional methods
• Settlements achieved in seconds enabling faster fund deployment
• Pilot supported over 300 beneficiaries and participating vendors

Negative

• Pilot scale of $100,000 is small relative to Hope for Haiti’s tens of millions annual needs
• Program requires moving tens of millions across borders annually, posing scalability demands

News Market Reaction – OWLS

-2.14%

-2.14% Session close to close

In the Mar 12 session, OWLS declined 2.14%, reflecting a moderate negative market reaction.

Data tracked by StockTitan Argus on the day of publication.

Market Context

This announcement highlights further real-world deployment of OwlPay Harbor, with Hope for Haiti pro...

Analysis

This announcement highlights further real-world deployment of OwlPay Harbor, with Hope for Haiti processing over $100,000 in pilot transactions and reporting a 93% reduction in transfer costs. It reinforces OBOOK’s focus on regulated cross-border digital currency infrastructure for high-need use cases. Investors tracking this story may watch for growth in processed volumes, additional NGO or institutional partners, and how these initiatives build on earlier OwlPay product and licensing milestones.

Key Figures

Humanitarian aid 2026: $33 billion Pilot transactions: over $100,000 USD Transfer cost reduction: 93% +5 more

8 metrics

Humanitarian aid 2026 $33 billion Global humanitarian aid mobilization referenced in article

Pilot transactions over $100,000 USD OwlPay Harbor pilot transactions for Hope for Haiti

Transfer cost reduction 93% Lower transfer costs vs. traditional cross-border methods

Haitians food insecurity over 5.7 million people Population facing acute food insecurity

Schools closed more than 1,600 schools Schools reported closed nationwide in Haiti by end of 2025

Children affected over 243,000 children Students affected by school closures in Haiti

Hospitals fully operational 10% Hospitals and health centers with beds fully operational in Haiti

Global appeal 2026 $33 billion for 136 million people UN 2026 Global Humanitarian Overview funding appeal

Historical Context

5 past events · Latest: 2026-02-17 (Positive)

Pattern 5 events

Date	Event	Sentiment	24h Move	Catalyst
2026-02-17	Product launch	Positive	+1.7%	Launch of OwlPay Cash app targeting U.S. outbound remittance market.
2026-01-27	Partnership announcement	Positive	+2.4%	Strategic partnership with ARTA Global Markets for digital asset payments.
2026-01-21	Conference participation	Positive	+0.2%	Company presentation and investor meetings at DealFlow Discovery Conference.
2026-01-14	Regulatory licensing	Positive	+2.8%	Secured Nevada Money Transmitter License, expanding U.S. coverage to 41 states.
2026-01-07	AI/payments initiative	Positive	+2.5%	Plan to adopt x402 standard to enable AI agent-initiated payments via OwlPay.

24h Move is the share-price change in the day after each event; other market factors may also have contributed.

Pattern Detected

Recent OWLS news events have generally been followed by modest positive price reactions.

Recent Company History

Over the past few months, OBOOK has steadily expanded its OwlPay ecosystem. Prior releases highlighted a new OwlPay Cash app targeting the $230 billion U.S. outbound remittance market, a partnership with ARTA Global Markets for digital asset on/off ramp services, and broader money transmitter licensing across 41 states. The current Hope for Haiti integration continues this pattern of applying OwlPay’s regulated digital payment rails to real-world cross-border use cases, reinforcing the strategic focus seen in these earlier announcements.

Key Terms

distributed ledger, digital currency, cross-border, remittance

4 terms

distributed ledger technical

"Every dollar moved through OwlPay Harbor is securely recorded on a public distributed ledger..."

A distributed ledger is a digital record of transactions that is shared and synchronized across multiple computers or locations. Unlike a traditional record kept in one place, it allows many parties to see and verify the same information simultaneously, making it more transparent and harder to alter. This technology matters to investors because it can increase trust, reduce the need for middlemen, and improve the efficiency of recording and verifying transactions.

View in glossary

digital currency financial

"convert U.S. dollars to a regulated dollar-pegged digital currency..."

A digital currency is money that exists only in electronic form, represented by balances in online ledgers or as digital tokens and issued by either governments, banks, or private platforms. Investors care because it can change how value is stored, moved and traded — offering faster payments and new asset types but also extra price swings, security risks and regulatory uncertainty; think of it as cash or a bank account rebuilt for the internet.

cross-border technical

"modernize its cross-border humanitarian financial pipeline."

Activities, transactions, or relationships that involve two or more countries — for example sales, investments, legal contracts, or shipments that cross national borders. For investors it matters because different countries have different rules, taxes, currencies and risks, so cross-border deals can offer bigger markets and diversification but also extra costs, legal complexity and political or currency risk — like driving into a neighboring state with different traffic laws.

remittance financial

"proof of concept for solving the broader $33 billion humanitarian remittance challenge."

A remittance is a transfer of money from one party to another, often sent across borders or between businesses and customers. Think of it like mailing a payment or wiring cash to settle a bill or support family: it changes who has cash and when. Investors watch remittances because they affect a company’s cash flow, sales recognition, foreign-exchange exposure and the health of consumer demand in regions that receive or send large payments.

AI-generated analysis. How Rhea-AI works. Not financial advice.

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As the world mobilizes $33 billion in humanitarian aid for 2026, Hope for Haiti adopts OwlPay Harbor’s global payment infrastructure to ensure every dollar reaches the front lines with radical transparency and speed

Photo: Hope for Haiti’s healthcare program provides medical consultations, nutrition support, illness screening and management, and essential treatment for vulnerable Haitian families, with funding now expedited through OwlPay Harbor.

ARLINGTON, Va., March 12, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- OBOOK Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: OWLS) (“OwlTing” or the "Company"), a global fintech company operating as the OwlTing Group, today announced that Hope for Haiti, a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to improving the quality of life for the Haitian people, particularly women and children, has adopted OwlPay Harbor¹ to modernize its cross-border humanitarian financial pipeline.

By integrating OwlPay Harbor, OwlTing’s payment infrastructure, Hope for Haiti can now convert U.S. dollars to a regulated dollar-pegged digital currency². This allows the organization to move funds across borders securely, bypassing the slow and costly processes of traditional banking. This integration ensures that critical funding for initiatives such as healthcare, education, and clean water reaches Haitian communities faster and more cost-effectively.

For an organization with high institutional transparency ratings, Hope for Haiti benefits from complete traceability of international transfers. Every dollar moved through OwlPay Harbor is securely recorded on a public distributed ledger, allowing Hope for Haiti to prove to donors that funds are reaching their destination intact, shielded from the hidden fees of traditional intermediary banks. To date, the collaboration has facilitated over $100,000 USD in pilot transactions, supporting the organization's massive and growing remittance needs as part of a broader initiative to improve efficiency in humanitarian funding flows.

“Today, more than half of Haiti’s population, over 5.7 million people, are facing acute food insecurity, and hundreds of thousands of children are at risk of severe malnutrition,” said Skyler Badenoch, CEO at Hope for Haiti. “In an environment where hunger continues to rise, and families struggle to put food on the table, every dollar must reach the communities that need it most. Transparency in how funds move becomes essential to protecting resources and ensuring they translate into real meals, improved nutrition, and healthier futures for children and families. OwlPay provides the distributed ledger traceability we need to maximize every contribution and strengthen our ability to combat hunger, address malnutrition, and improve quality of life for the Haitian people.”

“Humanitarian organizations often face delays, high transaction costs, and limited transparency when delivering funds internationally,” said Darren Wang, Founder and CEO at OwlTing Group. “By leveraging OwlPay Harbor’s payment infrastructure, organizations like Hope for Haiti can move funds globally within minutes while providing donors with full transparency. We believe this technology can fundamentally transform how humanitarian aid, remittances, and cross-border funding are delivered worldwide.”

Leveraging the Stellar distributed ledger network, a network designed for cross-border payment interoperability, in those pilot transactions, OwlPay Harbor allows Hope for Haiti to achieve:

• Real-Time Verification: Every transaction is easily tracked online, ensuring real-time reporting and financial accountability during the transfer process.
• Reduced Costs: By bypassing intermediary correspondent banks, the cost of transfers has been lowered by 93% compared to traditional methods. With the elimination of those middlemen, thousands of dollars in transfer fees are saved on this initial transaction alone, resources that are now redirected entirely to frontline relief.
• Accelerated Impact and Scalability: Funds that once took days to clear now settle in seconds. This initial transfer rapidly fueled a targeted relief project supporting over 300 local beneficiaries and participating vendors in Haiti. Driven by the success of this seamless deployment, both organizations are well-positioned to expand this digital currency payment infrastructure for additional humanitarian initiatives in the future.
  

The critical need for this high-speed, transparent infrastructure is underscored by the compounding shocks Haiti continues to face. Driven by a convergence of violence, environmental disasters, and ongoing economic challenges, more than 1,600 schools were reported to be closed nationwide, affecting over 243,000 children and 7,500 teachers by the end of 2025³.

United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) also reports that 26% of Haitians lack access to improved water sources⁴, and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) found only 10% of hospitals and health centers with beds are fully operational⁵.

Operating in this severe environment, Hope for Haiti provided over 100,000 medical consultations and supported nearly 7,400 students in 2024 alone. To sustain these critical program services, which account for over 97% of the organization’s total expenses, Hope for Haiti requires moving tens of millions of dollars across borders annually. In this context, delays and limited visibility in traditional cross-border transfers can paralyze program delivery, while excessive fees directly consume life-saving funds.

According to the United Nations’ 2026 Global Humanitarian Overview⁶, humanitarian partners are appealing for $33 billion this year to assist 136 million people worldwide. As funding gaps grow and traditional systems struggle to keep pace with the urgency of these crises, the need for transparent, seamless infrastructure has never been greater.

By successfully optimizing the flow of over $100,000 USD in this initial phase, Hope for Haiti’s adoption of OwlPay Harbor serves as a powerful proof of concept for solving the broader $33 billion humanitarian remittance challenge. OwlPay Harbor is designed to support global digital currency settlement across the United States, Asia, and emerging markets. Through this infrastructure, OwlTing will continue to enhance the reliability of cross-border payments, ensuring the funds that sustain these critical relief efforts deliver their maximum impact.

Photo: Hope for Haiti has worked in partnership with the Haitian people for decades. With OwlPay Harbor infrastructure, the organization is modernizing cross-border funding to deliver aid faster and more transparently.

About OBOOK Holdings Inc.
OBOOK Holdings Inc. is a global fintech company operating as the OwlTing Group. The Company was founded and is headquartered in Taiwan, with subsidiaries in the United States, Japan, Poland, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, and Malaysia. The Company operates a diversified ecosystem across payments, hospitality, and e-commerce. In 2025, according to CB Insights’ statistics, OwlTing was ranked among the top 2 global players in the “Enterprise & B2B” category in the digital currency sector. The Company’s mission is to use distributed ledger technology to provide businesses with more reliable and transparent data management, to reinvent the global flow of funds for businesses and consumers and to lead the digital transformation of business operations. To this end, the Company introduced OwlPay, a Web2 and Web3 hybrid payment solution, to empower global businesses to operate confidently in the expanding digital currency economy. For more information, visit https://www.owlting.com/portal/?lang=en.

Forward-Looking Statements
This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. These statements relate to future events or the Company’s future financial or operating performance and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. Forward-looking statements can often be identified by words such as “may,” “will,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “plan,” “intend,” “believe,” “estimate,” or similar expressions. These forward-looking statements are based on the Company’s current expectations and assumptions and speak only as of the date of this announcement. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required by law. Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these statements and are encouraged to review the risk factors described in the Company’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recent Form 10-K and Form 10-Q.

About Hope for Haiti
With experience running poverty alleviation programs in Haiti since 1989, Hope for Haiti has emerged as one of the most trusted non-profit organizations working to improve the quality of life for the Haitian people, particularly women and children, in southern Haiti. The organization’s team and network of partners provide people with better access to education, healthcare, clean water, and economic development opportunities. Hope for Haiti is a 4-star-rated charity by Charity Navigator and is a participant at the Platinum Level in the GuideStar Exchange, two leading independent evaluators recognizing the organization’s transparency and careful stewardship of donor resources. Learn more at hopeforhaiti.com.

OBOOK Holdings Inc. Media Relations
pr_office@owlting.com

OBOOK Holdings Inc. Investor Relations
ir@owlting.com

Hope for Haiti Media Relations
press@hopeforhaiti.com

¹ All money transmission services in the United States are provided by OwlTing USA, Inc. (NMLS ID: 2324336), a wholly owned subsidiary of OBOOK Holdings Inc.
² The dollar-pegged digital currency is issued by regulated affiliates of Circle. A list of Circle’s regulatory authorizations can be found at circle.com/en/legal/licenses.
³ According to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) “Humanitarian Situation Report No.8”, issued in Jan. 2026. For more details, please see: https://www.unicef.org/media/178391/file/Haiti-Humanitarian-Situation-Report-No.8%2C-31-December-2025.pdf
⁴ According to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) “Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH)”. For more details, please see: https://www.unicef.org/haiti/en/water-sanitation-and-hygiene-wash
⁵ According to United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)’s “Haiti: 2026 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan - Executive Summary (December 2025)”. For more details, please see: https://www.unocha.org/publications/report/haiti/haiti-2026-humanitarian-needs-and-response-plan-executive-summary-december-2025
⁶ According to Global Humanitarian Overview 2026. For more details, please see: https://humanitarianaction.info/document/global-humanitarian-overview-2026

Photos accompanying this announcement are available at 
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/a3f027fe-9e33-4a90-9cae-861ab2950281
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/6984ac31-69c8-45c0-a0bb-ce5a81437feb
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/344d6424-40f7-4f3b-9a86-44a668f837e6
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/512f1912-e1b0-469f-b72b-b9a71caf705f

FAQ

What did OWLS announce about Hope for Haiti on March 12, 2026?

OWLS announced that Hope for Haiti adopted OwlPay Harbor to convert USD into a regulated dollar-pegged digital currency for cross-border transfers. According to the company, the pilot processed over $100,000, enabling faster, traceable humanitarian payments.

How much did the OwlPay Harbor pilot process for Hope for Haiti (OWLS)?

The pilot processed more than $100,000 in transactions for Hope for Haiti. According to the company, those initial transfers funded a targeted relief project serving over 300 beneficiaries and local vendors in Haiti.

What cost savings did OWLS claim for OwlPay Harbor cross-border transfers?

OWLS reported transfer cost reductions of 93% compared with traditional correspondent bank methods. According to the company, eliminating intermediary banks redirected thousands of dollars in fees back to frontline relief on the initial transactions.

Which distributed ledger does OwlPay Harbor use for humanitarian payments (OWLS)?

OwlPay Harbor leverages the Stellar distributed ledger network for cross-border interoperability. According to the company, transactions are recorded publicly to provide real-time verification and donor traceability during transfers.

What are the scalability implications for OWLS after the Hope for Haiti pilot?

The pilot shows feasibility but remains limited in scale at $100,000 compared with tens of millions needed annually. According to the company, OwlPay Harbor is positioned to expand across the US, Asia, and emerging markets to meet larger humanitarian flows.