While digital finance—including mobile money—has developed unevenly across Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, such technologies are nevertheless transforming everyday economic activities. In some cases, borderlands and cross-border financial flows are central to these digital developments and are driving further innovation. From the perspective of states affected by institutional weakness and/or security threats, digital financial technologies represent a ‘double-edged sword’. On one hand, having new ways of transferring financial resources within and across borders gives conflict actors the opportunity to evade state scrutiny and controls. On the other hand, digital finance leaves data trails that can potentially be utilized for governance, accountability, security and revenue-generation purposes.