Finished H.W. Brand’s The Age of Gold this morning.
All the more amazing to see the news that @MarathonFusion has turned mercury into gold not 2 hours from Sutter’s Mill.
The city of explorers, settlers, prospectors, inventors, tycoons, scientists, technologists, and ecome the city of alchemists.
Beautiful
All the more amazing to see the news that @MarathonFusion has turned mercury into gold not 2 hours from Sutter’s Mill.
The city of explorers, settlers, prospectors, inventors, tycoons, scientists, technologists, and ecome the city of alchemists.
Beautiful
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The part of @StripeCrypto x @Plasma people are sleeping on: MXN and COP are on the list.
In LatAm people want to save in dollars and spend in pesos, and are hyper conscious of FX.
Today’s stablecoin cards make them pay for that on every swipe: a USD card, Visa’s FX rate and a cross-border fee on every coffee.
A local-currency card means you convert once, when you choose, and every purchase after that is just a local purchase.
Very excited for this.
In LatAm people want to save in dollars and spend in pesos, and are hyper conscious of FX.
Today’s stablecoin cards make them pay for that on every swipe: a USD card, Visa’s FX rate and a cross-border fee on every coffee.
A local-currency card means you convert once, when you choose, and every purchase after that is just a local purchase.
Very excited for this.
We're bringing together Stripe's fiat and crypto infrastructure to make it easier for businesses to build stablecoin-backed cards that work across currencies and markets.
More on what we're building with @Plasma, x.com/i/article/2110…
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The greatest thing about startups is the privilege to work with, learn from, and learn with everyone around you.
Every day feels like a blessing. The world is a beautiful, exciting, and magical place.
Every day feels like a blessing. The world is a beautiful, exciting, and magical place.
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@raincards and @ModernTreasury both applied to the OCC for national trust bank charters this week.
When you’re building in the stablecoin stack, the bank partner is the one layer you can’t buy.
A charter lets you own it.
@raincards and @ModernTreasury both applied to the OCC for national trust bank charters this week.
When you’re building in the stablecoin stack, the bank partner is the one layer you can’t buy.
A charter lets you own it.
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Every starting point is converging on the same layer: issuer (@circle ), payments (@stripe, @ModernTreasury), exchange (@coinbase @krakenfx ), custody (@BitGo , @Anchorage), and issuing (@raincards ).
Every starting point is converging on the same layer: issuer (@circle ), payments (@stripe, @ModernTreasury), exchange (@coinbase @krakenfx ), custody (@BitGo , @Anchorage), and issuing (@raincards ).
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As onramps, issuing, and orchestration are commoditize, margins increasingly go towards the entities with the license in order to offer better margins.
As onramps, issuing, and orchestration are commoditize, margins increasingly go towards the entities with the license in order to offer better margins.
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You know we are culturally winning when even the guy living in New York has to refer to growth as "SF-coded".
Review of Sibos…
1. the bankers now know the difference between bitcoin and stablecoins. Almost everyone I talked to was conversational on tokenized $
2. Digital assets came up a lot and in a positive way. There’s some fear, but way less than the discourse
3. Tokenized deposits are a big topic, but usually only come up after stablecoins. I stand by my view that tokenized deposits are primarily a way to upgrade heterogeneous and legacy bank cores, but they’re a laudable goal.
4. Besu (I know) still matters a lot. This makes much more sense when you reread 3. Arc, Tempo, Cosmos, avalanche, etc are the other players here
5. Growth, the SF-coded positive sum kind, is unfamiliar to bankers. Downside risk is *very familiar*. This makes it harder to sell the future.
6. Relatedly, it’s still hard for bankers to imagine *quality* of product being a competitive differentiator. This has funny effects, like thinking a bad agent is a good idea. Or not understanding that speed/interop improvements from tokenized money would be a reason to switch banks
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It was only a matter of time before @stripe worked up the stack by getting into credit.
Acquiring @ParafinHQ will allow them to work up the stack to fully vertically integrate their existing stripe capital offering.
Congrats guys 🍾
Acquiring @ParafinHQ will allow them to work up the stack to fully vertically integrate their existing stripe capital offering.
Congrats guys 🍾
We are excited to share that Parafin is joining Stripe.
Read the announcement from Sahill and Vineet: x.com/i/article/2105…
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Stablecoin payments aren't just consolidating. Every serious player is racing to own the whole stack, from the ledger to the card in your wallet.
The reason is simple: when every layer is a standalone vendor, every layer gets commoditized. The only defensible margin is the bundle.
Stablecoin payments aren't just consolidating. Every serious player is racing to own the whole stack, from the ledger to the card in your wallet.
The reason is simple: when every layer is a standalone vendor, every layer gets commoditized. The only defensible margin is the bundle.
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Why now? Margin compression.
Onramps, card issuing, wallets, orchestration, and settlement are each becoming commodities. Standalone vendors keep getting squeezed on price.
If you own 5 layers, you capture margin across all 5, and customers have to rip out your whole stack to leave.
Why now? Margin compression.
Onramps, card issuing, wallets, orchestration, and settlement are each becoming commodities. Standalone vendors keep getting squeezed on price.
If you own 5 layers, you capture margin across all 5, and customers have to rip out your whole stack to leave.
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