“Faster and cheaper than SWIFT” - that’s the tagline often used to champion stablecoins in cross-border payments. But it's the wrong comparison. Nearly 55% of SWIFT’s volume  comes from high-value interbank settlements , not the kind of low-value, high-frequency transactions that power global commerce for SMEs and consumers. SWIFT was built in the post-WWII era to connect banks across major trade corridors, such as the US, UK, Europe, and Asia, facilitating booming cross-bord

Four major economies have passed or are in the process of passing stablecoin legislations, including: US - GENIUS Act EU - MiCAR UK - FCA framework Hong Kong - Stablecoin Ordinance At first glance, these regimes share common pillars: full reserve backing, high-quality liquidity requirements, and redemption guarantees. But dig deeper, and differences emerge, especially in how they treat foreign issuers  and non-local currency stablecoins . These differences carry major implica

Stablecoin news is non-stop, from corporate experiments to regulatory debates. But if you're building a real business  around stablecoins, how do you cut through the noise and zero in on signals that drive customers and revenue ? In a previous piece, I wrote that stablecoin  payment use cases are concentrated in cross border money movement . But that’s still a broad category. So here’s the real question: How do you narrow it down to addressable customers  with urgent problems

Stablecoins are the hottest trend in fintech and for good reason. The headline numbers are staggering: Market size exploded from <$10B to $239B in just five years 30M+ monthly active wallets are now sending or receiving stablecoins Transaction volume ranges from $5T to $26T annually, depending on methodology But here’s the key question I’ve always asked: How much of that volume actually comes from real payments use cases (B2B, B2C, P2P, Card) instead of trading and exchange a

As more asset managers, financial institutions, and payment firms launch their digital asset products, speed to market is a vital competitive advantage. Being able to find and reach customers becomes the single most important factor in determining a product’s success or failure. I wrote about how to think about this challenge from a geographic perspective  before. But it is increasingly clear to me that many teams don’t actually know where their users or capital pools are; le

“The future is multichain” is now a well-worn axiom in digital assets. Yet it is also accepted that the bulk of the onchain activities will take place on a very few number of chains. These chains will form the economic hubs of the new financial system.   And whoever controls the operation of these chains? They’re positioned to capture massive revenue and strategic control. So if you're a financial institution or major corporate shaping your tokenization strategy, the question

It’s often said that stablecoins offer a cheaper, faster, and more accessible way to move value. But to truly grasp their disruptive potential, it’s critical to understand what stablecoins are designed to disrupt and equally importantly what they aren’t . Take the headlines: in 2024, stablecoins reportedly settled $27.6 trillion, eclipsing Visa and Mastercard combined. But that figure is misleading. Up to  70% of that volume  is inflated by bot activity. The organic number is

Stablecoin is reshaping finance and the momentum is staggering. In March 2025 alone, they moved a jaw-dropping $1.82 trillion, according to a16z. Stripe CEO Patrick Collison captured it perfectly, calling stablecoins “room-temperature superconductors for financial services.” While the spotlight has mostly stayed on USD-denominated stablecoins, a quiet revolution is building elsewhere. Non-USD stablecoins have surged more than 100% in AUM, far outpacing the growth rate in USD

What are the fastest growing tokenized asset classes in the past 12 months? The answer may surprise you. The 3 fastest growing tokenized...

Stablecoin gave the world a tokenized USD checking account. Tokenized MMF gave the world a tokenized USD savings account. Here is what comes next.

Stablecoin is a killer use case for blockchain. But what is the killer use case for stablecoin?

Digital assets are no longer a fringe conversation, they are finally reaching the institutional scale-up phase. Let's unpack top 3 trends:

Last week, BlackRock’s tokenized money market fund (MMF), BUIDL, surged past the $1 billion milestone. marking a defining moment in the onchain financial revolution. Launched on 21 March 2024, BUIDL wasn’t just another product; it was a signal. A starting gun for traditional asset managers to storm the onchain space. Excellent news article headline. But the real insight? It’s not in the mainstream media headlines or crypto media soundbites. It’s time to get granular and dive

Last week, when I outlined the 3 interest-income revenue models for stablecoins , I had no idea just how much bigger the opportunity would become a few days later - courtesy of the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) .  On Friday, in a dramatic reversal, the OCC scrapped Biden-era restrictions that had kept US banks from engaging in stablecoin transactions and crypto custody. Overnight, the stablecoin market’s potential didn’t just grow—it likely 10x’d .  With

Last week was a defining moment for stablecoins. Top CEOs from major U.S. financial institutions made bold statements about their stance on stablecoins, signaling a decisive shift in the industry: Bank of America CEO, Brian Moynihan : "If regulators make that leap, we will enter the stablecoin business." PayPal CEO, Alex Chriss : “With an estimated 20 to 60 million monthly active crypto users3, the potential for commerce is immense. For merchants, this means unlocking a new,

At the recent RWA London Summit, one topic dominated my panel discussion: tokenized assets as collateral .  A variety of views emerged, including using more exotic tokenized assets other than tokenized MMF as collateral.  While I recognize the potential of these alternative assets, I made one thing clear—this is a conversation about the future, not the present. Right now, tokenized products must meet investor demands, and illiquid assets simply don’t. Even the most prestigiou

Mapping out the biggest US banks digital asset businesses and benchmarking against comparable revenue data

As institutional tokenization gained momentum rapidly last week with CFTC inviting crypto CEOs  to discuss stablecoins as possible eligible collateral in the derivatives market and Senator Bill Hagerty introducing his stablecoin bill, the urgency with which firms are looking at their tokenization strategy is palpable in my conversations.  It has become apparent to me critical to anyone’s tokenization strategy is a GTM playbook that articulates product, tech, ecosystem and reg

This week, Apollo Global Management teamed up with Securitize to launch a tokenized feeder fund for the Apollo Diversified Credit Securitize Fund ($ACRED), aiming to bring tokenized private credit to institutional and accredited investors. A bold move. But here’s the harsh reality—it’s not going to gain traction. In this week’s research issue, I’ll break down exactly why this initiative is set to fail. More importantly, I’ll explain why asset managers hoping to pump up their

In 2024, BlackRock, Brevan Howard, UBS all entered the tokenized MMF race. Here is the GTM playbook for asset managers looking to enter...