This post traces how money actually moves across borders, why trillions of dollars sit locked in pre-funded accounts to make that movement possible, and whether the emerging stablecoin infrastructure is genuinely replacing that model or merely relocating its constraints to a different layer.
Repo, On-chain
DeFi protocols are rebuilding repo and securities lending on-chain, looping tokenized T-Bills to multiply exposure on real-world assets.
This post compares the on-chain version to its traditional equivalent across multiple dimensions and draw a few conclusions on the scalability of this phenomenon.
The long road to $1 on-chain
I traced $1 from a US bank account to USDC on-chain: same architecture as the €1 journey, different legal foundations underneath every layer.
The $1 road and the €1 road are the same length. One is paved, but everyone in crypto uses the other.
The long road to €1 on-chain
The marketing version of a stablecoin on-ramp takes three seconds to explain. The plumbing version takes five layers of infrastructure, two different finality regimes, and a 1996 compliance rule that blockchain was never designed to satisfy. This is the plumbing version.
Delegating Money: The Architecture of Agentic Payments
Agentic commerce introduces a new financial actor: the individual as a “corporation of one”, delegating spending authority to multiple AI agents.
This post explores the emerging infrastructure required to support this model: from identity and guardrails to fraud systems and machine-native payment rails.
Stablecoins beyond narrow banking
Presentation in which I explore stablecoins beyond narrow banking - and what it would take to reconnect money and credit onchain
Stablecoin Monetisation Models
Stablecoins appear easy to monetise. They are not. This note looks at the few models that can scale sustainably.
DeFi’s missing primitive: Insurance
A systematic look at the DeFi insurance landscape, its structural constraints, and the design trade-offs shaping on-chain risk markets.
Fractional Reserve Banking onchain
Stablecoins are, in essence, the first large-scale experiment in narrow banking. Every USDC or USDT is (or supposed to be) fully backed by reserves – cash or short-term Treasuries – sitting safely off-chain. This architecture is what makes these tokens stable, but it also sterilizes capital: every dollar deposited creates no new credit, no new economic activity. In contrast, the...
Commodities onchain: gold and beyond
Gold is going on-chain. Paxos and Tether lead today, but new platforms are building the rails that could turn commodities into the next generation of DeFi collateral.
