The post discusses why local stablecoins are inevitable and what are the main forces pushing towards their adoption.
The inevitability of local stablecoins
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Faster rails, same old rules
F
The post examines the main AML and Compliance checks involved in a cross border transaction and how they evolve in the stablecoin sandwich model.
The local leg: solving local liquidity in the stablecoin sandwich
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This post examines who holds the local currency once stablecoins have taken over the middle of a cross-border payment.
It looks at the new liquidity providers and draws a conclusion on which model is likely to prevail.
Own the Rail or Rent It: Direct vs Indirect Access to Payment Systems
O
This post maps the six rails behind ~96% of global FX turnover - T2, TIPS, STEP2, Fedwire, FedNow, FedACH - and works out when it's worth owning the connection versus renting it.
The Price of Trust: Pre-funded accounts in Global Settlement
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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.
The long road to $1 on-chain
T
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
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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
D
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
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Presentation in which I explore stablecoins beyond narrow banking - and what it would take to reconnect money and credit onchain
Stablecoin Monetisation Models
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Stablecoins appear easy to monetise. They are not. This note looks at the few models that can scale sustainably.