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
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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.
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
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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.
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.
Fractional Reserve Banking onchain
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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...
Stablecoins are rails, not tokens
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After several years publishing as Fintech Ruminations, I am introducing a new name: Lombard Notes. The change reflects a broader focus, extending beyond fintech to the wider architecture of financial systems — from historical innovations to emerging digital markets. The content remains consistent in spirit, with only the name evolving. A few months ago, in my post Stablecoins 2.0, I suggested...