Lead

Member FDIC

[Lead @Lead_Bank]

“Most people talk about innovation. Very few actually build the rails that power it.”

On the latest @sourceryy with @MollySOShea, our CEO and Co-Founder @jackiereses talked about:

--> building Lead into the infrastructure layer behind modern fintech
--> crypto beyond the hype cycle
--> what she learned from Jack Dorsey, Alibaba, and Silicon Valley’s biggest operators
-->why execution beats charisma every time

Lots of stories and hard-earned perspective. Huge thanks to Molly for the conversation.

https://t.co/EDDsUhLTJk

[Lead @Lead_Bank]

24/7 money movement is the future. Thrilled to partner with @Mastercard.

@jackiereses adds: “Partnering with Mastercard to help bring this network to life reflects Lead’s commitment to building the rails that make regulated digital assets practical for institutions and their customers at scale. At Lead, we believe the future of financial infrastructure is 24/7, and on-chain settlement is where that future becomes real. We’re proud to be among the first platforms to deliver this capability in the United States and see this as a foundational step toward a more efficient, always-on financial system.”

[Lead @Lead_Bank]

When we acquired @loopcrypto_xyz last year, we said stablecoins and banking were converging on something that looks a lot like payments infrastructure.

Now we're writing about it. Read more about how money moves — the rails, the gaps, and what stablecoins are doing to fill them.

Check it out👉 https://t.co/NOej9PWQxv

[Molly O’Shea @MollySOShea]

BREAKING: Inside Lead Bank - $56M Investment Now Worth $1.5 BILLION

Jackie Reses is on an iconic run.

@Lead_Bank is the $1.5B tech-first bank powering Stripe, Walmart, Ramp, Affirm & Revolut

Backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Coatue, Greycroft, ICONIQ, Khosla Ventures, Ribbit Capital, Zeev Partners, plus Larry Fink, Rob Goldstein & Larry Summers personally.

CEO & Co-Founder Jackie Reses (@jackiereses)

We cover:
- Sitting on Alibaba's board with Jack Ma, Joe Tsai + Masayoshi Son
"Masa would come in & be like, 'Yes, it shall be blessed.'"
- Taking an HR role at Yahoo, then turning it into Chief Development Officer
- Jack Dorsey: "He'll sit in meetings & not say a word. There's real wisdom in his ability to 'just zip it.' "
- Why she's skeptical of the de-banking narrative
- Building Lead to $280M in revenue with no sales team

𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒
(00:00) Jackie Reses, CEO of Lead Bank
(01:06) The swiss army knife of Silicon Valley
(02:46) Inside the Alibaba boardroom with Jack Ma and Masa
(05:23) Being one of the only Americans on Alibaba’s board
(10:29) What Jack Ma and Masayoshi Son are really like
(12:32) The biggest lessons Jackie learned from Alibaba
(15:12) From Goldman Sachs to Silicon Valley
(17:44) Why Yahoo hired a PE investor to run HR
(22:53) Yahoo was a hot mess
(25:33) The deal that recovered billions for Yahoo
(26:31) How Jack Dorsey recruited Jackie to Square
(29:53) Three engineers, three days, one crypto platform
(33:51) What Jack Dorsey is really like
(36:13) Being Jack Dorsey’s HR lead during Twitter chaos
(40:03) How to spot real innovation vs hype
(42:21) Why debanking is a myth
(48:10) Why buy a 100 year old bank
(51:23) Growing a bank with no sales team
(54:11) The APIs powering the future of finance
(56:03) How AI is transforming banking
(57:07) The JD Vance connection
(58:39) What it feels like inside the White House
(01:02:53) The biggest misconception about government
(01:04:21) Why Lead Bank’s culture feels different
(01:05:35) The next chapter for Lead Bank

[Gokul Rajaram @gokulr]

Congrats to @Lead_Bank for making the CNBC Disruptor List 2026. Well deserved @jackiereses and team, as you are building the foundation for fintech innovation. Let’s go!

[Lead @Lead_Bank]

We're proud to share that Lead has been named #34 on the 2026 @CNBC Disruptor 50, our third consecutive year on the list.

To our team: this recognition belongs to you. Thank you for the work you do every day.

We're just getting started.

https://t.co/FXmJoP0DRq

[Solana Payments @solanapayments]

Lead Bank's @jackiereses offers the idea that stablecoin companies can work with banking partners to use the benefits of both industries:

[Solana @solana]

"Stablecoin companies can work with banking partners to create yield products. That works. The rewards element works quite well too." - @jackiereses, Lead Bank

[Capital Markets @capitalmarkets]

A clear signal from Jacqueline Reses, Lead Bank:

Stablecoins can integrate with banks for yield-like products, while using onchain rails for rewards + distribution.

Lead is among the first US banks enabling USDC settlement with Visa on Solana.

[Ravi Riley @ravi_riley]

insane that a farmers bank powers ramp, affirm, revolut, and bridge

> Garden City Bank
> founded in 1928 to bank farmers
> quiet business for 100 years
> enter disgruntled @Square execs
> what are they scheming???
> bought out for $56 million
> renamed to @Lead_Bank
> time to engineermaxx
> api integrations
> algorithmic compliance flagging
> verticalization of services
> everything in real time
> fintechs can finally scale
> square, ramp, affirm, revolut, bridge become customers
> raise from a16z & khosla
> valuation skyrockets from 56m to 1.47b
> 180m revenue in 2024
> mfw a farmer bank is powering silicon valley

seeing a pattern: the biggest fintechs are started by someone addressing their own pain

[Stabledash @stabledash]

A regulated FDIC bank is now onchain, settling stablecoins 24/7 with @Visa.

Not a fintech with a partner bank behind it.
The bank itself.

Four co-founders who spent over a decade building payments infrastructure together launched @Lead_Bank in August 2022, in the middle of the worst crypto market in years, with a lawyer as co-founder.

Erica Khalili (Co-Founder, CLO) on why compliance had to be the foundation:

"You were getting funded from your VC. Did that money go into your mattress? I bet it didn't. It went to a bank. So why wasn't it a bank that truly understood your business?"

"Why do you have a lawyer as a co-founder of your tech company? That was risk and compliance. And that is such a critical part of the moat."

"We're working with money. We're working with people's livelihoods, how they pay their bills, how they feed their families. You have to be better than good."

"That would be something that could take decades for them to build."

Key moments from our interview with Erica at A Very Stable Conference 2026:

01:14 - 12 months of stablecoin momentum and what's changed

05:50 - The Square origin story and the pain points that built Lead

08:10 - "You have to be better than good"

08:45 - Why a lawyer co-founded a tech company

10:32 - Launching in August 2022, emboldened by the naysayers

11:15 - Now onchain, settling 24/7 with Visa and stablecoins

12:54 - "Stablecoins solve a real liquidity capital efficiency problem"

15:14 - Global money movement, consumer spend, and card products

17:41 - Why big banks partner with Lead instead of building it themselves

20:04 - Settlement tokens and the future of interbank flows

[Tokenized Podcast @TokenizedPod]

🚨 Ep. 74 of @TokenizedPod: KAST Raise $80M for Stablecoin Neobank

@sytaylor and @cuysheffield are joined by:

👉 @raagulanpathy, CEO & Co-Founder, @KASTxyz

👉 @homammaalouf, Co-Founder & Chief Products Officer, @Lead_Bank

To discuss:

💰 KAST's $80M raise and vision for a global stablecoin neobank

📈 KAST's global growth metrics and stablecoin adoption beyond trading

✅ Lead Bank's role in enabling stablecoin card programs

🏗️ Building lasting compliance infrastructure for stablecoin platforms

🤝 NASDAQ partners with Kraken to launch tokenized stocks globally

₿ Using crypto assets as collateral for loans and credit lines

🌐 Stablecoin settlement with Visa and Mastercard card networks

🏦 Banks issuing their own stablecoins and market fragmentation

***

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction

1:39 KAST's $80M raise and vision for a global stablecoin neobank

2:21 KAST's global growth metrics and stablecoin adoption beyond trading

5:48 Lead Bank's role in enabling stablecoin card programs

7:05 Building lasting compliance infrastructure for stablecoin platforms

19:18 NASDAQ partners with Kraken to launch tokenized stocks globally

29:29 Using crypto assets as collateral for loans and credit lines

33:50 Stablecoin settlement with Visa and Mastercard card networks

40:46 Banks issuing their own stablecoins and market fragmentation

***

👉𝘚𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩 '𝘛𝘰𝘬𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘻𝘦𝘥 𝘗𝘰𝘥𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘵' 𝘖𝘯 𝘠𝘰𝘶𝘛𝘶𝘣𝘦. 𝘈𝘱𝘱𝘭𝘦, 𝘚𝘱𝘰𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘺 𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘗𝘰𝘥𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘗𝘭𝘢𝘺𝘦𝘳! 👈

[Cuy Sheffield @cuysheffield]

My favorite thing about blockchains is that they don’t take bank holidays

[Lead @Lead_Bank]

Proud to be on @Forbes #Fintech50 list for the 4th year in a row!

For the full Fintech 50 list: https://t.co/GtKuyOhlef

[stablecon @thestablecon]

What if compliance was treated like a product, not a back office function?

At @Lead_Bank, the compliance team sits front of house, working directly with fintech, ecommerce, and crypto companies. No sales team. Just people who understand the product, defend the work, and help clients scale.

Hear how @jackiereses, Chair and CEO of Lead Bank, thinks about building teams and infrastructure on @MoneyCodePod with @chuk_xyz and @rparekh.

Presented by Stablecon. Powered by @BVNKFinance.

[Jackie Reses @jackiereses]

18 Quotes that Defined 2025: Andrej Karpathy, Sam Altman & Pope Leo XIV on AI https://t.co/QNqKJLGylM

[The Information @theinformation]

Exclusive: Lead Bank, a critical link for global stablecoin payments, has tightened its risk controls, potentially restricting clients and slowing transactions. Learn more: https://t.co/NtLKthzDeu

[stablecon @thestablecon]

Big news from @Visa this morning:

They are opening their US network to stablecoin settlement, allowing US institutions to settle using @circle's USDC, piloting with @crossriverbank and @Lead_Bank.

[Cuy Sheffield @cuysheffield]

Excited to announce that in partnership with @circle, we have launched USDC settlement for @Lead_Bank and @crossriverbank card programs over the Solana blockchain

https://t.co/7VK1hGktfw