A global payments network processing transactions across more than 200 countries and territories is now looking at onchain lending.
@wex, Senior Director at Visa Crypto Labs at @Visa, joins the fireside Onchain Lending: A Global Payments Network's Perspective at Vault Summit NYC.
June 5, New York · https://t.co/63QCcmrSth
In great company with @Morpho, @creditcoop_xyz and others. @Visa Crypto is excited to attend and talk about the direction of travel as it relates to money movement.
Stablecoin settlement is already live inside card networks. The economics for acquirers, PSPs and merchants are changing.
The unsolved layer is merchant-side: refunds, disputes, chargebacks, fraud handling. Cross-border and remittance operators are deploying differently again. Whether the acceptance layer consolidates or fragments further is still open.
On stage:
@BrianButler111, @0xPolygon
Malcolm Clarke, @WesternUnion
Pete Wexler, @Visa@ahmedzifzaf, Global Payments
June 4, NYC · https://t.co/rKvnhPrtjU
One of the most interesting insights from @nlevine19, Partner at @a16z was that Agentic Commerce may not begin with consumers buying everyday products.
The first major use case could be developers and one-person companies using AI agents to access tools, APIs, and datasets on demand without going through sales calls, enterprise contracts, or long procurement cycles.
Instead of negotiating annual agreements, an agent can identify the right provider, complete a one-time payment, and instantly use the service.
Traditional enterprises will likely adopt more slowly because procurement and approval processes remain complex.
The bigger opportunity may come from small AI-native teams that can build products over a weekend and pay only for the infrastructure they need.
In this model, commerce becomes embedded directly into workflows, and the buyer is increasingly an AI agent optimizing for outcomes rather than a human clicking through checkout.
🚨 BREAKING: Kraken acquires Reap for $600M.
Stripe bought Bridge for $1.1B. Mastercard bought BVNK for $1.8B. Now Kraken buys Reap for $600M.
$3.5B in stablecoin infrastructure M&A in 14 months.
Every category of payments company is racing to own stablecoin rails before they become as foundational as card networks.
Reap is Hong Kong-based, founded in 2018, already profitable. They issue Visa corporate cards funded by stablecoins, run cross-border settlement, and serve 22,000+ businesses across Asia.
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To me it looks like Kraken paid for distribution and licenses in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Mexico. Not for technology they could build in-house.
Stablecoins and payments aren't cyclical unlike crypto trading.
In a bear market Spot trading margins are collapsing. Every cycle, the spread gets thinner. Exchanges that thrive need recurring revenue from services, not transaction fees from speculation.
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Kraken has now spent roughly $2.7B on acquisitions.
- NinjaTrader ($1.5B for derivatives).
- Bitnomial ($550M for options). Backed (tokenized equities).
And now Reap for stablecoin-powered B2B payments.
That looks like a company assembling the pieces of a diversified financial services firm ahead of an IPO.
The stablecoin infrastructure land grab is accelerating because B2B stablecoin payment volumes went from under $100M/month in early 2023 to over $3B/month by 2025.
A 30x increase in two years.
Processors want it (Stripe). Card networks want it (Mastercard). And now exchanges want it too (Kraken).
The acquirers keep paying premium prices for the same thing: multi-jurisdictional licenses and live enterprise clients. The regulated plumbing.
The stablecoin stack is consolidating fast. And the companies buying it are the ones who understand that the money is in moving money, not trading it.
Great recap of two A players in the onchain money movement space @raincards and @creditcoop_xyz with a shoutout to one of my favorite investing/card programs @ether_fi.
Earnings recap for @Visa today. Crypto notables: $7B annual run rate for stablecoin settlement, 9 chains supported now including the following additions @arc@base@CantonNetwork@0xPolygon@tempo, validators with @CantonNetwork and @tempo & 160+ crypto card programs globally
Your professional success is proportional to your ability to figure it out. There's nothing more valuable than someone who can just figure it out. And it's never been easier to be that person. Do the work. Ask the key questions. Get it done. Do that and you'll find a way to win.
@Based_Loans@nook_platform Agreed but Nook does my chasing on my risk standards. I outperform on yield with zero effort. Try it (not investment advice).
My current @nook_platform vault is paying me 8.3%. Why more people don’t use this savings account rate automation defies logic. Simplest and most effective savings account in the market. Don’t chase yield, let Nook do it.
Six months ago you could easily get 7-8% APY just by lending USDC. Then Circle hit $80B in circulation, Morpho integrated with Coinbase, and billions of new capital compressed yields to 3.5%.
.@Joey_Isaacson at @nook_platform on how they adapted:
"The markets are more advanced and the yields compressed as the space has become more and more popular."
"We start to work with smaller vaults, smaller sources. They can provide a better yield. By working with new and upcoming vaults, that gives the lender the opportunity to get paid more for a slightly higher amount of risk."
"Instead of putting your entire deposit into one vault for one year, you're gonna end up putting your deposits into multiple vaults over multiple time horizons."