Stablecoin adoption has a measurement problem. A token moving between addresses does not necessarily mean a business payment occurred. One supplier payment may create several onchain transfers as funds pass through wallets, networks, liquidity providers, and local settlement partners. At the same time, many customer payments may be grouped into a single transfer. Raw volume therefore shows movement, not purpose. The better question is what economic task was completed: payroll, supplier settlement, treasury, remittance, or checkout. We should also look at repeat business usage, settlement time, failure rates, reconciliation, and conversion into local currency. Stablecoins become real financial infrastructure when they complete useful work reliably—not simply when onchain volume reaches a larger number.

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The SEC’s new conditional exemption for tokenized stock trading caught my attention this week. What matters is not only what it allows, but what it requires. A tokenized share must preserve the same rights and privileges as the equivalent traditional stock. Smart contracts must be public and auditable, and trading must stop when the underlying stock is halted. That distinction is important. Tokenization is not simply putting a price feed onchain. It is changing how an asset moves and settles without removing the ownership rights and market controls that make it trustworthy. The next phase of tokenization will not be defined by how many assets appear onchain, but by whether those assets remain legally and economically real.

Our payout capability

I spent some time looking at a new stablecoin payments report this week. One number stood out: $85 trillion in gross transfer volume became about $4 trillion in real economic activity after exchange-internal, DeFi, and infrastructure transfers were removed. That does not mean stablecoin adoption is weak. It means headline transaction volume is a poor measure of usefulness. The better question is what the money is doing. Is it paying a supplier, running payroll, settling trade, or supporting day-to-day business operations? Payments remain a smaller share of total onchain activity, but they are the fastest-growing use. Businesses already receive an estimated 58%–64% of stablecoin payment volume. Stablecoins become infrastructure not when more tokens move, but when more real economic work gets completed.

India’s new Demat 2.0 pilot is worth watching. It brings tokenised corporate bonds, wholesale CBDC settlement, and smart contracts into the same market infrastructure. Tokenising a bond is not the same as modernising the bond market. The real change begins when the asset and cash legs can move together, while ownership, interest payments, redemption, and regulatory safeguards remain clear. A digital wrapper alone does not remove operational complexity. Useful infrastructure has to reduce settlement risk and reconciliation without weakening the legal and control framework institutions depend on. The technology matters. The full system matters more.

I came across an interesting payments development this week: @Visa is combining settlement data with onchain lending infrastructure to help stablecoin-linked card programs access working capital. The important shift is not simply that credit is moving onchain. It is that lending can now be connected more directly to real payment activity. Payment businesses generate settlement receivables, but traditional underwriting often relies on delayed reports, long operating histories, and manual reviews. With customer-authorized settlement data, lenders can gain a clearer picture of how a program is operating. Smart contracts can then support funding, collateral management, and repayment. This matters because stablecoin infrastructure cannot stop at faster settlement. A payment company may move money 24/7, but if its working capital still arrives slowly, the system remains incomplete. The next phase of onchain finance will not be defined by where a loan is recorded. It will be defined by whether capital reaches real businesses when they need it. investor.visa.com/news/news-…

Stablecoins become useful when businesses no longer need to think about the blockchain behind them. What Jasper shared in Hong Kong reflects how we think about the next stage of adoption at @InterlaceMoney. On-chain settlement matters, but it is only one part of the stack. Stablecoins also need to connect with accounts, cards, local payment rails, compliance, and risk controls. That is how they move from assets people hold to infrastructure businesses can use every day.

Thank you to everyone who joined us in Hong Kong and shared their perspectives. These are exactly the conversations the industry needs.

To most people, one business card looks much like another. For companies running high-frequency payments, the infrastructure behind it can make a real difference. Different BINs can perform differently across merchants, transaction patterns, and risk controls. The goal is not simply to issue more cards, but to match the right card infrastructure to the right use case. That is the thinking behind this limited release at @InterlaceMoney.

5% APY catches the eye. Liquidity is what makes it useful. Treasury management is not about chasing the highest number. Businesses need to put idle balances to work while keeping funds available for payments, payroll, and day-to-day operations. That balance between capital efficiency and operational flexibility is what we focused on with this upgrade at @InterlaceMoney.

The payment experience on the surface can take many forms. The infrastructure underneath has to remain reliable. A card is no longer just a piece of plastic. Its material, form, and interaction can become part of the product experience—whether it is metal, ceramic, illuminated, or wearable. Businesses should be able to explore these ideas without rebuilding their payment infrastructure each time. That combination of flexible design and reliable infrastructure is what we are building at @InterlaceMoney.

Global payments are built locally. I’m glad to share that @InterlaceMoney has officially opened our new office in Brazil. This brings us closer to the businesses and payment ecosystem we are building for across Latin America. Brazil is also an important market for Interlace Scan to Pay, which allows users to pay directly from USDT or USDC at merchants already connected to local QR networks such as Pix. A new office is only the beginning. The real work is understanding how money moves in each market, building local relationships, and operating reliably over time. Brazil is an important part of our long-term commitment to Latin America.

One development that caught my attention this week is Brazil exploring ways to connect Pix with payment systems in other markets. I don’t think the future of cross-border payments will be one global rail replacing every local system. A more practical path is to connect stablecoins and global payment infrastructure with the domestic networks people already use. This development is especially relevant to us at Interlace, because we are already applying this model in Brazil through Interlace Scan to Pay. It is a white-label, API-based QR payment module that exchanges, wallets, and OTC platforms can integrate into their existing apps. Users can pay through Pix directly from their USDT or USDC holdings, without converting funds beforehand. Stablecoin-to-fiat pricing is resolved at the moment of payment, while merchants continue using the local payment infrastructure already familiar to them. This is how stablecoins become useful in everyday life—not by replacing local payment systems, but by connecting with them.

We’re hosting The Future Financial Landscape in Hong Kong during Bitcoin Asia. I’m looking forward to welcoming founders and financial leaders, and exchanging views on stablecoins, RWA and the next generation of global payment infrastructure. See you in Hong Kong.

I recently spoke with JIYUAN CAPITAL about how we built Interlace and where global payments are heading—from stablecoin infrastructure to payments for AI agents. I’ve shared the key ideas from our conversation in this article.

Wells Fargo’s move into tokenized deposits is worth paying attention to. Tokenized deposits are not stablecoins. They stay inside the banking system, while stablecoins can move across public blockchain networks. But both are responding to the same demand from global businesses: money should move continuously, across borders, with clearer controls and less operational friction. I don’t think the future of payments will be a simple choice between bank money and stablecoins. It will be a multi-rail system where tokenized deposits, stablecoins, cards, and local payment networks work together. Most businesses will not care which rail is used underneath. They will care about speed, reliability, compliance, and whether the payment works in the market they need. The real opportunity is building infrastructure that can choose the right rail and hide that complexity from the customer. That is the direction we are building toward at @InterlaceMoney.