What’s Next for Stablecoins, Banks, and Instant Settlement | Farooq Malik

On this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with Farooq Malik, co-founder and CEO of Rain, a company building the payment rails powering the next wave of stablecoins, tokenized money, and digital banking worldwide. Recorded live at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium, Farooq explains why regulatory clarity unleashed a boom in institutional stablecoin adoption and how Rain enables anyone, from fintechs to governments, to instantly spend and settle with digital dollars. The conversation covers the launch of Wyoming’s Frontier Stable Token which includes Rain’s partnership with Avalanche, and why “making payments boring again” (fast, invisible, interoperable) unlocks the real future of crypto. Farooq also shares insights from his career in traditional finance, reveals the real tech behind Rain’s APIs, and why openness, not walled gardens, will define the next era of global banking. Plus: contrarian takes, instant holiday settlements, and why believing the world can be better is his ultimate founder advice.This episode is sponsored by Across Protocol.

⏱️ Timestamps

(00:00) - Intro

(00:48) - The challenge: Why market cap isn’t enough—real usage matters

(01:09) - Farooq’s founding story: From DeFi to “tokenized money” infrastructure

(03:39) - Betting early: Why regulatory clarity transformed stablecoin adoption

(04:00) - Wyoming’s Frontier Stable Token: How Rain and Avalanche are building government-backed money

(05:02) - Real purpose of money: Making payments possible everywhere

(06:26) - Bringing stablecoins to merchants—making transactions seamless

(07:14) - How Rain cards let anyone spend stablecoins “just like dollars”

(08:15) - Removing off-ramps: True blockchain native payments

(08:47) - Lessons from TradFi: Reconciling payments, eliminating manual work

(09:43) - Making settlement instant, reducing costs and risks

(10:11) - The magic of tokenized money—using USDC for instant, holiday payments

(14:01) - Deciding what to change vs. what to keep in payment experiences

(16:35) - Distribution matters: Why Rain partners with Visa for global merchant acceptance

(17:39) - Who’s really using stablecoin payments?

(18:58) - Making money boring again: Stablecoins behind the scenes

(20:10) - Security, custody, and why Rain avoids single points of failure

(22:20) - Rain’s APIs: How banks, fintechs, and remittance platforms connect to stablecoins

(23:37) - Going global: Rain’s unified product stack for worldwide customers

(25:06) - Now that regulatory clarity is here, what comes next for banks and institutions

(26:33) - Tokenized money is inevitable—how efficiency wins over legacy infrastructure

(27:01) - Big banks, small banks: Why technology shifts create new winners

(29:13) - U.S. leads the way—surprising adoption trends and mainstream integrations

(31:16) - Interoperability unlocks value: The magic of connecting payments, apps, and platforms

(32:09) - Why retail users don’t need to “opt in” to stablecoins

(33:29) - Farooq’s contrarian view: Stablecoins are just instant, non-fungible money

(35:01) - How slowness costs—why instant settlement will replace payday lenders and legacy systems

(36:12) - Rain’s big mountain: Expanding global coverage and showing tokenized money can scale

(37:49) - Founder advice: Believe the world can be better

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