Band of Traders - Together We Trade The Future of Crypto Payments: Ft. Drew Gillen, Adesic
In this episode, Kyle sits down with Drew Gillen, co-founder and CEO of Adesic, for a candid conversation about what it really takes to build financial infrastructure in crypto.
Drew shares his founder journey, from early startup attempts and painful pivots to building Adesic in the space between traditional finance and blockchain. They talk openly about stablecoin access, global money movement, compliance, and why the legacy financial system is not designed for how digital assets actually work today.
Drew’s story is a reminder that meaningful adoption does not come from big ideas alone, but from building systems that work reliably inside the constraints of the real world.
Chapters & Timestamps
00:00 – Who is Drew Gillen and how did he get here?
04:00 – What early startup failures shaped this company?
08:30 – Why does crypto still struggle with real world payments?
13:30 – What problem is Adesic actually solving?
18:00 – How does Adesic work in practice?
24:30 – How do fees, compliance, and speed really trade off?
32:30 – Why did the company rebrand and what changed after?
38:00 – What does early traction and fundraising really feel like?
44:30 – What should founders building in crypto focus on next?
Subscribe, share, and join the trading conversations on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Discord!
To contact us, you can email us directly at bandoftraderspodcast@gmail.com
Check out our directory for other amazing interviews we've done in the past!
If you like our show, please let us know by rating and subscribing on your platform of choice!
If you like our show and hate social media, then please tell all your friends!
If you have no friends and hate social media and you just want to give us money for advertising to help you find more friends, then you can donate to support the show here!
Drew:
Drew Gillen is the co-founder and CEO of Adesic, a fintech company building infrastructure at the intersection of traditional finance and cryptocurrency. He began building in tech at a young age, learning to code, assembling computers, and launching his first company at 18.
Before Adesic, Drew experimented across e-commerce, algorithmic trading, and crypto data products, experiences that shaped his focus on infrastructure, product control, and execution. Today, he leads Adesic’s mission to make stablecoin access and global money movement practical, reliable, and usable for real businesses operating in the real world.
Learn More Here: https://adesic.com/
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy