Money Code

Presented by Stablecon; Powered by BVNK. In episode 17 of Money Code, hosts Chuk Okpalugo and Raj Parekh are joined by Jess Houlgrave, CEO at WalletConnect. They use the recent Ingenico partnership to unpack what it really takes to scale stablecoin payments at the physical checkout: incentives that move behavior, compliant routing from on-chain to fiat, UX that feels like Web2, and privacy constraints that shape whether merchants and consumers will ever choose on-chain settlement.Subscribe and listen to the Money Code podcast here:https://lnk.to/MoneyCodeSNChapters01:08 WalletConnect as the “messaging layer” between apps and wallets02:49 Why crypto checkout feels wrong and what WalletConnect Pay changes04:34 The coffee shop walkthrough: QR, wallets, assets, chains07:40 Where funds go after on-chain payment: transit accounts and off-ramps10:03 The supply-side reality: merchants, acquirers, and incentives to enable14:42 Which merchants care first: luxury, cross-border, LATAM QR familiarity19:18 Why B2C is harder25:38 Incentives and “on-chain interchange” to shift consumer behavior35:15 Privacy: why transparent ledgers collide with payment norms38:19 The end-state: tap-like UX and settlement routing users never seeConnect with the Hosts & GuestChuk Okpalugo: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuk-okpalugo/ | https://x.com/chuk_xyz/ | http://stablecoinblueprint.com Raj Parekh: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajparekh7/ | https://x.com/rajparekh | http://monad.xyz Jess Houlgrave: https://www.linkedin.com/in/houlgrave/ | https://x.com/Houlgrave | https://walletconnect.network/ About Money CodeMoney Code is the show that decodes stablecoins and the evolution of programmable money for builders, investors, and decision-makers. Each week, join hosts Chuk Okpalugo, Author of Stablecoin Blueprint and Raj Parekh, Head of Payments/Stablecoins at Monad Foundation as they break down the systems and strategies of seasoned operators in the space, revealing the insights you need for better build and buy decisions.About StableconStablecon (https://stablecon.com/) is the premier gathering for those at the intersection of DeFi, economic policy, financial infrastructure, and institutional integration, and those reinventing global commerce. By convening the brightest minds in fintech and crypto, Stablecon provides attendees with world class thought leadership and fosters unparalleled networking and strategic collaboration across the digital payments industry.   Whether you’re building, advising, or navigating this new frontier, this is the room where it happens.About BVNKBVNK is the leading provider of stablecoin payments infrastructure, helping businesses move money faster, settle globally, and even launch their own stablecoin products. Head to https://bvnk.com/ to learn more.

Presented by Stablecon; Powered by BVNK. In episode 16 of Money Code, hosts Chuk Okpalugo and Raj Parekh are joined by Joao Del Valle, CEO and Co-founder at EBANX, and Chris Harmse, Co-founder and Chief Business Officer at BVNK. They break down why and how EBANX is incorporating stablecoins into its global money movement stack and share views for how to potentially seed non-USD liquidity via tokenized asset settlement rather than retail payments.Subscribe and listen to the Money Code podcast here:https://lnk.to/MoneyCodeSNChapters00:00 EBANX’s origin: local acceptance, foreign settlement03:00 Pay-ins vs payouts across fragmented emerging-market rails05:01 Stablecoins as a “100-country APM” with one integration09:06 The regulatory mood shift: CBDCs down, stablecoins normalized11:55 2025 breakout: checkout + payouts + embedded dollar wallets14:39 Expansion playbook: merchant-led, but regulation is the bottleneck17:58 Liquidity and VASP rules: stablecoins as common language24:07 Domestic RTPs are great, interconnectivity is the real gap26:47 Visa stablecoin settlement: sponsor banks unlock US scale29:52 Non-USD stablecoins: tokenization seeds the cash leg and liquidity37:48 Treasury ROI: speed, predictability, and visible payment status42:43 Compliance vs privacy: what flows need opacityConnect with the Hosts & GuestChuk Okpalugo: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuk-okpalugo/ | https://x.com/chuk_xyz/ | http://stablecoinblueprint.com Raj Parekh: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajparekh7/ | https://x.com/rajparekh | http://monad.xyz Chris Harmse: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisharmse/ | http://bvnk.com/ João Del Valle: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joaodelvalle/ | https://www.ebanx.com/ About Money CodeMoney Code is the show that decodes stablecoins and the evolution of programmable money for builders, investors, and decision-makers. Each week, join hosts Chuk Okpalugo, Author of Stablecoin Blueprint and Raj Parekh, Head of Payments/Stablecoins at Monad Foundation as they break down the systems and strategies of seasoned operators in the space, revealing the insights you need for better build and buy decisions.About StableconStablecon (https://stablecon.com/) is the premier gathering for those at the intersection of DeFi, economic policy, financial infrastructure, and institutional integration, and those reinventing global commerce. By convening the brightest minds in fintech and crypto, Stablecon provides attendees with world class thought leadership and fosters unparalleled networking and strategic collaboration across the digital payments industry.   Whether you’re building, advising, or navigating this new frontier, this is the room where it happens.About BVNKBVNK is the leading provider of stablecoin payments infrastructure, helping businesses move money faster, settle globally, and even launch their own stablecoin products. Head to https://bvnk.com/ to learn more.

Presented by Stablecon; Powered by BVNK. In episode 15 of Money Code, hosts Chuk Okpalugo and Raj Parekh are joined by Jackie Reses, Chair and CEO at Lead Bank. They break down why stablecoin payments quietly depend on banks as regulated “plumbing,” how compliance automation becomes a product advantage, and why the biggest second-order risk of stablecoin growth may be destabilizing community-bank deposit bases before local credit creation has a replacement.Subscribe and listen to the Money Code podcast here:https://lnk.to/MoneyCodeSNChapters00:00 Stablecoins don’t work without the banking layer01:28 Why Lead Bank was built from scratch04:27 How you earn regulator trust in modern banking11:25 Onboarding “too tricky” clients and scaling with them13:34 Compliance as a front-of-house product17:44 Why Lead acquired Loop Crypto20:02 Lead’s API primitives and composable banking stack22:49 How different banks should think about stablecoins24:41 The community bank risk: deposit flight and local lending34:25 Tokenized deposits vs stablecoins as rails39:26 The “Hunger Games” phase of fragmentation44:30 Builder advice: precision, scale, and no hyperboleConnect with the Hosts & GuestChuk Okpalugo: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuk-okpalugo/ | https://x.com/chuk_xyz/ | http://stablecoinblueprint.com Raj Parekh: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajparekh7/ | https://x.com/rajparekh | http://monad.xyz Jackie Reses: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacqueline-reses-938b7850/

José Fernández Da Ponte, President and Chief Growth Officer at the Stellar Development Foundation and former SVP at PayPal, shares insights on the evolving landscape of stablecoins. He discusses why stablecoins are initially reshaping treasury and B2B payments rather than consumer transactions. Merchants prioritize revenue and reach over transaction costs, driving adoption. José delves into the significance of open, permissionless chains for banks and forecasts a future with multiple dollar stablecoins critical for global trade.

In this engaging chat, Daniel Vogel, CEO and co-founder of Bitso—a key player in Latin America's crypto landscape—explores how stablecoins transformed cross-border payments, driving over $80B in annualized volume. He shares insights on overcoming remittance challenges and the benefits of local-currency stablecoins like MXNB and BRL1. Daniel discusses the hurdles facing on-chain adoption, the importance of liquidity, and his vision for broader DeFi access. His advice for entrepreneurs underscores the need for responsibility and legitimacy in handling user funds.

Presented by Stablecon; Powered by BVNK. In episode 12 of Money Code, hosts Chuk Okpalugo and Raj Parekh are joined by Paul Frambot, CEO of Morpho, a leading lending protocol.Paul explains how Morpho became the lending stack behind players like Coinbase by acting as infrastructure, not a fund, and by letting curators design their own markets. He lays out how open ledgers, enterprise-grade code, and competitive underwriting could turn onchain vaults into the savings and credit layer for fintechs, banks, and allocators.About Stablecon Stablecon (https://stablecon.com/) is the premier gathering for those at the intersection of DeFi, economic policy, financial infrastructure, and institutional integration, and those reinventing global commerce. By convening the brightest minds in fintech and crypto, Stablecon provides attendees with world class thought leadership and fosters unparalleled networking and strategic collaboration across the digital payments industry. Whether you’re building, advising, or navigating this new frontier, this is the room where it happens. About BVNK BVNK is the leading provider of stablecoin payments infrastructure, helping businesses move money faster, settle globally, and even launch their own stablecoin products. Head to https://bvnk.com/ to learn more. Connect with the Hosts & Guest Chuk Okpalugo: LinkedIn, X, stablecoinblueprint.com Raj Parekh: LinkedIn, X, monad.xyz

Presented by Stablecon; Powered by BVNKIn episode 11 of Money Code, hosts Chuk Okpalugo and Raj Parekh are joined by Chris Maurice, Founder and CEO of Yellow Card, a leading stablecoin payments company serving emerging markets.Dollar liquidity is the choke point of emerging-market commerce, and the traditional system forces businesses into informal FX networks just to survive. Chris explains how stablecoins have replaced cash as the form factor for the dollar in Africa and other frontier markets, why the shift happened so violently fast, and what it means for banks, corporates, and fintech builders now racing to catch up.About Stablecon Stablecon (https://stablecon.com/) is the premier gathering for those at the intersection of DeFi, economic policy, financial infrastructure, and institutional integration, and those reinventing global commerce. By convening the brightest minds in fintech and crypto, Stablecon provides attendees with world class thought leadership and fosters unparalleled networking and strategic collaboration across the digital payments industry. Whether you’re building, advising, or navigating this new frontier, this is the room where it happens. About BVNK BVNK is the leading provider of stablecoin payments infrastructure, helping businesses move money faster, settle globally, and even launch their own stablecoin products. Head to https://bvnk.com/ to learn more. Connect with the Hosts & Guest Chuk Okpalugo: LinkedIn, X, stablecoinblueprint.com Raj Parekh: LinkedIn, X, monad.xyz

Presented by Stablecon, Powered by BVNKIn episode 10 of Money Code, hosts Chuk Okpalugo and Raj Parekh are joined by Tarun Chitra, Co-Founder and CEO of Gauntlet, a leading vault curator.We explore DeFi’s evolution and how the industry has converged on “vault curation”. DeFi vaults are the onchain analogue of ETFs or credit funds, but with 24/7 liquidity, programmable risk constraints, and hardened sandboxes that can safely support agentic/algorithmic asset management. We discuss what vaults solve for, how fintechs should navigate yield options, and where DeFi and asset managers intersect as the world moves toward tokenized money and fully electronic credit markets.If you enjoyed this episode, do us a favor, share it with someone you know, or give us a five star rating on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.About Stablecon Stablecon (https://stablecon.com/) is the premier gathering for those at the intersection of DeFi, economic policy, financial infrastructure, and institutional integration, and those reinventing global commerce. By convening the brightest minds in fintech and crypto, Stablecon provides attendees with world class thought leadership and fosters unparalleled networking and strategic collaboration across the digital payments industry. Whether you’re building, advising, or navigating this new frontier, this is the room where it happens. About BVNK BVNK is the leading provider of stablecoin payments infrastructure, helping businesses move money faster, settle globally, and even launch their own stablecoin products. Head to https://bvnk.com/ to learn more. Connect with the Hosts & Guest Chuk Okpalugo: LinkedIn, X, stablecoinblueprint.com Raj Parekh: LinkedIn, X, monad.xyz

Presented by Stablecon Media and Powered by BVNKIn episode 9 of Money Code, hosts Chuk Okpalugo and Raj Parej are joined by Visa’s Cuy Sheffield to discuss how stablecoins move from speculation to real-world finance: dollar access at global scale, stablecoin-linked cards, cross-border flows, and the next frontier (onchain lending and agentic payments) plus what banks, fintechs, and regulators must build to compete.About Stablecon Stablecon (https://stablecon.com/) is the premier gathering for those at the intersection of DeFi, economic policy, financial infrastructure, and institutional integration, and those reinventing global commerce. By convening the brightest minds in fintech and crypto, Stablecon provides attendees with world class thought leadership and fosters unparalleled networking and strategic collaboration across the digital payments industry. Whether you’re building, advising, or navigating this new frontier, this is the room where it happens. About BVNK BVNK is the leading provider of stablecoin payments infrastructure, helping businesses move money faster, settle globally, and even launch their own stablecoin products. Head to https://bvnk.com/ to learn more. Connect with the Hosts & Guest Chuk Okpalugo: LinkedIn, X, stablecoinblueprint.com Raj Parekh: LinkedIn, X, monad.xyz

Naveen Mallela, Global Co-Head of Kinexys at J.P. Morgan, dives into the transformative vision for tokenized deposits like JPMD and their differences from stablecoins. He explains the importance of interoperability in financial systems and how shared ledgers can redefine banking competition. Naveen highlights cross-border payments as the next frontier for tokenization. He also discusses liquidity solutions and the coexistence of different monetary forms, including stablecoins and CBDCs, laying out a compelling narrative for the future of finance.