In this episode, Lex speaks with Jess Houlgrave, CEO of WalletConnect. In this episode Jess explains how WalletConnect bridges wallets and decentralized applications (dApps), simplifying secure blockchain interactions for millions of users.

Together, Lex and Jess discuss the platform’s origins, technical innovations, and massive scale - supporting over 700 wallets and 70,000 projects. The conversation covers challenges in integrating traditional finance with Web3, regulatory compliance, and WalletConnect’s decentralized, token-incentivized network. Jess also shares insights on the future of on-chain commerce, global adoption trends, and the evolving relationship between fintech and blockchain infrastructure.

NOTABLE DISCUSSION POINTS:

1. WalletConnect Becomes Web3’s Financial Backbone: Once a simple UX fix, WalletConnect now connects 700+ wallets and 70,000+ apps, moving $400B annually. It’s evolving into the universal connectivity layer for on-chain finance - a “Visa for Web3.”
2. Fintechs Are Forcing Crypto to Grow Up: As players like Stripe and Shopify enter Web3, they demand frictionless UX and regulatory-grade compliance, not crypto-native clunkiness. This wave will make crypto invisible but usable through embedded fintech experiences.
3. Stablecoins Will Power On-Chain Commerce and Dollarization: Jess predicts commerce, not trading, will drive the next cycle. As stablecoins become spendable everywhere, users won’t need to off-ramp - accelerating global dollarization via open financial rails.

TOPICS

WalletConnect, ReOWN, Circle, Stripe, Checkout.com, MetaMask, Solana, blockchain, decentralized finance, DeFi, crypto, wallet, Web3, web2, UX, wallet infrastructure, stablecoins, tokens, token economy

ABOUT THE FINTECH BLUEPRINT

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👉 Twitter: https://twitter.com/LexSokolin

TIMESTAMPS

1’03: WalletConnect’s Financial Connectivity Layer: CEO Jess Houlgrave on Helping Build The New Internet

4’42: Universal Wallet Interoperability: How a Single Integration Connects Every App to Every Wallet

9’06: Building Trust in Web3: How Seamless Wallet Connections Create the ‘Visa Moment’ for Crypto

11’51: Scaling Web3 Connectivity: Inside the 50 Million Users and $400 Billion Powered by Wallet Infrastructure

14’02: The Next Wave of Adoption: How Better UX and Fintech Integration Are Bringing Millions On-Chain

16’53: Beyond Ethereum: How Multi-Chain Support and Compliance Are Driving the Next Phase of Web3 Growth

19’41: When Web2 Meets Web3: How Fintechs Are Redefining Crypto UX and Compliance Standards

22’34: Bridging the Knowledge Gap: Helping Fintechs Understand the Complexities of Web3 Integration

26’37: The New Chain Race: Why Fintechs Are Repeating Banks’ Playbook and Competing for Value Capture in Web3

30’05: Decentralizing the Network: How Wallet Infrastructure Is Building a Sustainable Token Economy

35’44: The Future of On-Chain Commerce: How Stablecoins and UX Advances Will Drive Real-World Payments

39’46: The Rise of Digital Dollarization: How Open Financial Systems Are Reshaping Global Currencies

40’57: The channels used to connect with Jess & learn more about WalletConnect

Disclaimer here — this newsletter does not provide investment advice and represents solely the views and opinions of FINTECH BLUEPRINT LTD.

Contributors: Lex, Laurence, Matt, Farhad, Mike, Daniella

Want to discuss? Stop by our Discord and reach out here with questions.

In this episode, Lex speaks  Mike Sha - the CEO and co-founder of Tandems (formerly SigFig), a leading provider of AI-powered software for wealth management firms and financial institutions. Together, Lex and Mike discuss the evolution of wealth technology through the lens of Mike’s entrepreneurial journey from founding Wikinvest in 2006 to building Tandems. Wikinvest pivoted to portfolio tracking and then to a B2B model, powering major portals like Yahoo Finance and managing over $500 billion in tracked assets. The team’s insights into poor retail investment behavior led to building SigFig, a B2B robo-advisor, eventually serving banks like UBS and Wells Fargo.

Today, rebranded as Tandems, the firm offers AI-powered tools for advisors across three key areas: meetings, asset gathering, and investment management, with AI integrated via a modular “wealth OS” platform. Tandems uses an open architecture for AI, prioritizing trust, configurability, and high accuracy tailored to the specific workflows of financial advisors.

NOTABLE DISCUSSION POINTS:

1. The Realization That Most Investors Struggle on Their Own Sparked the Robo-Advisory Movement - Mike Sha’s early data from tracking $400–500 billion in retail portfolios across Yahoo!, CNN, and other finance portals revealed that most individuals consistently underperform when managing their own investments. This insight directly led to the creation of SigFig, one of the first robo-advisors, designed to make high-quality investment advice affordable and automated. It shows how data-driven observation of user behavior can uncover market inefficiencies and spark new product categories.
2. Distribution and Integration Trumps Pure Innovation in Fintech Partnerships - Tandem’s evolution from a consumer-facing platform to a B2B software provider for major banks underscored a critical lesson: distribution and trust are the hardest parts of scaling in financial services. Rather than trying to replace institutions, Sha’s team embedded within them - learning that success requires deep integration with legacy systems and respect for the bank’s compliance and operational frameworks. The “secret” to working with large financial institutions, Sha notes, is understanding their old infrastructure and designing around it - not fighting it.
3. AI’s Real Impact in Wealth Management Will Begin with Eliminating Repetitive Work - Tandem’s current strategy focuses on AI automation for financial advisors, not as a replacement but as an assistant. Sha highlights that over 90% of an advisor’s day involves repetitive administrative work - meeting prep, paperwork, compliance, follow-ups. Tandem’s “Wealth OS” connects legacy systems and uses AI to automate these tasks first, freeing advisors to focus on human relationship-building and advice. It’s a practical and near-term vision of AI in finance: efficiency before intelligence.

TOPICS

Tandems, SigFig, Wikinvest, wealthtech, wealth management, fintech, ai, artificial intelligence, investment, roboadvisors, finance, financial management, banking, bank partnerships

ABOUT THE FINTECH BLUEPRINT

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👉 Twitter: https://twitter.com/LexSokolin

TIMESTAMPS

1’31: From Wikis to Wealth Tech: Mike Sha on How 401(k)s and “Investing-as-a-Chore” Shaped Tandems

7’05: Building a Fintech from the First Dot-Com Boom: The Origins of Tandem’s Founding Partnership

10’46: Turning Drive-By Traffic into Real Investors: The SEO Strategy That Sparked a $500B Fintech Shift

16’25: Following the Money: How Tandems Scaled Through Bank Partnerships and the Hidden Art of Integrating Legacy Systems

21’58: Inside the Fintech–Bank Power Dynamic: Lessons from Partnering with UBS and Navigating the Enterprise Maze

25’36: Scaling Smart: How Tandems Grew from 25 to 100 People by Blending Finance, Software, and Global Talent

29’55: Beyond Robo-Advisors: How Tandems Rebranded to Tackle Wealth Management’s “Unsexy” Problems with AI

34’02: AI for Advisors: Automating the 90% of Work They Don’t Want to Do

39’32: Open Architecture, Not One Model: How Tandem Builds Reliable AI for Financial Institutions

43’53: The channels used to connect with Mike & learn more about Tandems

Disclaimer here — this newsletter does not provide investment advice and represents solely the views and opinions of FINTECH BLUEPRINT LTD.

Contributors: Lex, Laurence, Matt, Farhad, Mike, Daniella

Want to discuss? Stop by our Discord and reach out here with questions.

In this episode, Lex speaks with Marcelo Ruiz de Olano, Co-Founder of KPK (Karpatkey), an on-chain asset management firm born out of Gnosis DAO. Marcelo recounts KPK’s evolution from stewarding Gnosis’s $1B treasury to advising on more than $2B for leading protocols like ENS, Balancer, and the Ethereum Foundation. The discussion dives into the mechanics of non-custodial treasury management - balancing governance, security, and risk - along with strategies across lending, liquidity provision, and stablecoin yields. Marcelo also shares why the rise of large Ethereum treasury companies could be a turning point for DeFi, injecting institutional-scale liquidity and potentially making ETH more liquid than Bitcoin.

NOTABLE DISCUSSION POINTS:

1. Origins and Scale of On-Chain Treasury Management
   KPK spun out of Gnosis DAO, which had one of the earliest and largest on-chain treasuries (~$1B). From there, KPK evolved into an independent manager now advising on over $2B of DAO and foundation treasuries (ENS, Balancer, Ethereum Foundation, etc.), pioneering non-custodial, fully on-chain asset management practices.
2. Conservative, Mission-Driven Approach vs. Yield-Chasing
   Unlike many DeFi actors during “DeFi Summer,” KPK deliberately rejected risky high-yield strategies. Instead, they prioritized capital preservation and mission alignment—for example, ensuring ENS’s treasury only supports Ethereum-strengthening initiatives (like minority client staking or avoiding centralization risks). This contrarian, values-driven approach built trust and positioned them as long-term stewards of DeFi treasuries.
3. Transformative Potential of Ethereum Treasury Companies
   Marcelo highlights that emerging Ethereum treasury firms (similar to MicroStrategy’s BTC play) could deploy $10B+ in ETH treasuries. A single such “mega whale” could inject unprecedented liquidity into DeFi—making ETH potentially more liquid than BTC, bootstrapping entire verticals (DEX liquidity, lending, insurance), and creating a flywheel where treasury strategies directly accelerate Ethereum’s adoption and price stability.

TOPICS

KPK, Gnosis, Gnosis Safe, Balancer, Aave, Maker, Sky, Uniswap, Morpho, Ethereum Foundation, on-chain asset management, DAO, decentralized autonomous organization, treasury management, DeFi, tokenization, ETH, Ether, stablecoin, USDC

ABOUT THE FINTECH BLUEPRINT

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👉 Twitter: https://twitter.com/LexSokolin

TIMESTAMPS

1’08: From Gnosis to KPK: Building the Infrastructure for On Chain Treasury Management

8’00: Playing It Safe: How KPK Built Long Term DeFi Strategies in a Risk Obsessed Market

11’50: DeFi Lending Unlocked: How KPK Assesses Risk and Builds Yield Strategies with Stablecoins and Leverage

17’11: Treasury Playbooks: Matching DeFi Investment Strategies to Risk Profiles and DAO Values

20’32: Stablecoin Farming and DAO Drama: Navigating Risk, Governance, and Community Conflicts

23’18: From Impermanent Loss to Long Term Gain: Liquidity Provision and the Case for OG DeFi Protocols

26’33: Behind the Smart Contracts: Why Human Ops and Governance Still Run On Chain Asset Management

30’11: The Rise of Ethereum Treasury Companies: How On Chain Giants Will Supercharge DeFi Liquidity and Revenue

36’34: The Ten Billion Dollar Whale: How Ethereum Treasury Giants Could Reshape Liquidity and Supercharge DeFi

40’51: The channels used to connect with Mercelo & learn more about KPK

Disclaimer here — this newsletter does not provide investment advice and represents solely the views and opinions of FINTECH BLUEPRINT LTD.

Contributors: Lex, Laurence, Matt, Farhad, Mike, Daniella

Want to discuss? Stop by our Discord and reach out here with questions.

Disclaimer here — this newsletter does not provide investment advice and represents solely the views and opinions of FINTECH BLUEPRINT LTD.

Contributors: Lex, Laurence, Matt, Farhad, Mike, Daniella

Want to discuss? Stop by our Discord and reach out here with questions.

In this episode, Lex speaks with Ravi Adusumilli - President and GM of the Americas at Airwallex. Ravi and Lex discuss how Airwallex has evolved into a global financial platform by offering businesses an integrated suite of cross-border payments, treasury, and banking services. Founded in 2015, Airwallex now supports 150,000 customers, processes $130 billion in annualized volume (up 73% YoY), and projects a $1 billion revenue run rate by year-end.

The company’s success stems from its end-to-end infrastructure, homegrown payment rails, and multi-product strategy, with 80% of revenue now coming from customers using more than one product. Airwallex differentiates itself by focusing on global-first B2B use cases and building regional autonomy alongside centralized infrastructure. While not prioritizing stablecoins today, the company is exploring AI-driven financial operations and aims to reach $1 trillion in transaction volume by 2030.

NOTABLE DISCUSSION POINTS:

1. Airwallex’s Infrastructure: Proprietary Global Payment Network
   Airwallex operates a proprietary global payment infrastructure that processes 95% of its $130 billion in annualized transaction volume. The company has developed its own technology and regulatory framework in partnership with over 60 banks worldwide. This approach reduces dependence on legacy systems such as SWIFT and supports greater control over transaction speed, cost, and compliance.
2. Expansion Through Multi-Product Offering
   Airwallex has expanded its services beyond cross-border payments to include card issuance, spend management, treasury functions, and merchant acquiring. According to company data, 80% of revenue is generated from customers using multiple products. Payments now account for 70% of net revenue and are growing at three times the rate year over year.
3. Decentralized Go-To-Market Structure
   Airwallex employs a regional management model, with General Managers responsible for performance and operations in specific geographies. This structure is supported by centralized functions such as product development, compliance, and engineering. With 1,700 employees in 26 offices, the company uses this hybrid model to manage growth and adapt to local regulatory environments across multiple regions, including Latin America and Asia-Pacific.

TOPICS

Airwallex, Stripe, Brex, Rippling, Shopify, Pinterest, Visa, fintech, global payments, e-commerce, cross-border transactions, paytech, embedded payments, CFO stack, stablecoins, AI

ABOUT THE FINTECH BLUEPRINT

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🤝 Partner with Fintech Blueprint through sponsorships: https://bit.ly/3UZllsV

👉 Twitter: https://twitter.com/LexSokolin

TIMESTAMPS

1’02: Building Through Partnerships: The Platform Strategy Behind a $130B Fintech

7’24: Why It’s Working: Scaling B2B Payments in a Crowded Fintech Market

12’21: From Coffee Beans to Global Rails: How Cross-Border Payments Became the Wedge for Platform Expansion

19’02: Sticky by Design: How Regional Autonomy and Multi-Product Depth Drove Global Expansion

25’31: From Credibility to Scale: When Partnerships Start Driving Growth

29’33: Beyond Point Solutions: Why Global Platforms Are Replacing Fragmented Payment Stacks

34’47: Solving the CFO Stack: A Unified Approach to Global Money Movement

38’14: Resilient by Design: How Airwallex Manages Multi-Bank, Multi-Market Complexity

42’51: The Hidden Cost of Scale: Inside the Engineering Behind a $130B Network

46’15: The Next Phase: Airwallex’s Vision for a Global Financial OS

49’54: The channels used to connect with Ravi & learn more about Airwallex

Disclaimer here — this newsletter does not provide investment advice and represents solely the views and opinions of FINTECH BLUEPRINT LTD.

Contributors: Lex, Laurence, Matt, Farhad, Mike, Daniella

Want to discuss? Stop by our Discord and reach out here with questions.

Disclaimer here — this newsletter does not provide investment advice and represents solely the views and opinions of FINTECH BLUEPRINT LTD.

Contributors: Lex, Laurence, Matt, Farhad, Mike, Daniella

Want to discuss? Stop by our Discord and reach out here with questions.

Lex chats with Matthew Le Merle - CEO of Blockchain Coinvestors, a leading blockchain and AI fund-of-funds. He reflects on the limitations of large institutions in adopting disruptive technologies and why he chose to back innovators over incumbents, using stablecoins as an example of asymmetric value creation. Le Merle explains his evolution from angel investor to institutional LP, highlighting the benefits of leveraging top-tier venture capitalists’ expertise in inefficient early-stage markets. He outlines the psychological challenges of venture investing, where failures appear early and outsized wins often take a decade, contrasting this with the faster liquidity but higher existential risk in token markets. Finally, he critiques institutional allocators for over-relying on efficient markets, under-allocating to venture despite its role in driving future value, and positions his strategy as fully committed to early-stage blockchain and AI as the highest-returning segments.

NOTABLE DISCUSSION POINTS:

1. Innovation Threatens Incumbents, Benefits Disruptors: Major technological shifts, from the internet to blockchain and AI, create winners and losers. Incumbents often resist disruptive change because it threatens existing revenue models, while nimble startups and tech-first companies can rapidly capture new market opportunities.

2. Venture Success Requires Navigating High Failure Rates: In early-stage investing, most portfolio companies will fail, often within the first 3–4 years. Returns are driven by a small number of outsized successes, usually via acquisitions rather than IPOs, requiring patience, resilience, and a disciplined investment strategy.

3. Inefficient Markets Offer the Greatest Asymmetric Upside: Early-stage venture and emerging technologies like blockchain and AI are inefficient markets where superior access, insight, and execution can generate returns far above those available in traditional, efficient markets like public equities or bonds.

TOPICS

Blockchain Coinvestors, Band of Angels, AngelList, Blockchain Capital, Pantera, Sequoia, Andreessen, BlackRock, Fidelity, Blockchain, DeFi, Decentralized Finance, Investment, Venture Capital, Angel Investment, Fund of Funds

ABOUT THE FINTECH BLUEPRINT

🔥Subscribe to the Fintech Blueprint newsletter to stay at the forefront of Fintech and DeFi: https://bit.ly/3hyhlC2

🤝 Partner with Fintech Blueprint through sponsorships: https://bit.ly/3UZllsV

👉 Twitter: https://twitter.com/LexSokolin

TIMESTAMPS

1’33: From Consulting to Disruption: Matthew Le Merle on Pivoting from Advising Incumbents to Backing the Innovators

9’56: From Angel Checks to Global Funds: Building One of the World’s Largest Blockchain Co-Investment Platforms

16’50: Leveraging Top Venture Funds to Capture Blockchain and AI’s Biggest Winners: Evolving from Direct Deals to an LP Strategy

24’50: The Emotional Reality of Venture Investing: Coping with Early Failures, Long Timelines, and Rare Big Wins

32’13: Early Liquidity, Higher Risk: Why Most Token Projects Fail Without Ever Delivering Software

35’20: Backing Winners in Inefficient Markets: What Makes a Venture Fund Worth Investing In

42’59: Why Institutional Portfolios Miss the Future: The Case for Shifting Capital from Efficient to Inefficient Markets

51’08: The channels used to connect with Matthew & learn more about Blockchain Coinvestors

Disclaimer here — this newsletter does not provide investment advice and represents solely the views and opinions of FINTECH BLUEPRINT LTD.

Contributors: Lex, Laurence, Matt, Farhad, Mike, Daniella

Want to discuss? Stop by our Discord and reach out here with questions.

Disclaimer here — this newsletter does not provide investment advice and represents solely the views and opinions of FINTECH BLUEPRINT LTD.

Contributors: Lex, Laurence, Matt, Farhad, Mike, Daniella

Want to discuss? Stop by our Discord and reach out here with questions.

Lex chats with Harish Natarajan - Practice Manager, Financial Inclusion and Infrastructure, Finance, Competitiveness & Innovation at the World Bank, and Carlos Brandt - The Senior Advisor for Pix at the Central Bank of Brazil. Together they discuss the remarkable success of Pix, Brazil's real-time payment system, which now sees over 6 billion transactions per month and is used by more than 90% of the adult population and 80% of companies. Lex explores how Pix was created by the Central Bank of Brazil with strong public-private collaboration, backed by regulatory authority and supported by a co-creation model with stakeholders. Key to its adoption were a low-cost centralized infrastructure, clear branding, mandatory participation by large banks, and a robust national communication strategy. Globally, Pix is seen as a leading example of fast payment system deployment, driven by the central bank acting as a neutral coordinator and scheme owner. Lex also examines the technical architecture, built in-house by a surprisingly small team of 55–65 people, and how scalable infrastructure and extensibility have enabled rapid growth and innovation.

NOTABLE DISCUSSION POINTS:

1. Pix achieved mass adoption through public-private co-creation and legal mandate:

Pix now processes over 6 billion transactions per month, with 90% of Brazil’s adult population and 80% of businesses actively using it. Its success stems from a strategic legal mandate in 2013 granting the Central Bank regulatory and operational authority over retail payments. The Central Bank then led a co-creation process involving both public and private stakeholders through the Pix Forum, fostering alignment, inclusivity, and strong network effects.

2. A lean but powerful team built a nation-scale real-time payments system:

The Pix infrastructure was built entirely in-house by a relatively small team, 30-40 people for the technical infrastructure layer and around 25 for the payment scheme layer. It operates 24/7 with real-time settlement and uses centralized infrastructure separate from Brazil’s traditional large-value payment rails. This centralized, purpose-built architecture dramatically lowered costs and enabled rapid rollout.

3. Strategic communication and mandated participation drove adoption at scale:

The Central Bank led a national communication campaign to build trust, establish a strong brand identity, and educate the public. Simultaneously, it mandated major banks (with over 500,000 active accounts) to join Pix, triggering widespread voluntary adoption from smaller PSPs. The rollout included a restricted pilot phase and emphasized user-friendly features like QR codes and aliases to boost convenience and usage from day one.

TOPICS

Pix, Central Bank of Brazil, World Bank, Visa, Citibank, M-Pesa, Alipay, SPI, fintech, payments, PSP, API, Fast Payments, Payments Infrastructure, PayTech

ABOUT THE FINTECH BLUEPRINT

🔥Subscribe to the Fintech Blueprint newsletter to stay at the forefront of Fintech and DeFi: https://bit.ly/3hyhlC2

🤝 Partner with Fintech Blueprint through sponsorships: https://bit.ly/3UZllsV

👉 Twitter: https://twitter.com/LexSokolin

TIMESTAMPS

1’19: Building Pix from the Ground Up: Carlos Brandt on Modernizing Brazil’s Payment Infrastructure

3’03: Fast Payments for Financial Inclusion: Harish Natarajan on the World Bank’s Role in Modern Payment Infrastructure

4’29: From Cash to 5 Billion Transactions a Month: How Pix Transformed Brazil’s Payment Ecosystem Through Public-Private Collaboration

10’41: Why Pix Succeeded Where Others Struggled: The Power of Neutral Coordination and Public-Private Synergy

12’40: Inside the Pix Forum: How Brazil Built a Collaborative Process for Payment Innovation

15’07: Fast Payments at Scale: Market Coordination, Infrastructure, and Global Lessons from Pix

20’55: Engineering Pix: How a Small Team Built Brazil’s 24/7 National Payments Infrastructure from Scratch

27’28: Driving Nationwide Adoption: How Strategic Communication and Mandates Powered Pix’s Rollout Across Brazil

34’14: Scaling for Success: Why Communication, Extensibility, and API Design Are Key to Evolving Payment Systems

37’23: Building Trust Through Cooperation: How Regulators Can Foster Innovation While Balancing Public and Private Interests

40’06: The channels used to connect with Carlos & learn more about The Central Bank of Brazil.

40’39: The channels used to connect with Harish & learn more about The World Bank

Disclaimer here — this newsletter does not provide investment advice and represents solely the views and opinions of FINTECH BLUEPRINT LTD.

Contributors: Lex, Laurence, Matt, Farhad, Mike, Daniella

Want to discuss? Stop by our Discord and reach out here with questions.

Lex speaks with Ali Niknam, CEO and founder of Bunq, a leading European neobank. Ali shares Bunq’s journey from its founding during the financial crisis to becoming Europe’s second-largest neobank. The conversation explores Bunq’s user-centric philosophy, innovative products, and unique organizational design. Ali discusses overcoming regulatory challenges, prioritizing cultural values, and fostering accountability within teams. The episode also examines the complexities of the European fintech landscape and Bunq’s mission to revolutionize banking by focusing on user needs and continuous improvement.

MENTIONED IN THE CONVERSATION

Topics: Bunq, ING, Revolut, Betterment, Synapse, TransIP, Fintech, banking, crypto, neobank, challenger bank, culture, Europe, VC

ABOUT THE FINTECH BLUEPRINT

🔥Subscribe to the Fintech Blueprint newsletter to stay at the forefront of Fintech and DeFi: https://bit.ly/3hyhlC2

🤝 Partner with Fintech Blueprint through sponsorships: https://bit.ly/3UZllsV

👉 Twitter: https://twitter.com/LexSokolin

TIMESTAMPS

1’09: Bunq’s Bold Mission: Ali Niknam on Reinventing Banking for the Modern User

6’27: Building from the Core: Why Bunq Chose the Hard Road to Reinvent Banking

10’08: Bootstrapped Banking: Building Bunq Without External Capital or Compromise

13’56: Launching the Future: Bringing Innovation to Market with Bunq’s First 45-Person Team

17’35: From Payments to Personalization: How Users Drove a Decade of Product Innovation

19’52: Designing for Eva: How Bunq Rebuilt Its Organization Around the User, Not the Org Chart

22’02: Beyond Titles: How Bunq’s Ownership-Driven Culture Redefines Teams, KPIs, and Hierarchy

28’14: Culture Over Compensation: How Bunq Attracts Mission-Aligned Talent Without Relying on Equity

35’06: Europe’s Tech Paradox: Why Innovation Thrives Despite Fragmentation—and What Must Change

39’11: The channels used to connect with Ali & learn more about Bunq

43’07: The channels used to connect with Edward & learn more about Zerohash 

Disclaimer here — this newsletter does not provide investment advice and represents solely the views and opinions of FINTECH BLUEPRINT LTD.

Contributors: Lex, Laurence, Matt, Farhad, Mike, Daniella

Want to discuss? Stop by our Discord and reach out here with questions.

 Lex chats with Edward Woodford - CEO of Zerohash. They discuss Zerohash’s growth, the rise of stablecoins, and the evolving fintech landscape. Edward explains how stablecoins now make up half of Zerohash’s volume, highlights regulatory shifts in the U.S. and abroad, and explores the distinction between crypto and stablecoins. The conversation covers usability challenges, emerging payment use cases, and the future of embedded finance, emphasizing the need for regulatory clarity and collaboration between fintechs and traditional financial institutions.

Notable discussion points:

1. Stablecoins Overtake Crypto in Volume: Stablecoins now make up over 50% of Zerohash’s volume, driven by regulatory clarity and real-world use cases like payments and treasury. Institutions prefer them for their centralized control and ease of integration.

2. Brokerage and Payments Are Converging: Zerohash sees strong demand across brokerage and payment rails, with banks and fintechs embedding stablecoin infrastructure. Global payouts, account funding, and subscriptions are key growth areas despite UX friction.

3. Regulatory Climate Is Rapidly Improving: U.S. policy has shifted from regulatory overreach to bipartisan support for stablecoin legislation. This change is unlocking institutional adoption, with banks now moving aggressively into crypto and digital assets.

MENTIONED IN THE CONVERSATION

Topics: Zerohash, MoonPay, Transak, Ramp, Stripe, BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, Hamilton Lane, Morgan Stanley, Charles Schwab, SoFi, Uniswap, fintech, web3, digital assets, blockchain, tokenization, rwas, stablecoin, crypto, regulation

ABOUT THE FINTECH BLUEPRINT

🔥Subscribe to the Fintech Blueprint newsletter to stay at the forefront of Fintech and DeFi: https://bit.ly/3hyhlC2

🤝 Partner with Fintech Blueprint through sponsorships: https://bit.ly/3UZllsV

👉 Twitter: https://twitter.com/LexSokolin

TIMESTAMPS

1’51: From Crisis to Convergence: Edward Woodford on Scaling Zerohash and the Future of Embedded Crypto Infrastructure

5’06: Scaling the Pie, Not Stealing Slices: Rethinking Volume, Margins, and Meaningful Growth in Digital Asset Infrastructure

10’02: The Great Rebrand: How Stablecoins Are Shedding the 'Crypto' Label and Reshaping Digital Finance

15’22: From Overreach to Opportunity: How Regulatory Pushback in the U.S. Sparked a Global Shift Toward Stablecoin Adoption

20’31: The Semantics of Trust: Why ‘Stablecoin’ Sells and ‘Crypto’ Scares - and Why the Framing Now Matters More Than Ever

22’36: Unlocking Real Utility: Why Stablecoin Payments Are Finally Poised to Scale Across Commerce and Subscriptions

30’50: Disrupting the Rails: How Stablecoins Are Reshaping the Power Dynamics of Global Payments

34’49: The New Brokerage Mandate: Why Every Platform Is Racing to Add Crypto - and What’s Unlocking the Shift

39’03: Rewiring Financial Infrastructure: How Stablecoins and Super Apps Are Forcing Banks to Rethink Risk and Relevance

43’07: The channels used to connect with Edward & learn more about Zerohash

Disclaimer here — this newsletter does not provide investment advice and represents solely the views and opinions of FINTECH BLUEPRINT LTD.

Contributors: Lex, Laurence, Matt, Farhad, Mike, Daniella

Want to discuss? Stop by our Discord and reach out here with questions.

Lex chats with Yuval Rooz, CEO and co-founder of Digital Asset, about the company’s transformation from its early institutional blockchain experiments to launching the Canton Network - a purpose-built, privacy-enabled smart contract platform designed for financial markets. Rooz shares insights into why Digital Asset was inspired by Bitcoin’s financial principles rather than its technical assumptions, highlighting the importance of rethinking blockchain infrastructure rather than replicating flawed legacy models. He also unpacks the hard lessons from high-stakes projects like the Australian Stock Exchange overhaul, emphasizing why large-scale financial infrastructure must evolve incrementally to succeed. Finally, the conversation dives into Canton’s unique tokenomics, where 70% of block rewards go to the developers and users who create economic activity on the network, challenging traditional validator-centric models and aligning incentives more fairly for long-term ecosystem growth.

Notable discussion points:

1. Canton’s innovative tokenomics: Unlike Ethereum, where validators capture most of the rewards, Canton allocates 70% of block rewards to developers and applications, creating sustainable alignment.

2. Lessons from ASX: Rooz reflects on the failed ASX blockchain migration, advocating for iterative upgrades rather than “big bang” infrastructure transformations.

3. True tokenization: Rooz critiques superficial on-chain IOU models, asserting that real tokenization must place the asset’s books and records natively on-chain to unlock the benefits of DeFi and composability.

MENTIONED IN THE CONVERSATION

Topics: Digital Asset, Canton Network, DRW, ASX, Ethereum, Bitcoin, Plaid, DAML, fintech, web3, tokenization, digital assets, financial infrastructure, DeFi, onchain

ABOUT THE FINTECH BLUEPRINT

🔥Subscribe to the Fintech Blueprint newsletter to stay at the forefront of Fintech and DeFi: https://bit.ly/3hyhlC2

🤝 Partner with Fintech Blueprint through sponsorships: https://bit.ly/3UZllsV

👉 Twitter: https://twitter.com/LexSokolin

TIMESTAMPS

1’28: From Wall Street to Web3: Yuval Rooz on Founding Digital Asset and the Birth of the Canton Network

4’29: Rethinking Blockchain: Rejecting Ethereum’s Assumptions to Build a Better Financial Infrastructure

8’18: Getting Banks to Say Yes: Bridging Blockchain Innovation with Regulatory Reality

12’43: Blockchain at Scale: Lessons from the ASX Project and Why Incremental Innovation Beats Big Bang Deployments

21’27: Agile by Design: How Canton Aims to Bring Continuous Delivery to Decentralized Blockchain Networks

23’50: Beyond the Hype: Why Crypto Needs Pragmatism, Not Just Vision, to Integrate with Financial Institutions

27’08: From DAML to Canton: Building Scalable, Privacy-First Infrastructure for Real-World Finance

30’52: Redefining Tokenization: Real On-Chain Finance at Scale with Trillions in Assets on Canton

35’34: Solving the Tokenization Gap: Bridging Legacy Infrastructure with Decentralized Architecture

39’13: Seeding Web3 with Real Assets: Canton’s Strategy to Power DeFi with Institutional-Grade Infrastructure

41’33: Custom Rules, Shared Rails: How Canton Balances Decentralization with Regulatory Flexibility

44’30: Aligning Incentives: How Canton’s Tokenomics and Fair Launch Redefine Value Creation on Chain

49’35: The channels used to connect with Yuval & learn more about Digital Asset and Canton Network

Disclaimer here — this newsletter does not provide investment advice and represents solely the views and opinions of FINTECH BLUEPRINT LTD.

Contributors: Lex, Laurence, Matt, Farhad, Mike, Daniella

Want to discuss? Stop by our Discord and reach out here with questions.

Lex chats with Stani Kulechov - founder and CEO of Aave, a leading decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol. They explore the evolution of DeFi, Aave’s growth, and its architectural shift from a peer-to-peer model to pooled liquidity. Stani reflects on the early days of DeFi, the impact of the FTX collapse, and the increasing adoption of DeFi over centralized exchanges. They discuss Aave’s strategies for attracting assets, the importance of capital efficiency, and future innovations, including the tokenization of real-world assets and the role of stablecoins.

Notable discussion points:

1. Aave Reaches $40 Billion in Net Deposits: Stani Kulechov shared that Aave has achieved a record-breaking $40 billion in net deposits and $25 billion in active liquidity, making it the largest DeFi lending protocol ever by total value locked (TVL).

2. DeFi’s Evolution from Peer-to-Peer to Liquidity Hubs: The conversation detailed Aave’s architectural shift from early peer-to-peer lending models to pooled liquidity and now to a hub-and-spoke model with Aave V4 — designed to balance capital efficiency and risk segregation for both native crypto and real-world assets (RWAs).

3. The Rise of Real-World Assets and Stablecoins in DeFi: Kulechov emphasized that tokenized real-world assets (like treasuries) and decentralized stablecoins (such as Aave's GHO) are reshaping the DeFi landscape, predicting RWAs will outgrow both stablecoins and native crypto assets in total value locked within five years.

MENTIONED IN THE CONVERSATION

Topics: Aave, Lens Protocol, GHO, Horizon, FTX, Project Guardian, AaveDAO, MakerDAO, Web3, DeFi, Lending, stablecoins, tokens, RWA, decentralized finance, capital markets, DAO, Digital Assets

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TIMESTAMPS

1’11: DeFi at $40B: How a Lending Protocol Redefined Blockchain Finance

9’06: From Peer-to-Peer to Liquidity Hubs: Evolving the Architecture of DeFi Lending

15’01: DeFi's Growth Curve: From Airdrops to Institutional Adoption After FTX

20’49: Scaling Safely: How a Lending Protocol Outpaced Rivals Through Capital Efficiency and Brand Trust

24’34: Beyond Infrastructure: Why Token Issuers Need Capital Markets, Not Just DeFi Hype

28’33: Building Beyond Lending: How a Stablecoin and Institutional Arm Power DeFi Profitability

31’33: From JPMorgan to BlackRock: How Horizon Bridges Institutions to On-Chain Finance

35’18: Tokenized Treasuries and the Future of DeFi: Why RWAs Will Eclipse Stablecoins by 2030

39’36: From Fragmentation to Focus: Why DeFi’s Future Depends on Application Layers, Not More Chains

41’47: The channels used to connect with Stani & learn more about Aave and Avara

Disclaimer here — this newsletter does not provide investment advice and represents solely the views and opinions of FINTECH BLUEPRINT LTD.

Contributors: Lex, Laurence, Matt, Farhad, Mike, Daniella

Want to discuss? Stop by our Discord and reach out here with questions.