Cheeky Pint Podcast: Stablecoin Special

Episode: Stablecoin special: Zach Abrams (Bridge) and Henri Stern (Privy)
Host: John Collison ("Stripe")
Date: November 4, 2025

Overview

John Collison, cofounder of Stripe, sits down over a pint with Zach Abrams (Bridge) and Henri Stern (Privy), two leading voices in the stablecoin ecosystem whose companies were recently acquired by Stripe. This deep-dive explores stablecoin technology’s practical realities, use cases, infrastructure, regulatory landscape, and what the future holds for stablecoins, digital wallets, and the global financial system.

Introduction: Founding Bridge and Privy in Tumultuous Times

00:00–03:10

• Crypto Market "Doom Loop":
  Zach Abrams recounts founding Bridge just before the Terra Luna and FTX crises, leading to rapid pivots from NFT payments to stablecoin infrastructure.
  • Quote (Zach, 00:45): “Immediately after we raised money, Terra Luna happened and then the whole space and then FTX happened and it was nuked again.”
• Privy’s Origins:
  Henri Stern describes Privy’s early focus on data tokenization during peak crypto hype, shifting to wallet infrastructure after realizing user needs.
  • Quote (Henri, 04:21): “This is an endless space where we'll work on protocols but never actually…build products that people actually want to use.”

What Bridge and Privy Do

03:10–05:57

• Bridge:
  APIs for developers to integrate stablecoins, supporting businesses like SpaceX, Dollar App, and Felix Pago in cross-border payments and treasury management.
  • Quote (Zach, 03:10): “We enable developers to build with stablecoins... a broad payment platform on top of which a bunch of new payment experiences can be built.”
• Privy:
  Digital asset account APIs, letting any app integrate wallets for holding and managing stablecoins and other assets simply and securely.
  • Quote (Henri, 05:45): “You shouldn’t need a PhD or deep interest in self sovereignty…you should be able to do it as easily as anything else on the web.”

Where Stablecoins Are Actually Used Today

05:57–13:23

• Cross-Border & Emerging Markets:
  Stablecoins are powering cross-border payments (Colombia’s Zulu, neobanks like $app), international treasury for companies (e.g., SpaceX repatriating funds), and providing dollar balances in unstable economies.
  • Quote (Zach, 06:44): “You go from Colombian pesos to US dollars via stablecoins…and for a bunch of reasons it was cheaper and faster.”
• Local FX Infrastructure:
  Local exchanges globally have converted to stablecoin-heavy FX markets, making previously hard conversions now efficient.
  • Quote (Zach, 08:26): “All these local exchanges started...[and] are dominated by stablecoin volume and they've effectively just become alternative FX markets.”
• Liquidity & Market Depth:
  Crypto FX markets are efficient at small scale but can lack depth for large transactions, a dynamic opposite to fiat FX.
  • Quote (Zach, 09:16): “As you get bigger...your pricing comes down [in fiat], but in crypto…the pricing goes up because the spreads widen.”

Stablecoins as Payment and Banking Rails: Potential & Challenges

13:23–16:04

• Financial Stack Open-Sourcing:
  The innovation: fewer barriers to building global neobanks/applications—just need to add a supported stablecoin, rather than custom-building per country.
  • Quote (Zach, 13:23): “You open source your financial stack…very early days in this.”
• Dominance of USD in Stablecoins:
  Despite global demand for local currencies, 95%+ of stablecoin balances are in USD. Reasons include revealed user preference, B2B use by American companies, and network effects from trading markets.
  • Quote (Henri, 14:05): “I can think of many [countries]…you have euros and dollars and people are like, 'No, give me the dollars first.'”

The Future: Local Stablecoins, Network Effects, and B2C/B2B Adoption

16:04–18:58

• Why Local Stablecoins Lag:
  USD is prevalent for historical/trading reasons, but local coins (Euro, Swiss Franc, etc.) are expected to grow as transaction use cases flourish.
  • Quote (Zach, 15:09): “As more and more liquidity was built around a few dollars that makes sense...but over time you will see more of these stable coins.”
• Stablecoin Platform Advantages:
  Embedded banking/fintech features enabled by programmable, wallet-based ecosystems (e.g., Uber-style fintech for drivers).
  • Quote (Henri, 16:30): “Now any company can...maintain a relationship with the user via these accounts...every company has a NEO banking arm.”

Regulatory and Market Structure: MICA, GENIUS Act, and Compliance

18:08–19:35

• MICA & Regulation:
  European regulatory frameworks (MICA) are shaping innovation, but so far enforcement is "untested"; compliance is evolving.
  • Quote (Zach, 18:24): “It seems to be fine, but it could be bad...the way that USDC is complying...are very different than the way local European issuers are.”
  • Quote (Henri, 19:14): “We saw European customers trying a lot more things under MICA because at least they knew ostensibly where the lines were.”

Stablecoin Issuers: The Tether Debate & Future of Yield

19:35–21:47

• Network Effects & Yield:
  Despite not paying yield, Tether dominates due to brand/network, but modern stablecoin users will soon expect risk-free rate/yield, shifting the market.
  • Quote (Henri, 20:02): “If you ask someone do you want to Tether or alternate stable…they will pick Tether.”
  • Quote (Zach, 20:37): “Tether is going to be wildly successful…[but] pretty soon...any consumer who wants access to the risk free rate is going to have access to it.”
• Long-Term Outlook:
  Will Tether have to pay yield? Both guests argue probably not, at least not for their dominant use cases (trading).
  • Quote (Zach, 21:41): “No.”
  • Quote (Henri, 21:48): “I don't think they have to in order to stay dominant.”

International to Domestic: The WhatsAppification of Stablecoin Adoption

22:12–24:45

• Adoption Patterns:
  US stablecoin adoption is likely to follow the "international to domestic" pattern seen with WhatsApp and WeChat, starting with immigrants, travelers, and then mainstream.
  • Quote (John, 22:12): “WhatsApp used only be used internationally and then...by Americans who are kind of cosmopolitan...that feels to me the story of how stablecoins get adopted in the United States.”
  • Quote (Zach, 24:41): “As we look...even if you were just serving the US market, it makes sense...eventually you probably will want to go international and this is the foundation.”

The Global Fintech Landscape: Fragmentation and Opportunity

25:09–29:07

• Fintech in the US vs. Globally:
  The US’s competitive, fragmented banking ecosystem contrasts with concentrated, slow-moving systems abroad; stablecoins break down barriers and create opportunity.
  • Quote (Zach, 25:48): “In the US we don't appreciate how many banks there are...you go into [other] country, there's one bank...no interest in enabling you to build a fintech.”
• NeoBank Trends:
  The “future-proof” vision is rapid, modular fintech building, with both fragmentation and consolidation possible.
  • Quote (Henri, 26:44): “You can offer credit...balances...payments to your consumer, but you don’t have to bundle all of them if you don’t want to.”

Custodial vs. Self-Custodial: Portability, User Control, and the Future of Accounts

29:07–31:46

• Self Custody as a Paradigm:
  The idea is that financial accounts (wallets, private keys) are owned by users, and can move between services—akin to moving "bank core" functionality.
  • Quote (Henri, 29:57): “You can move the banking core yourself as a consumer. And...Uber and Lyft analogy is at this point a very tired crypto analogy.”
• Compatibility & Interoperability:
  The future may resemble traditional bank core platforms (Fiserv, Jack Henry) but programmable, composable and user-controlled.

Blockchains for Payments: Limitations and Next Evolution

32:01–39:53

• Blockchains Built for Something Else:
  Early blockchains, even scalable ones like Solana, still aren’t optimized for payments (e.g. UX/account priming, need for gas, failure rates).
  • Quote (Zach, 33:41): “On some blockchains...you have to fund [an address] and prime it so that it is available to accept USDC. And that might cost 30 cents.”
• Tempo & Specialized Chains:
  New purpose-built chains like Tempo seek to solve payment-specific bottlenecks: batch transactions, sponsored gas, super-reliable throughput.
  • Quote (Henri, 41:48): “The ability to sponsor Gas with any asset, the ability to have batch transactions built in, really reliable throughput... making it a primary purpose of the chain...leads to a very different developer experience.”

The Importance of Modular, Open Financial Infrastructure

39:53–44:42

• Layered Stack over Vertical Integration:
  Both founders stress stack modularity—services like Bridge or Privy must work with competitors too, just like Microsoft Office can’t only run on Windows.
  • Quote (Henri, 40:56): “If you’re serious about all these layers...you can’t bind them all together.”
• Value Capture vs. Creation in Crypto:
  Massive activity in Ethereum hasn’t seen the same value capture as some other chains; this is a sign of both strengths and limits.
  • Quote (Zach, 44:00): “Ethereum, wild value creation...minimal value capture...there are a bunch of others...very little value creation, lots of value capture.”

Crypto Tribalism and Community Dynamics

44:42–46:03

• Why Is Crypto So Tribal?
  The nature of money, repeated adversity, and high financial stakes create loyalty, “leper colony” mentality, and zero-sum mindsets.
  • Quote (Henri, 44:53): “It is like soccer teams and a self of identification with something that's quasi religious. Especially because working in crypto for the last decade has been just being rejected time and again by anyone else.”
  • Quote (Henri, 45:55): “It's very positive sum. But I think we all act as though someone else succeeding means we are doing less. Well.”

Regulatory Shifts: The "GENIUS Act" and On-the-Ground Impact

46:03–48:17

• New Regulatory Clarity Drives Adoption:
  The GENIUS Act lowered perceived risk, catalyzing broad willingness to try stablecoin initiatives and removing a key barrier for both crypto and traditional companies.
  • Quote (Zach, 46:39): “Purely like in people's ROI brain, it lowered the risk up front and increased the [reward]...it was like an official statement from the US government that stablecoins, you can try things now.”

Open Issuance: Proliferation of Custom Stablecoins

48:17–53:48

• Why Issue Your Own Stablecoin?
  Economic rationale—yield capture, platform independence, direct control. Early issuers include Phantom, MetaMask, HyperLiquid.

  • Quote (Zach, 48:24): “Everybody who's sitting on top of money they should issue a stablecoin.”
  • Quote (Zach, 49:56): “If it’s your stablecoin, you can guarantee that it will be available to you...you control all of the fundamental economics of it.”

• For Traditional Businesses:
  Even large treasuries (e.g. multinational corporations) can benefit by simplifying international transfers—tokenize treasury and move funds instantly.

  • Quote (Zach, 51:31): “Ultimately all corporate Treasuries will move into stablecoins.”

• Interoperability Vision:
  The future stablecoin landscape will look more like trivial bank transfers between institutions, with countless custom stablecoins interoperating behind the scenes.

  • Quote (Zach, 52:29): “Ultimately these stablecoins will recede into the background purely as infrastructure.”

M&A: Integrating Bridge and Privy into Stripe

53:51–66:51

• Founders’ Reflections:
  The mutual history, overlap, and logic of combining wallet and stablecoin infrastructure at Stripe for speed and scope.
  • Quote (Henri, 55:20): “In the next two years, we will either work together or we will compete very heavily. And it wasn't set as a threat. It was set as a pure statement of fact.”
• Acquisition Lessons:
  Value arises when two organizations actually combine their strengths—not just run independently post-acquisition.
  • Quote (Zach recounting Google’s advice, 63:56): “If you totally stay independent...one plus one equals maybe two but probably less than two...there is like this moment...where it becomes clear that the two need to come together to create that value.”

Stripe, Crypto, and the Future

66:51–73:56

• Integration Complexities:
  Realities of bringing rapidly scaling startups into Stripe’s structures—technology, CRM, and people.
  • Quote (John, 66:15): “What you have when you have an acquisition is you're at the hold on for dear life startup stage...oh and now we have to layer on a CRM migration…no one has more bandwidth.”
• Acquisition Decision Dynamics:
  Less cost-cutting, more about founder/team vision and supporting 10x opportunity in a new space.
  • Quote (John, 67:14): “For every acquisition there is some price that is too expensive...and a lot of it is about the founders and the team because what you're buying is not what already exists.”
• Vision for 2–3 Years:
  Mainstream adoption—wallets and stablecoins become invisible infrastructure, financial innovation accelerates, and Stripe becomes the “AWS of crypto rails.”
  • Quote (Henri, 68:40): “The amount of household names and stablecoins themselves become ubiquitous where they are just a part of the fabric of reality if you're interfacing with economic systems in the world.”
  • Quote (Zach, 70:49): “I feel like I am...constantly reminded of how early we are and how few applications have been built…what I'm most excited about is more and more of those teams coming and building on that application layer.”

Will Stablecoins Disappear Into the Background?

72:13–73:56

• Competing Visions:
  Will stablecoins become an everyday, invisible fabric (like cloud or solid-state storage), or remain a known brand/standard?
  • Quote (Henri, 72:13): “One question I have is whether they will in fact disappear...it's not just...a difference in degree. It is a difference in kind.”
  • Quote (Zach, 72:53): “I'm in the other camp...I think it will just experience recede into the background.”
  • Quote (John, 72:58): “Life got better...but we don't talk about Ajax anymore.”

Memorable Quotes & Moments

• “Tether is like a 0,100 hedge fund.”
  — Henri, 11:35
• “You open source your financial stack...and companies betting that the cumulative power of all the builders in the world is going to create a better application.”
  — Zach, 13:23
• “The meme is we want to bring on the next billion people. But I think a lot of people don’t mean it.”
  — Henri, 36:01
• “Ethereum, wild value creation...minimal value capture.”
  — Zach, 44:00
• “In five years time, we’ll check back in on whether people are still talking about stablecoins despite 100x the volume.”
  — John, 73:56

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:00 – 06:44: Origins & initial pivots of Bridge and Privy
• 06:44 – 10:09: Stablecoin use cases; cross-border payments, fintech adoption
• 13:23 – 16:04: Global open-sourcing of banking infrastructure
• 18:08 – 19:35: Regulatory impacts (MICA, GENIUS Act) and innovation
• 19:35 – 22:12: Tether’s dominance and market dynamics
• 25:09 – 29:07: Fintech global fragmentation and stablecoin opportunity
• 32:01 – 39:53: Blockchain infrastructure for payments — limitations and next-generation chains
• 46:03 – 48:17: Regulatory shifts and resulting adoption changes
• 48:17 – 53:48: Open issuance and the proliferation of stablecoins
• 53:51 – 66:51: Stripe M&A integration: rationale, lessons, and founder perspectives
• 66:51 – 73:56: The future of stablecoins, product roadmaps, and mainstreaming

Tone

• Candid, humorous, and occasionally self-deprecating (“No one plans to be disrupted by stablecoins, funnily enough.”)
• Visionary but grounded, with a focus on practical (sometimes unglamorous) infrastructure work and real customer traction rather than hype.
• Open and exploratory, frequently highlighting unknowns, open questions, and the deep “early-days” nature of stablecoin evolution.

Conclusion

This “Stablecoin Special” offers a rare blend of deep technical insight, hard-won market experience, and clear strategic vision from influencers at the frontier of commerce and crypto. The discussion’s through-line is that stablecoins are already transforming global financial infrastructure—just mostly out of sight. Regulations, new issuance strategies, fresh infrastructure, and Stripe’s strategic bets all point to a future where money, like software, becomes modular, programmable, and borderless.

Stay tuned—the conversation promises to look hilariously quaint in hindsight.