Stablecoin Payments as Compliant Money Movement
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Kevin Kang, co-founder of Reap, on stablecoin-native business models in fintech
It's more about communicating the right message and figuring out what the market actually needs and how we can do it within the framework of regulation.
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This shows that winning in stablecoin payments is less about shipping raw crypto features and more about turning a hard to trust rail into a product that regulators, banks, and business customers can actually use. Reap is building for markets where SWIFT is slow, dollar access is scarce, and local infrastructure is patchy, so the job is to package stablecoins as compliant money movement, not as a crypto product.
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Reap describes regulation as part of product design, not as a gate at the end. It builds a money movement toolbox, then iterates with regulators on what controls, disclosures, and workflow boundaries are needed before that capability can go live.
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The market need is concrete. In LATAM, Africa, and Southeast Asia, customers want USD like stability, cross border payouts, cards, and virtual accounts in places where global banks and providers like Stripe or Airwallex are harder to extend directly. Stablecoins solve the plumbing problem under the hood.
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That is the real contrast with Airwallex. Airwallex built a very large business by stitching together local bank rails and internal treasury networks for mainstream SMB cross border payments, while Reap is starting where those networks are weakest. Stripe buying Bridge in February 2025 reinforces that stablecoins are already useful when the corridor and product fit are right.
The next phase is a split market. Incumbents will keep adding stablecoins where they improve cost and speed in proven corridors, while companies like Reap will keep winning frontier use cases first, then move upmarket as regulation hardens and stablecoin rails start to look like normal payments infrastructure.