Rain's noncustodial stablecoin card
Farooq Malik and Charles Naut, co-founders of Rain, on stablecoin-backed credit cards
The real wedge was not better card software, it was basic financial access for crypto businesses that could hold plenty of money on-chain but still could not reliably plug into the normal banking system. Rain saw teams with large treasuries that still struggled with checking accounts, vendor payments, and card spend, then built around that gap with a noncustodial, asset backed credit card that lets stablecoin balances act like working capital.
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The pain was operational, not theoretical. These teams needed to buy laptops, pay AWS, cover payroll, and reimburse employees, but many had revenue and treasury sitting in wallets or custodians instead of in a bank account that could plug into ACH, wires, and cards.
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That is why Rain started with expense management instead of payroll or bill pay. Corporate spend is the fastest way to turn on day to day utility for on-chain dollars, and unlike Brex or Ramp at the time, Rain was built for companies that might not have a normal bank account at all.
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The 2023 failures of Silvergate, SVB, and Signature made the gap more obvious by shrinking the list of banks willing to serve crypto linked businesses. Only later did incumbents like Brex move into stablecoin payments, after Rain had already built around the debanking problem from the start.
The next phase is broader financial plumbing, not just cards. As more businesses keep part of treasury in stablecoins and expect instant movement between wallets, cards, ACH, and local payouts, the winner will be the company that makes digital dollars usable everywhere a finance team already spends and reconciles money.