Bank-Licensed Stablecoins Power SMB Payments
Fernando Sandoval, co-founder of Kapital, on stablecoins for cross-border payments
Owning the banking license turns stablecoins from a regulatory risk into a distribution advantage. Kapital did not become a bank just for branding, it did it to control the core account, connect more directly to payment infrastructure, and show customers and regulators that its stablecoin flows sit inside a fully supervised institution. That matters because Kapital uses stablecoins less as a speculative product and more as a cheaper backend rail for vendor payments and a dollar treasury option for SMBs.
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The practical gain is infrastructure control. Before becoming a bank, Kapital relied on vendors for wires. After acquiring a Mexican bank license through Banco Autofin, it could connect more directly to central bank rails and operate from a stronger regulatory position, which makes it easier to plug stablecoin transfers into a bank account, card, lending, and treasury stack.
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This is the opposite of the common US fintech model. Mercury and Brex built large businesses through partner banks, while Kapital chose vertical integration in a market where trust, local permits, and direct access to payments infrastructure matter more. In Latin America, customers often still trust regulated banks more than standalone fintechs, so the charter itself helps adoption.
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Stablecoins fit Kapital's business because they solve two concrete SMB problems. One is holding dollar linked value in volatile local currency markets. The other is paying overseas suppliers faster and more cheaply inside Kapital Flex, where Kapital fronts the payment to a supplier and the SMB repays over time. A bank license helps wrap both use cases in a compliant operating account.
The likely next step is that stablecoins become less of a standalone crypto product and more of a bank feature. If regulation tightens, banks and bank like institutions with licenses, compliance teams, and direct customer relationships will be best placed to absorb stablecoin rails into ordinary business banking, especially for cross border treasury and supplier payments in Latin America.