Kapital's stablecoin cross-border financing
Fernando Sandoval, co-founder of Kapital, on stablecoins for cross-border payments
This turns Kapital Flex from a local working capital product into a cross border trade tool. Instead of only advancing cash against long receivables, Kapital can sit in the middle of an import transaction, pay an overseas supplier right away, and let the SMB repay from future sales. That makes the product useful at the exact moment inventory is purchased, which is when cash pressure is usually highest for LatAm merchants.
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The workflow is concrete. A Mexican or Colombian SMB orders goods from a Chinese supplier, Kapital pays the supplier upfront, then collects back from the SMB in installments. Stablecoins are the settlement rail on the back end, so the financing product and the international payment happen in one flow.
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That matters because the old alternative is expensive and slow. Kapital describes stablecoin transfers settling in minutes and costing about $0.0037 per transaction, versus roughly $50 for a wire plus 1% to 3% FX fees. Using crypto on the rail lets Kapital save the margin for the credit product instead of losing it to correspondent banks.
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The closest comparison is Ramp Flex, but the role is different. In the U.S., Ramp uses Flex mainly to deepen software engagement. In LatAm, Flex is a core monetization engine and a much bigger painkiller because SMBs face longer payment terms, weaker banking access, and more volatile currencies. That helped push Kapital payment volume to $8.4B in 2024, up from $2.1B in 2023.
The next step is for cross border procurement, treasury, cards, and bill pay to merge into one operating account for LatAm SMBs. If Kapital keeps bundling financing with faster international settlement, it can become the default system businesses use not just to move money, but to buy inventory, manage cash timing, and hedge currency risk in the same place.