🎙 F-Squared Podcast #21 - The Operating System for Stablecoins: Beyond the Crypto Hype | Stone Atwine
Stone Atwine on Applying the Lessons of Mobile Money to Global Rails
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Why I Wanted to Have This Conversation:
For a builder like Stone Atwine, the value proposition of stablecoins can be traced to the pragmatic evolution of e-money. Having developed his fintech expertise within the Kenyan and Ugandan Mobile Money ecosystems, Stone views stablecoins as “global e-money”, a system that moves value across a blockchain ledger with the same intuitive speed as M-Pesa, but on open, borderless rails. This operator’s perspective has allowed him to cut through the noise; and think through how Stablecoins add value to Eversend, Stone has focused on where value is actually unlocked: increasing treasury velocity and removing the “correspondent banking toll booths” that have historically made African cross-border trade a multi-day, high-fee ordeal. For Eversend, they completely got off SWIFT. Stone nonetheless does not see Stablecoins as a blanket Panacea for every inefficiency in the stack.
The evolution of this ecosystem is not about displacing traditional finance, but re-engineering its plumbing. Stone anticipates a fundamental shift in issuance where the dominant players of today, like Tether and Circle, may eventually be challenged by global giants like JPMorgan and Citi. These banks are moving toward issuing their own stablecoins to capture the massive yield on reserves and offer institutional-grade settlement. For African Central Banks, the move away from rigid CBDCs toward local stablecoin mandates may be the more practical path, leveraging the mBridge interoperability framework to connect private ledgers without the “visibility anxiety” that often hampers government-run digital currencies.
🔑 Key Lessons for Fintech Builders
The “Level 4” Framework: Transition from internal matching or SWIFT-based treasury to Just-in-Time (JIT) Funding. This API-led approach allows you to fund payouts exactly when they are triggered, rather than leaving millions of dollars of capital sitting idle in fragmented bank accounts.
The Settlement Tension: Operators must weigh the speed of 30-minute rebalancing against the cost efficiencies of netting. Constant JIT settlement can be costlier due to frequent exchange fees; the “skill” is knowing when to net local collections and when to trigger stablecoin rails.
Evaluating the Stack: Choosing a custodial layer (like Fireblocks) and passing rigorous security audits (SOC 2, ISO 27001) are not just technical hurdles, they are the prerequisite “door openers” for selling infrastructure to Tier-1 banks. Also, banks need to understand what great Stablecoin infrastructure looks like.
Founder-Market Fit: Success in this space requires an intuitive understanding of “mobile value”. Stone argues that founders from mobile money markets have a structural advantage in building stablecoin products because they already understand the psychology of digital ledgers.
🧠 Strategic Takeaways
For Founders: Focus on global B2B use cases, like payroll for companies like Deel or Wise, where stablecoins solve the specific problem of funding payouts without needing a local collection footprint.
For Investors: The long-term winners will be the “Yield Capturers”. Look for companies building the infrastructure that allows banks to issue their own tokens and earn interest on their treasury reserves.
For Operators: Stablecoins are essentially a superior messaging and settlement layer. Don’t wait for a CBDC; look for partners who can help you pilot stablecoin settlement today to improve your capital efficiency.
🧾 If You Are Interested In...
How to build a centralized treasury that rebalances in 30 minutes.
The operational trade-offs between instant settlement and traditional netting.
The future of interoperable ledgers and the role of the BIS mBridge.
Then this episode is for you.