Presented by Stablecon; Powered by BVNK.

In this episode of Money Code, host Chuk Okpalugo sits down with Irina Chuchkina, Chief Growth Officer at Wallet in Telegram, the only wallet natively integrated into a billion-user messenger, and a 20-year payments veteran who launched GrabPay across eight countries in Southeast Asia.

They unpack why "distribution is an outcome, not a strategy" when scaling crypto products globally, how running custodial and self-custodial wallets simultaneously works as a coverage strategy for 150 million users, and why the winner of the stablecoin race won't be the next issuer but the infrastructure that makes hundreds of national stablecoins interoperable.

Subscribe and listen to the Money Code podcast here:

https://lnk.to/MoneyCodeSN

Chapters

00:00 Why distribution is an outcome, not a strategy

03:44 Connecting the dots: a user in Thailand and a user in Mexico

05:30 Telegram isn't a messenger, it's an economy

10:31 "People wake up with it and go to bed with it"

13:54 From simple bot to financial platform: tokenized stocks from $1

21:38 Maslow's hierarchy of financial needs

24:35 Two wallets, one app: custodial vs. self-custodial as a go-to-market decision

30:10 The Gift Fest playbook: 2M daily players, 1M new wallet users

33:38 Tether partnerships and watching what Binance does

38:44 Non-USD stablecoins: "every country will have a national stablecoin"

41:24 The real winner won't be an issuer

43:38 Where to find Irina and Wallet in Telegram

Connect with the Hosts & Guest

Chuk Okpalugo: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuk-okpalugo/ | https://x.com/chukxyz/ | http://stablecoinblueprint.com

Raj Parekh: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajparekh7/ | https://x.com/rajparekh | http://monad.xyz

Irina Chuchkina: https://www.linkedin.com/in/irinachuchkina/ | https://x.com/pogodasuper | https://x.com/wallettg

About Stablecon

Stablecon (https://stablecon.com/) is the premier gathering for those at the intersection of DeFi, economic policy, financial infrastructure, and institutional integration, and those reinventing global commerce. By convening the brightest minds in fintech and crypto, Stablecon provides attendees with world class thought leadership and fosters unparalleled networking and strategic collaboration across the digital payments industry. Whether you're building, advising, or navigating this new frontier, this is the room where it happens.

About BVNK

BVNK is the leading provider of stablecoin payments infrastructure, helping businesses move money faster, settle globally, and even launch their own stablecoin products. Head to https://bvnk.com/ to learn more.

Presented by Stablecon; Powered by BVNK.

In this episode of Money Code, host Chuk Okpalugo sits down with Kirill Gertman, co-founder and CEO of Conduit, the cross-border payments orchestrator building stablecoin infrastructure across Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia.

They unpack why the stablecoin sandwich is actually a "spaghetti-filled taco" — where chain selection, local rail access, and geography-specific liquidity make cross-border payments far messier than the narrative suggests — how non-USD stablecoins only work when "designed to move, not to hold," and why the winners won't be banks or crypto companies alone, but the T-shaped players who specialize deeply and stay open to everyone else.

Subscribe and listen to the Money Code podcast here:

https://lnk.to/MoneyCodeSN

Chapters

00:00 The stablecoin sandwich is actually a spaghetti-filled taco

03:21 "Within 10 years, vast majority of cross-border will be blockchain-based"

08:58 What Conduit actually does: orchestration across LatAm, Africa, and SE Asia

12:05 Bottom-up adoption: individuals hedging, then SMEs, then enterprise

18:52 The K-shaped market: enterprise buyers on one end, vibe coders on the other

20:26 "The UI is super nice… but the money doesn't move": compliance as the real bottleneck

27:28 Three unsolved problems: trade finance, identity, and AI deepfake fraud

37:20 Why a stablecoin skeptic changed his mind on non-USD stablecoins

42:00 The BBRL walkthrough: fiat → mint → on-chain swap → off-ramp in seconds

49:12 Don't build your own chain: why banks should be T-shaped, not vertically integrated

Connect with the Hosts & Guest

Chuk Okpalugo: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuk-okpalugo/ | https://x.com/chukxyz/ | http://stablecoinblueprint.com

Raj Parekh: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajparekh7/ | https://x.com/rajparekh | http://monad.xyz

Kirill Gertman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirillgertman/ | https://x.com/kirillgertman | https://conduitpay.com

About Stablecon

Stablecon (https://stablecon.com/) is the premier gathering for those at the intersection of DeFi, economic policy, financial infrastructure, and institutional integration, and those reinventing global commerce. By convening the brightest minds in fintech and crypto, Stablecon provides attendees with world class thought leadership and fosters unparalleled networking and strategic collaboration across the digital payments industry. Whether you're building, advising, or navigating this new frontier, this is the room where it happens.

About BVNK

BVNK is the leading provider of stablecoin payments infrastructure, helping businesses move money faster, settle globally, and even launch their own stablecoin products. Head to https://bvnk.com/ to learn more.

Presented by Stablecon; Powered by BVNK.

In this episode of Money Code, hosts Chuk Okpalugo and Raj Parekh sit down with Davi Strazza, Chief Business Officer at Lightspark, an 11-year Adyen veteran who helped grow the company from $30B to over $1.3T in payments volume before joining a 50-person startup building on Bitcoin rails.

They unpack why Davi believes the moment to rebuild payments infrastructure from first principles is now, how Lightspark uses Bitcoin as an invisible transport layer to move money across 65 countries, and why crypto will never reach the scale it deserves unless it becomes as easy as tapping a card.

Subscribe and listen to the Money Code podcast here:

https://lnk.to/MoneyCodeSN

Chapters

00:00 Why leave $1.3T in payments for a 50-person startup?

02:44 Three problem spaces, one infrastructure play

05:55 The Bitcoin sandwich: fiat in, crypto transport, fiat out

09:41 "Bitcoin is volatile" — why sub-second settlement changes the math

12:39 The import-exporter who flies cash on planes

17:02 B2B is the bigger prize: treasury, payroll, creator payouts

21:39 "The plumbing is necessary — it's just not sufficient"

26:47 Are we innovating in the right place?

30:38 Adyen lessons: education is the go-to-market bottleneck

34:35 The Frankenstein problem: why global expansion is cultural

38:37 Agentic payments: infrastructure is ahead of product

44:40 Fintech is 1% built — where does all the money go?

Connect with the Hosts & Guest

Chuk Okpalugo: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuk-okpalugo/ | https://x.com/chuk_xyz/ | http://stablecoinblueprint.com

Raj Parekh: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajparekh7/ | https://x.com/rajparekh | http://monad.xyz

Davi Strazza: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davistrazza/ | https://x.com/davistrazza

About Stablecon

Stablecon (https://stablecon.com/) is the premier gathering for those at the intersection of DeFi, economic policy, financial infrastructure, and institutional integration, and those reinventing global commerce. By convening the brightest minds in fintech and crypto, Stablecon provides attendees with world class thought leadership and fosters unparalleled networking and strategic collaboration across the digital payments industry. Whether you're building, advising, or navigating this new frontier, this is the room where it happens.

About BVNK

BVNK is the leading provider of stablecoin payments infrastructure, helping businesses move money faster, settle globally, and even launch their own stablecoin products. Head to https://bvnk.com/ to learn more.