![\"\"](\"/assets/media/2025/09/BenMilne-ValueDerivations-1.png?ssl=1\")
The last few months have felt like an unprecedented rate of change. I’m not entirely sure whether that’s because change itself has accelerated, or because awareness of change has.
\n\nChanges to X seem to have busted the closed content bubble. I’m seeing far more things I would not have chosen to look for, or was not previously paying attention to, and the exposure is somewhat off the charts.
\n\nWhat’s strange is how effective that is. Even if the content on X is different than it used to be, the brains of long-term users have already been trained to absorb information in a very specific format. When the content changes but the format does not, there is almost no context-switching cost.
\n\nA fancier writer would probably cite neuroplasticity, cognitive schemas, and learning acceleration. The simpler version is that standardization increases the rate at which we can learn. Changing formats is expensive. The brain has to reconfigure itself before it can absorb anything.
\n\nComputers are not so different. LLMs are not so different either. Deviate far enough from a shared schema or standard and you might as well be on an island, computationally, socially, financially, or otherwise.
\n\nI was playing around with isitagentready.com and orank.ai this weekend, and it pushed this into focus for me. Introducing new language or a new schema to non-curious people, or to people with very little time, is high risk. The same is true for LLMs that are optimizing ruthlessly for speed and pattern recognition.
\n\nThe language we use to educate computers about what is on a website, or inside a product, feels like it is changing meaningfully. For a long time, we have mostly been limited to SEO, Open Graph, and relatively minor schema updates. That no longer feels sufficient.
\n\nNew ideas spread faster when they arrive in familiar formats.
", "featured_image": null, "taxonomies": { "categories": [ "Uncategorized" ], "tags": [] } } }, { "post": { "id": 2, "type": "post", "title": "$100m to $1.", "author": "Ben Milne", "date": "2026-02-08T16:46:46+00:00", "modified": "2026-04-18T02:31:45+00:00", "url": "https://benmilne.com/100m-to-1", "summary": "The cost to create a stablecoin has dropped from $100 million to one dollar. Ben Milne joins Stellar’s Block by Block to discuss the innovations driving accessible stablecoin issuance.", "content": "I had the chance to join Denelle on Block by Block. Stellar created a fantastic opportunity for us to share more about the innovations unlocked by lowering the barrier to entry to creating stablecoins.
\n\nWhen the barrier was $100m, it was just too high for most companies. Now that it’s $1 a few minutes, all you need is a little know-how, and you’re off and running.
\n\nBrale changed how stablecoin issuance works, and one of the first blockchains to see that potential was Stellar. They supported us early and gave us the room to experiment without knowing exactly how things would play out.
\n\nStellar does ecosystem right.
", "featured_image": null, "taxonomies": { "categories": [ "Stablecoin Infrastructure" ], "tags": [] } } }, { "post": { "id": 3, "type": "post", "title": "The Physics of Money", "author": "Ben Milne", "date": "2026-02-06T03:33:01+00:00", "modified": "2026-02-23T06:16:11+00:00", "url": "https://benmilne.com/the-physics-of-money", "summary": "The physics of money is a framework for understanding how stablecoins move value across systems. Ben Milne explores cost reduction, speed, and programmability in digital dollar infrastructure.", "content": "Privately, I’ve been talking a lot about the physics of money at Brale for the last few years, but this is the first time I’ve had the opportunity to unpack the idea further on the record.
\n\nSo much has changed about stablecoins in the last 6 months. The cost to launch a Stablecoin has hit effectively zero. The cost to run transactions on-chain is now lower than the Fed master account fees per transaction. Protocols have eliminated bank hours, and everyone, everywhere, can build on demand.
\n\nThanks to the Stable Dash team for having me! They did a great job, and I’m excited to listen to Season 7 in its entirety.
", "featured_image": null, "taxonomies": { "categories": [ "Stablecoin Infrastructure" ], "tags": [] } } }, { "post": { "id": 4, "type": "post", "title": "Value Derivations", "author": "Ben Milne", "date": "2025-09-28T17:20:38+00:00", "modified": "2026-02-23T06:17:15+00:00", "url": "https://benmilne.com/value-derivations", "summary": "Value derivations describe the expansion of the internet’s payment stack. How new technical layers build on top of access, value types, and transfer types to move money.", "content": "I use a simple model when thinking about how value moves across the internet:
\n\nThese abstractions help map the mechanics. But I’ve been trying to find the word for years that describes the expansion of the current technical stack, and derivations feels like the right word. One of the unique benefits of Brale’s recent fundraise, is that it gave me the opportunity to talk a lot about this to people who challenged and help fine tune my thinking here.
\n\nThe ValueType / TransferType is also an anchor of the Brale API that simplifies all of this from a developer’s perspective – a train of thought that only took me ~20 years to arrive at. Sometimes things take time.
\n\nA derivation isn’t a new invention. It’s an evolution. A familiar idea re-emerges in a new technical or economic context, reshaped by what’s possible now.
\n\nThink about everyday payment systems. When they were created, we didn’t have the consumer internet and Merkle trees didn’t even exist yet. ACH was introduced in 1974. The first paper on Merkle trees wasn’t published until 1979. Their use as cryptographic structures, and their role in distributed networks, wasn’t even imagined.
\n\nFast forward: Merkle trees are now the backbone of blockchains, which are, in many ways, derivations of traditional settlement networks, just with different constraints, bandwidth, and trust assumptions. We no longer work in batch files. Bandwidth is effectively infinite.
\n\nThe financial system is full of these derivations. Most of today’s rails extend from the last generation’s infrastructure. But protocols and blockchains create room for grand derivations, ones that change the surface area of value movement entirely.
\n\nThere are three major derivations redefining the value layer today:
\n\nStablecoins like USDC and USDT are the new cash equivalents – accessible, digital, and programmable. In a previous iteration, ACH served as the off-ramp. Today, these tokens serve a similar role: they bridge apps, exchanges, and banks with liquidity that didn’t exist before.
\n\nThey are ValueTypes that function globally, instantly, and without banking hours. Tapping into the virtually limitless depth of stablecoin liquidity is much faster than in traditional markets. It’s even going a step further, where you have things like stablecoins able to tap into things like Bitcoin, which is, arguably, the deepest permissionless liquidity moat on the planet. $1T is an astounding amount of value to have the opportunity to program against.
These tiny, seemingly innocuous features and products represent seismic shifts in workflows.
\n\nBlockchains and interoperability layers (like LayerZero, Axelar, or even Solana itself) are TransferTypes. They aren’t just payment rails, they’re general-purpose routers, capable of moving assets, states, or instructions across economic systems for any purpose.
These are fundamentally new transfer mechanisms, but they borrow from legacy concepts: routing, clearing, finality. They just compress them into blocks, mempools, and consensus layers. Different compute, same idea.
\n\nEvery fiat currency and bank rail already fits into the model. They start offchain — through wires, SWIFT, ACH — and increasingly move onchain. Through tokenization and interop protocols, these assets now gain the advantages of protocols:
\n\nWe’re watching in real time as tokenized dollars, euros, and pesos become not just endpoints — but inputs into programmable, multi-network ecosystems.
\n\nWhen you accept these derivations, you start to see a simple model. Before:
App ➝ ACH ➝ App ➝ ACH ➝ App
Now: App ➝ Protocol ➝ App
![\"\"](\"/assets/media/2025/09/BenMilne-ValueDerivations-2.png?ssl=1\")
A transformation happens: Suddenly, value can move instantly and globally, mostly permissionless. It changes who can participate. It creates liquidity for projects that don’t have to ask permission. The barriers to experimentation fall away. ACH was a traditional bridge from one place to the other, stablecoins on a protocol end up being the great deviation. It turns into massive acceleration because everything is instant, global, and on.
\n\n![\"\"](\"/assets/media/2025/09/BenMilne-ValueDerivations-3.png?ssl=1\")
That’s how you get global acceleration. Computing concepts like RAM, ROM, Edge, Hard Drives, and otherwise are starting to play into these different value streams and to make it all better, everyday there is a new ecosystem with a new feature set. Value only sits when a specific system is chosen because of specific attributes or rules.
\n\nStablecoins and protocols don’t operate outside the system. They are step-function derivations of the last thing and they’re compatible with it. USD -> SBC -> USDC and right back in any variation you can dream up and go deploy works just fine.
\n\nToday, a stablecoin wallet can settle back into a bank account running on an FIS core. That’s not disruption. That’s interpolation. No cores get turned off as the bandwidth of money goes up. Everything keeps humming along.
\n\nIt looks like a bridge, but it isn’t. The marketing language in blockchain has always leaned on words like “bridge” or “on-ramp,” but those are metaphors of distance. What’s happening here is closer than that. It’s simply a move. It’s a transfer. Everything is a transfer.
\n\nWhen you move a file between folders on your computer, you don’t “bridge” the file. You just move it. There’s a log somewhere that records the move, and that’s how the computer knows where to show it. Stablecoins work the same way if designed well: a value packet is picked up in one context and placed in another. The metadata is what makes it legible.
\n\nIf history is our guide, the next 10, 20, 30 years will do to money what the last 30 did to publishing and commerce. Looking back a century makes the pattern obvious: the creation of the Fedwire clearing system in 1918, the arrival of the consumer internet in the 1990s, the rollout of digital bank cores in the 1980s and 2000s, the rise of mobile phones in the 2000s, Bitcoin in 2009, and stablecoins in 2014.
\n\nLooking forward a century, we’re probably still in the footnotes of the most important things to happen. But all the enabling multipliers and required derivations for step-function changes that will reshape the financial landscape are already in place. Everyone wants to believe it’s their company or project that makes it possible. Maybe it is. More likely, it’s many projects, many companies, and many generational winners.
\n\nIn the same way HTTP let anyone publish a webpage, stablecoins and protocols are letting anyone publish to the value layer, to create programmable, composable, stable economic interactions that reach anyone, anywhere. Global by default. Always on by default. Infinitely customizable for virtually free. The coming decades will bring more ecosystems, more blockchains, more stablecoins, more websites, more devices, faster networks, and so much more.
\n\nDerivations matter less individually than in constellation. Together, they compound. That’s why the future isn’t coming, it’s already here. Our job is simply to build on it.
\n\nI remind myself everyday our job at Brale is to help others build with these new tools. To reduce friction, increase liquidity, get new ecosystems and new products to market faster so they can leverage the most powerful derivations of our generation.
", "featured_image": null, "taxonomies": { "categories": [ "Payment Systems" ], "tags": [] } } }, { "post": { "id": 5, "type": "post", "title": "Pace", "author": "Ben Milne", "date": "2025-08-28T01:47:55+00:00", "modified": "2026-02-23T06:17:23+00:00", "url": "https://benmilne.com/pace", "summary": "Pace is easily confused with haste or purposelessness. Reflections on what the speed of building reveals about purpose, discipline, and the craft of company building.", "content": "The speed at which we move says a lot. In the modern moment, it’s hard to ascertain.
\n\nIt’s easy to confuse pace with haste, with taste, with purpose, or the absence of it. It’s just as easy to dismiss a hasty pace as purposeless. We can say anything about pace. You can just say anything at all. Sometimes it’s true, sometimes it isn’t.
\n\nPace is an inside-out thing, yet it’s judged outside-in. It’s often invisible, but always present in how we think, work, love, and tinker. A pace with taste is hard to miss.
\n\nLike a heartbeat, pace is variable. It doesn’t define who we are, but it does define whether we’re alive or not. Starkly objective until the moment it becomes strictly defining.
\n\nThe pace can make you. The pace can break you. Either way, it’s the pace.
\n\nThese are just words about a pace.
\n\nOne foot in front of the other.
\n\nI’m just saying things.
", "featured_image": null, "taxonomies": { "categories": [ "Company Building" ], "tags": [] } } }, { "post": { "id": 6, "type": "post", "title": "New Brale Stablecoin API", "author": "Ben Milne", "date": "2025-06-24T21:38:20+00:00", "modified": "2026-02-23T06:16:27+00:00", "url": "https://benmilne.com/new-brale-apis", "summary": "Brale shipped a redesigned stablecoin API, built through a design cohort in Q1 and moved to production with real customers. A record of how the API came together.", "content": "Brale recently shipped an updated version of the stablecoin APIs. The project started with a design cohort in Q1, moved into development in Q2, and ended up in production with real customers shortly after.
\n\nThere’s a lot the API does. This post isn’t a breakdown of all that functionality. It’s just a record of how I’ve been testing things mostly for fun, and partially to understand how others might approach using it for the first time.
\n\nThe last time I was working on something like this, large language models weren’t really part of the workflow. That’s changed. With Cursor and some decent prompting, it’s now easy to throw together working prototypes and test assumptions in real time.
\n\nI still like using Postman to explore APIs, but I wanted to see what it felt like to use the Brale API inside something a little closer to a real interface.
\n\nI started with a basic authentication flow—using a client_id and client_secret to get a bearer token. Nothing fancy. Just enough to prove the credentials worked and were scoped properly.
That small test lives here: github.com/superduperdot/auth-app
This turned out to be a little more involved. The Brale API supports multiple value types (each representing a distinct asset) and multiple transfer types (each representing a chain or network). So the process to retrieve balances went like this:
\n\nThat app is here: github.com/superduperdot/balance-app
\n\nThe TransferTypes are well documented. The ValueTypes aren’t exposed directly in the docs yet, so I pulled them from the live application and dropped both lists in GitHub for future reference:
\n\nGetting pricing from the data endpoint also worked well.
\n\nNothing here is final. These tests were mostly about speed and usability. The goal was to see how quickly you can go from credentials to something real, without relying on internal tooling or deep knowledge of the platform.
\n\nIf you’re exploring the Brale API, maybe this shortens the path. If not, it was still worth the time to see how the new layer behaves in the wild. The CLI can be helpful kicking the tires too.
", "featured_image": null, "taxonomies": { "categories": [ "Stablecoin Infrastructure" ], "tags": [] } } }, { "post": { "id": 7, "type": "post", "title": "One of one", "author": "Ben Milne", "date": "2025-06-01T15:20:07+00:00", "modified": "2026-02-23T06:17:29+00:00", "url": "https://benmilne.com/one-of-one", "summary": "Most things in a world optimized for scale are copies. But some opportunities, teams, and moments are one of one. On recognizing what cannot be replicated.", "content": "There’s a recurring idea that surfaces in work and life:
\n\n“I can always do it again.”
\n\n“I can always find another opportunity.”
“I can always move.”
“There’s always another one.”
And most of the time, that’s true.
\n\nIn a world optimized for scale, most things are copies. Versions of versions. You start to recognize patterns. A pitch sounds familiar. A product looks like a slightly better version of something you’ve already seen. There are differences, sure, but at the core, most things repeat.
\n\nBecause humans are mimetic, you can see these companies and ideas play out in almost identical ways with slightly different branding. We fall easily into sameness. That’s why you can walk through the world and see so much of the same. Branding becomes important in so many products because under the hood the product is the virtually the same as the last thing.
Not always, but often.
But every once in a while, something cuts through that repetition. It’s not just rare. It’s not just better. It’s not just new.
\n\nIt’s one of one.
\n\nOne of one might not be better but it probably is very unique. If it is better because it is unique, and in ways that are not trivial, that’s a powerful combination. Those types of things happened because of the right combination of timing, people, energy, and something else you can’t explain. A spark. The right team. The right culture. The right moment. Sometimes you don’t even know why, you just know you’re in its presence. It’s a strange intangible thing you feel more than see. It’s also easily dismissed because generally, so few people get to experience it, so few of us knows what it looks like when it’s happening. Depending on where you grew up, it’s also even potentially something social circles do not view its presence as even possible. They arrive as narrative violations dismissible because the pattern is a deviation.
\n\nI’ve come to admire the people who know how to recognize that. It is certainly a trait I’d hope to mimic.
\n\nThere are people who have developed a kind of taste, not for what’s popular or well-packaged, but for what’s real and truly unique. They don’t chase everything. They’re not trying to be everywhere. They wait for what matters. And when it shows up, they commit. Fully.
\n\nOver the holidays, Jami made a piece of art for a friend. She told me it was one of the few pieces she’s done that will never be repeated. No copy. No signature. It exists once and only once. For some reason, that hit me while I was sitting in the living room staring at it, waiting to take it to its new home.
\n\nMost opportunities in life are replaceable. That’s not a bad thing. It gives us the freedom to try, to fail, to move on.
\n\nBut some things aren’t. Some people, some companies, some moments… Are not just another version of something else.
\n\nThey’re the version.
\n\nThe only one.
", "featured_image": null, "taxonomies": { "categories": [ "Company Building" ], "tags": [] } } }, { "post": { "id": 8, "type": "post", "title": "Better Funds Flows", "author": "Ben Milne", "date": "2025-04-13T14:22:05+00:00", "modified": "2026-02-23T06:16:19+00:00", "url": "https://benmilne.com/better-funds-flows", "summary": "As stablecoins embed into more payment systems, funds flows need to be standardized. A practical look at mapping and simplifying how money moves through fintech infrastructure.", "content": "Fund flows are kind of a pain. Everyone does them, everyone does them differently, and even if you are doing them you probably change your format all the time.
\n\nAs stablecoins are getting embedded more and more into everything, I feel like I’m doing a funds flow or 2 a day. When a Fintech pops up and wants a funds flow all they really want is this diagram. Something like this if they are adding stablecoins as a option for making global payouts:
\n\nsequenceDiagram\n title: Funds Flow (Medium, CSF v1.4.5) – USD to USDC with Exchange (Modern Treasury + Brale)\n participant Business as Modern Treasury Customer\n participant MT as Modern Treasury (Instructions Only)\n participant Brale as Brale (Exchange & Settlement)\n participant Solana as Solana Blockchain\n participant Recipient as Recipient Wallet\n\n Business-->>MT: [DATA] Instruction: Pay $1,000 to Recipient (USD)\n MT-->>Brale: [DATA] Instruction Forwarded\n Brale->>Brale: [EXCHANGE] USD to USDC\n Brale->>Solana: Transfer USDC Solana $1,000\n Solana->>Recipient: Confirm Receipt
We came up with a framework to use at Brale, and it’s turned out to be quite useful. It’s called the Commons Stablecoin Format, and it’s simply a set of rules to give a LLM so it doesn’t have to think about what format to use. We paste the CSF JSON into GPT and prompt it with something like: ‘Create a funds flow for a USD wire input converting to USDC on Solana.’ It follows the format every time.
\n\nAll funds flows are generated using Mermaid, which is super light and fast. You can see me generating a funds flow here:
Funds flows just show how things fit together — but everyone has their own mental model, which usually leads to yet another custom format, so the Brale team came up with a standard we could plug into any LLM to help us quickly knock out stablecoin funds flows. In working on our new stablecoin API, this has helped in countless conversations.
\n\nWe quickly realized this was kind of a superpower and baked in some of the standards (that are, to be fair, very brale centric) into the Commons Stablecoin Format, which is designed to be a standard set of rules for generating funds flows, like the one above. Here is the full set.
From there, the standard kicks out mermaid diagrams about as fast as you can copy and paste them. Which is great, because it means you don’t need to spend 10 years in a fintech, bank, or whatever to start having a decent funds flow. You can also typically take screenshots of other funds flows and ask your favorite LLM to kick one out in the CSF format, which it’s actually quite good at.
There are a few very basic things here that make the funds flow a bit easier to read built off the value layer concepts (1,2).
\n\nI’ve written a lot about that idea in the past but no one really put it to work in product until the last iteration of Brale API updates. The standard has been pulled into the CSF where transfers always show ValueType, TransferType, Amount. I.e. SBC Base 100, or USDC Ethereum 100, or USD Wire 100.
\n\nLike a schematic, it’s just much easier to read when it’s consistent in its labeling.
\n\nVarying levels of detail in the standard:
\n\nGetting Things Started
\n\nWhether it’s an bank-funded stablecoin issuance or an on-chain settlement across multiple blockchains, CSF enables better understanding. Here is another prompt for a offchain transfer, funding a onchain distribution in stablecoins:
\n\n\"A third-party fintech initiates an offchain USD transfer to fund an onchain stablecoin distribution (e.g., USDC on Solana) to a recipient wallet.\"sequenceDiagram\n title: Funds Flow (Medium, CSF v1.4.5) – Third-Party Fintech USD to USDC Distribution\n participant Business as Fintech Customer\n participant Fintech as Fintech Platform (Instructions Only)\n participant Exchange as Stablecoin Issuer / Settlement Platform\n participant Solana as Solana Blockchain\n participant Recipient as Recipient Wallet\n\n Business-->>Fintech: [DATA] Instruction: Pay $5,000 to Recipient (USD)\n Fintech-->>Exchange: [DATA] Instruction Forwarded\n Business->>Exchange: Transfer USD Wire $5,000\n Exchange->>Exchange: [EXCHANGE] USD to USDC\n Exchange->>Solana: Transfer USDC Solana $5,000\n Solana->>Recipient: Confirm Receipt
and another one where it’s the reverse, onchain going offchain.
\n\nsequenceDiagram\n title: Funds Flow (Medium, CSF v1.4.5) – Onchain USDC Funding to Offchain USD Wire Distribution\n participant Business as Customer Wallet\n participant Fintech as Fintech Platform (Instructions + Compliance)\n participant Exchange as Stablecoin Platform / Settlement Partner\n participant Bank as Bank Network\n participant Recipient as Recipient Bank Account\n\n Business->>Exchange: Transfer USDC Solana $5,000\n Exchange-->>Fintech: [DATA] Receipt Confirmation + Payout Instruction\n Fintech-->>Exchange: [DATA] Instruction: Convert & Wire USD\n Exchange->>Exchange: [EXCHANGE] USDC to USD\n Exchange->>Bank: Transfer USD Wire $5,000\n Bank->>Recipient: Confirm Receipt
The framework is open-source and available for adoption and contribution on GitHub. It’s already something I use everyday at Brale and we hope it saves your teams some time.
\n\nYou can find the CSF spec and example prompts on GitHub — feel free to fork it, use it, or contribute.
\n\n", "featured_image": null, "taxonomies": { "categories": [ "Payment Systems" ], "tags": [] } } }, { "post": { "id": 9, "type": "post", "title": "Navigating GENIUS", "author": "Ben Milne", "date": "2025-02-22T15:30:58+00:00", "modified": "2026-02-23T06:15:41+00:00", "url": "https://benmilne.com/navigating-the-genius", "summary": "A breakdown of the GENIUS Act stablecoin regulation, what it proposes for issuers, and how federal rules could reshape payment infrastructure in the US.", "content": "There’s been a lot of noise in D.C. lately around stablecoin regulation, and some of it actually seems productive. The Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act is making its way through legislative circles, and while the name is an obvious PR move, the bill itself is worth paying attention to. I know it has a lot of my friends and colleagues talking. It’s also an evolution, in my opinion, of multiple stablecoin-related legislative efforts over the past few years.
\n\nIf you’re working in stablecoins, payments, or financial infrastructure, this is one of those moments that could define the future of how digital dollars move. The key question is: does the GENIUS Act create a clearer, more usable regulatory framework—or is it just another half-step in an already complicated regulatory maze?
\n\nMost people know I think the U.S. already has a functional regulatory framework for stablecoins—it’s just hard and expensive. This bill could be a major boon to the industry simply because it makes a few things more clear.
\n\nWhat the GENIUS Act Does
\n\nAt a high level, the GENIUS Act aims to formalize a national stablecoin regulatory framework by defining how issuers are regulated. The bill separates issuers into two broad categories:
\n\nThe bill’s threshold is $10b between state and federal oversight, which is rational. Credit Unions continue to be unique, with one body (NCUA) overseeing them. Credit Unions are commonly left out of the standard narrative, but they play an essential role in the ecosystem. In that same vein, we could also include narrow banks, special purpose banks, thrifts, or the nuances of industrial charters in here, but that gets to be a lot.
\n\nThis dual approach acknowledges how stablecoins have already evolved and, to its credit, builds on existing U.S. financial innovation alongside existing bank regulation. It also defines how reserves must be held. Personally, I think permissible investments already make this clear, but the bill removes any ambiguity. It also limits the ability for bad actors to argue loopholes, which is a good thing.
\n\nToday, some firms are heavily regulated, holding 1:1 reserves in cash and T-bills. Others operate in fragmented regulatory environments, use weird reserve designs, or—frankly—have no reserves at all. Some attempt algorithmic approaches that just aren’t boring enough to work in traditional finance.
\n\nThe GENIUS Act aims to create a uniform system where issuers aren’t shut out, but the rules are clear. I fail to see a problem with that.
\n\nWhat the bill doesn’t do is solve the global competitive landscape problem. The U.S. is still lagging behind Singapore, Hong Kong, and the EU, where stablecoin rules are clearer. And it doesn’t fully address decentralized stablecoins, which sit outside the traditional issuer model. It kicks the can down the road a bit—but maybe that’s not a bad thing.
\n\nWhat This Means for Stablecoin Issuers
\n\nIf this passes, here’s what changes:
\n\nThe Federal Reserve itself is acknowledging the role of stablecoins in global finance. Governor Waller put it plainly:
\n\n\n\n\nA second stablecoin use case is providing a means to access and hold U.S. dollars. Today, around 99 percent of stablecoin market capitalization is denominated in U.S. dollars, and the vast majority of digital asset trades are priced in U.S. dollars. This is no surprise given the primacy of the U.S. dollar in global finance and trade, and I believe that stablecoins have the potential to maintain and extend the role of the dollar internationally. U.S. dollar stablecoins could be particularly appealing to those in high inflation countries or to those without easy or affordable access to dollar cash or banking services.
\n
The importance of this statement being live on the Federal Reserve’s website, on the record and in support of this technology can not be understated.
\n\nDefinitions Are The Bigger Picture
\n\nFor stablecoin issuers and financial infrastructure providers, the GENIUS Act is a conversation worth following closely. If it creates real regulatory clarity, it would be a net positive—reducing uncertainty and encouraging broader adoption, particularly from regulated entities who could finally adopt stablecoin & protocols at a scale unthinkable by today’s DeFi market measures.
\n\nThe fact of the matter is that if a SIFI (systemically important financial institution) has to wonder what the Federal Reserve thinks or how their regulator will react to a new technology, they will never use it. If those same technologies are being encouraged by their regulator and well understood, it enables most of the world’s money that isn’t taking advantage of digital assets and protocols yet to take advantage. It means a world where protocols can truly reach their potential.
\n\nThere’s still a lot that could change, but this feels like an exciting time to be building.
\n\nTiming is hard, but you can kind of feel it when the timing is right.
\n\nAcknowledgements
\n\nSpecial thanks Nick Cavet, Theo Fifeski, and Dave Ackerman from the V-Sum community for giving me feedback on this post. Also to Aaron Frank & Ayo Omojola at A Very Stable Conference for the invite.
", "featured_image": null, "taxonomies": { "categories": [ "Financial Regulation" ], "tags": [ "bitcoin", "blockchain", "Brale", "finance", "stablecoin" ] } } }, { "post": { "id": 10, "type": "post", "title": "Stablecoin demos", "author": "Ben Milne", "date": "2025-02-08T13:58:01+00:00", "modified": "2026-02-23T06:17:36+00:00", "url": "https://benmilne.com/stablecoin-demos", "summary": "Live stablecoin demos from Brale’s first Day Zero conference. Builders demonstrate real stablecoin issuance infrastructure across practical use cases.", "content": "My life these days seems to be all stablecoins all the time. Brale’s first Day Zero conference kicked off this week, which really just focuses on creating some gravitational pull to bring builders together. The structure is undeniably v-sum influenced and you can even see that in the demos I’ll post below.
\n\nEach one is excellent for various reasons. Perena – for example, could an incredible solution for new stablecoin programs. A meaningful challenge for new stablecoins is the two-sided liquidity that needs to be seeded to make them functional in much of the market. Perena might just reduce that challenge by 50%.
\n\nAnother challenge facing new stablecoin programs is creating an influx of actual usage. Coinflow has solved the entire workflow. If you’re a merchant, you can self-direct to get paid faster than a traditional merchant account with stablecoins—even your stablecoin.
\n\nBrale totally transformed the process of creating a stablecoin from a fraught and insane challenge to something that just takes a few minutes. Chase does a nice job of laying the groundwork here on 12+ chains. To be clear, he did create a real stablecoin, and I’d bet Day Zero ends up using it to help educate folks on how to solve various challenges of creating new stablecoins.
\n\nWe named the conference series Day Zero because anything is possible on Day Zero. These solutions were impossible just a few years ago, and now businesses can use them as part of their company’s everyday workflows.
\n\nIt’s not like I needed more reasons to be over the moon about the future, but it’s nice to have a few more. If you’re interested in joining us at Day Zero, please apply. After a brief interview process, it’s free for everyone who participates.
", "featured_image": null, "taxonomies": { "categories": [ "Stablecoin Infrastructure" ], "tags": [ "blockchain", "Brale", "stablecoin" ] } } } ], "total_posts": 67, "total_pages": 7, "current_page": 1, "per_page": 10 } }