logo
episode-header-image
Aug 19
57m 11s

The New Rails of Money: Stablecoins, CBD...

Arjun Singh
About this episode

Stablecoins are no longer on the sidelines — they’re stepping into the core of global finance.

In this episode of Couchonomics with Arjun, we're joined by Dante Disparte, Chief Strategy Officer & Head of Global Policy at Circle, for his second appearance on the show. Speaking from Washington, DC, Dante brings a timely perspective on how digital finance is evolving — and why it matters now more than ever.

We unpack:
- Stablecoins as real financial infrastructure for payments, remittances, and cross-border flows
- How smart regulation acts as a catalyst for trust, adoption, and institutional capital
- CBDCs and tokenisation — separating hype from substance, and where they’ll truly reshape markets and inclusion
- Why MENA is emerging as a global hub for digital assets, with the UAE leading from the front

If you want to understand how money itself is being rebuilt — not just the apps we use, but the foundations beneath the system — this conversation with Dante is essential listening.

🎧 Watch and listen now on YouTube, Spotify & Apple Podcasts.

Couchonomics with Arjun Season 04 is brought to you by our partners:
Adyen https://www.adyen.com/
Thunes https://thunes.com/
Mastercard https://mastercard.com/
E& https://www.eand.com/
Digit9 https://www.digitnine.com/
SC Ventures https://scventures.io/
Hala https://hala.com/

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction to Digital Assets and Policy
00:54 Welcoming the Guest: Dante Disparte
02:35 Stablecoins: Current State and Future Prospects
03:05 Regulatory Changes and Their Impact
06:21 Exploring Use Cases for Digital Assets
16:29 The Role of Banks and Stablecoins
24:46 Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs)
28:15 The Genius Act: Opportunities and Risks
29:59 The Resilience of Digital Assets
30:37 The Genius Act: A Legislative Proposal
31:20 Stablecoins and Market Stability
31:55 The Role of Stablecoins in the Banking System
32:54 Guardrails and Systemic Risk
33:45 Tokenized Treasuries vs. Stablecoins
35:48 Concerns About Tether
38:05 The Genius Act and Global Regulatory Harmonization
40:41 Corporate Stablecoins and Market Adoption
49:00 Circle's IPO and Long-Term Vision
53:03 Circle Payment Network (CPN) and Financial Inclusion

Our website 👉 https://bit.ly/3jk7UH0

Find us on our social media platforms:

Subscribe to Arjun's LinkedIn newsletter, Couchonomics Crunch: https://bit.ly/3WI4A6E

Up next
Oct 7
The Future of Wealth: AI, Trust & the Great $80 Trillion Shift
Over $80 trillion in global wealth is moving to a younger, more digital generation. But who will manage it—and how will AI, trust, and technology reshape investing?In this episode of Couchonomics with Arjun, Caesar Sengupta, Co-Founder and CEO of Arta Finance (backed by Eric Schm ... Show More
51m 26s
Sep 30
Latin America’s Fintech Giant: The Rise of PicPay with 60M Users
Episode 150 of Couchonomics with Arjun is here — and it’s a milestone.For the very first time, we go to Latin America. My guest: Eduardo Chedid, CEO of PicPay — Brazil’s biggest super app and one of the fastest-scaling fintechs in the world.With 60M+ customers, $1B+ in revenues, ... Show More
54m 56s
Sep 23
From Crowdfunded Startup to Europe’s Fastest-Growing Wealth Platform
Turning Savings into Wealth — Inside Chip’s Fintech Playbook UK fintech is entering a new chapter. While funding slows, savers poured £103bn into ISAs — proving that trust, not downloads, is the real currency.In this episode, Arjun speaks with Alex Latham, Co-Founder & CMO of Chi ... Show More
57m 10s
Recommended Episodes
Jan 2025
Empowering SMEs Through FinTech: Lessons from Beehive's Marketing Lead
💡 What’s inside this episode?Milda's career evolution: From creative to corporateThe unique challenges of FinTech marketingHow Beehive empowers SMEs with fast, accessible fundingStrategies to simplify complex financial conceptsEmerging trends like AI and its role in the future o ... Show More
54m 13s
Jun 2025
From ChatGPT to Instagram to Uber: The quiet architect behind the world’s most popular products | Peter Deng
Peter Deng has led product teams at OpenAI, Instagram, Uber, Facebook, Airtable, and Oculus and helped build products used by billions—including Facebook’s News Feed, the standalone Messenger app, Instagram filters, Uber Reserve, ChatGPT, and more. Currently he’s investing in ear ... Show More
1h 55m
Jul 31
984. Insights: Are financial services still failing small businesses?
About this episode: Small and medium-sized businesses -or SMEs - are the backbone of the global economy. But despite their vital role in the financial ecosystem, they’re still too often overlooked and underserved. This week, we’re putting SMEs back in the spotlight - and for good ... Show More
49m 56s
Nov 2024
Building Wiz: the fastest-growing startup in history | Raaz Herzberg (CMO and VP Product Strategy)
Raaz Herzberg is the chief marketing officer and VP of product strategy at Wiz. Wiz hit $100 million ARR within 18 months (the fastest growth in startup history) and, five years in, is generating over $500 million ARR. It also serves over 45% of the Fortune 100. Raaz was one of t ... Show More
1h 5m
Mar 2025
Insiders React: Return of Digg + Wall Street Panic, Bitcoin Strategic Reserve, Apple Delays AI
Is the stock market's recent nosedive just the beginning of a larger economic shift? As tariffs and political uncertainty rock Wall Street, tech giants like Apple are facing unexpected hurdles in the AI race. Meanwhile, an old internet favorite is poised for a surprising come ... Show More
55m 54s
Sep 29
Inside the GLP-1 Gold Rush: Eli Lilly CEO on New Breakthroughs, Addiction & Mental Health, Pricing
(0:00) Introducing Eli Lilly CEO Dave Ricks (1:43) How Eli Lilly discovered the GLP-1 impact on weight loss, counterfeit products from China (7:08) GLP-1 pricing and capital allocation after a breakout pharma product (12:56) Why Biotech VC has plummeted, “patent hacking” in China ... Show More
30m 40s
Apr 2025
Inside monday.com’s transformation: radical transparency, impact over output, and their path to $1B ARR | Daniel Lereya (Chief Product and Technology Officer)
Daniel Lereya, the Chief Product and Technology Officer at monday.com, shares how he and his team realized they were being outpaced by competitors and how that realization completely transformed how they operate and allowed them to build a global powerhouse, doing over $1 billion ... Show More
1h 32m
Oct 8
LIVE from RareEvo: TradFi vs DeFi Stablecoins (Lessons from Hacks, Policy, and Global Adoption)
Gerrit, developer relations at Curve Finance, discusses the unique risks and rewards associated with DeFi stablecoins, and how increased regulatory clarity has fueled the rise of TradFi stablecoins. He also spotlights the crucial role of platforms like Curve in providing essentia ... Show More
19m 14s
Sep 7
How AI is reshaping the product role | Oji and Ezinne Udezue
Ezinne and Oji Udezue have over 50 years of combined product leadership experience at Microsoft, Twitter, Atlassian, WP Engine, Typeform, and Calendly. They’ve witnessed every major shift in product management, and, despite their seniority, they’re taking beginner AI courses and ... Show More
1h 18m
Oct 2
1002. Insights: The digital transformation race: big banks vs neobanks.
About this episode:In this episode, in partnership with Enfuce, host Benjamin Ensor dives into the real state of banking transformation in today’s digital-first world. It’s no longer just legacy banks versus neobanks; it’s about who can truly meet rising customer expectations, ma ... Show More
47m 5s