Solana Accelerate 2025

Accelerating Cross-Border Payments with Stablecoins

At Solana Accelerate, I had the privilege of sharing Sphere’s journey and what we’ve learned working at the intersection of stablecoins, international trade, and financial infrastructure.

When we first started, stablecoins were not the hot topic they are today. Prices were down, banks were collapsing, and people told us this technology was “dead.” Instead of walking away, we dug deeper. What we found was that the strongest demand was not coming from Silicon Valley, it was coming from the emerging world.

I shared the story of Bob, a machinery exporter in Texas, and Ahmed, a farmer in Nigeria. Both depend on one another for trade, but they are separated by a financial system that is slow, expensive, and unpredictable. Wire transfers can take days or weeks, and every delay creates costs that hurt businesses and livelihoods.

Stablecoins can solve this. But adoption is not automatic. It takes education, trust, and compliance at every step, both bottom-up with businesses and top-down with governments. That is what we have been working on at Sphere: embedding compliance directly into the flow of payments and making cross-border settlement as simple as sending an email.

International trade is full of inefficiencies. With stablecoins, we can bridge those gaps and unlock exponential benefits for people like Ahmed, not just incremental ones.

If you want to hear the full story, including why we decided to live and build in emerging markets, and how we are helping businesses move billions across borders, you can watch my full

Watch the full Solana Accelerate talk below: