Where Stablecoin Cards Go Next | Farooq Malik (Rain) and Yueqi Yang (The Information) at ETHConf

Sun, Aug 2, 2026, 12:00 AM

In this fireside chat, Yueqi Yang from The Information sits down with Farooq Malik, CEO of Rain, to discuss where stablecoin cards go next. She notes stablecoins have been the hottest story since the Genius Act passed, and Rain is a leader in stablecoin backed cards, recently raising at close to a $2 billion valuation. Farooq explains that stablecoins are a new way to hold, send, and spend money but were not interoperable with the existing financial ecosystem, trapped on the blockchain. Rain connects that value to the existing network of merchants worldwide, letting consumers tap a card or enter a PIN exactly as normal while the transaction is powered by stablecoins, so the merchant never needs educating. This has driven massive global adoption of stablecoins as a store of value. Farooq explains how Rain differs from earlier crypto exchange cards from Binance or Coinbase: rather than a fiat enabled veneer settling five days a week (forcing working capital and counterparty risk), Rain rebuilt the backend so 100% of customer and card network settlement happens directly on the blockchain, supporting over a dozen blockchains, every major virtual machine, public and private chains, multiple stablecoin issuers, and now tokenized deposits. He argues a fiat veneer has no moat and can only compete on price. On customers, Rain powers programs in over 100 markets split roughly 50/50 between crypto native (including stablecoin neobanks) and traditional financial services, and surprisingly the largest destination of transactions is US merchants and bank accounts, contradicting the assumption that stablecoin use is only offshore. He shares US use cases including hourly payroll disbursement (real 24-hour money, not a debt product) and a travel platform embedding spendable stablecoin balances. Farooq frames Rain as a technology and accounts business rather than a cards business, committed to being credibly neutral and open rather than a closed ecosystem like AOL. He addresses banks entering the space (SoFi's USD, tokenized deposit consortiums), Rain's tracker showing banks that deny stablecoin demand are actually the source of billions in flows, the difficulty of Visa and Mastercard principal membership, and closes on Rain's agent control layer for agentic payments where delegated spending authority cannot be hallucinated away. 00:00 Introduction 00:43 Why Rain Is a Leader in Stablecoin Cards 01:05 What Is a Stablecoin Backed Card 01:26 Why Stablecoins Were Not Interoperable 01:53 Connecting Tokens to the Merchant Network 02:34 Massive Global Consumer Adoption 02:52 Why Merchant Behavior Stays the Same 03:41 How Rain Differs From Exchange Cards 04:07 Building Full Interoperability Across Chains 04:28 Supporting Tokenized Deposits and Digital Money 04:57 Why Fiat Settlement Creates Risk 05:40 Settling 100% on the Blockchain 06:12 Why a Fiat Veneer Has No Moat 06:41 The Profile of Rain's Core Customers 07:11 Demand From Public Companies and Banks 07:41 Powering Programs in Over 100 Markets 08:07 Why the US Is the Largest Destination 08:56 Addressing the JP Morgan Deposit Token Claim 09:19 The Hourly Payroll Disbursement Use Case 09:57 Why This Is Only Possible With Stablecoins 10:21 Reallocating Value From Debt Products 10:48 The Travel Platform Use Case 11:47 The Diversity of Use Cases 12:09 Why Lower Working Capital Changes Everything 12:26 The Crypto Native vs Non-Native Breakdown 13:14 How Rain Thinks About Competition 13:47 Why Rain Is Not a Cards Business 14:31 Why Rain Avoids Payment Flows 14:59 Being a Credibly Neutral Technology Player 16:15 Why Open Beats Closed Ecosystems 17:04 Will Banks Enter the Stablecoin Card Business 17:38 SoFi USD and Tokenized Deposit Consortiums 18:30 The Data Gap in Bank Stablecoin Flows 19:30 Why Banks Lose Customers to Platforms 20:31 The Visa and Mastercard Principal Membership 21:27 Meeting Customers Where They Are 22:31 Plans for Agentic Payments 23:43 The Agent Control Layer 24:20 The AI Concierge Example 24:42 Closing _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ *ETHConf 2026* ETHConf is a 3 day event for founders, industry leaders, and builders who are excited about the possibilities of building on top of Ethereum. Connect with 2,000+ top innovators in crypto, finance, technology, and policy at our inaugural three-day event packed with showcases, demos, partnerships, and conversations shaping the future of the global economy. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ✅ *Follow ETHConf* X: https://x.com/ethconf Website: https://ethconf.com _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 🎟️ Get your early bird tickets for ETHConf 2027: https://ethconf.com/2027#tickets 🎤 View the full ETHConf 2026 Speaker Schedule: https://ethconf.com/schedule _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _