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

- Channel: [ETHGlobal](https://streameth.org/ethglobal)
- Date: 2026-07-09
- Duration: 24:55
- Topics: Rain, Farooq Malik, Yueqi Yang, The Information, ETHConf, stablecoin cards, stablecoins, payments, Genius Act, Visa, Mastercard, principal membership, interoperability, merchants, working capital, on-chain settlement, tokenized deposits, neobanks, crypto native, payroll, embedded finance, banks, SoFi, agentic payments, agent control layer, AI agents, card networks, RTP, ACH, custody, credibly neutral, multi-chain, USDC, capital efficiency, store of value, B2B
- Watch: https://streameth.org/watch/yt-8Ae6eog42gQ
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ae6eog42gQ

## Description

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

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