When a Stablecoin Becomes Core Infrastructure I Sam Kazemian (Frax) and Spencer Noon (OurNetwork)

Sun, Aug 2, 2026, 12:00 AM

In this fireside chat, Spencer Noon from OurNetwork sits down with Sam Kazemian, founder of Frax, to discuss how a stablecoin becomes core infrastructure in the post Genius Act world. Sam winds back to March 2025 when he, co-founder Travis Moore, and US industry figures including the Blockchain Association and Coinbase's Brian Armstrong were negotiating the wording of the Genius Act, which legalized payment stablecoins as federally regulated digital dollars. He breaks down what he sees as the most important part of the act: a stablecoin issuer backed by narrow collateral types (Fed reverse repos, money market fund securities, Treasury bills, and FDIC insured bank deposits, or RWAs representing those) can become a Genius compliant issuer through the OCC or a state regulator, issuing what amounts to legal tender that banks, companies, and fintechs can accept. He explains that while Frax was an Ethereum DeFi OG with an original hybrid algorithmic stablecoin (now deprecated but not shut down, like DAI and Sky), the flagship product is now FraxUSD, a Genius compliant stablecoin that launched right when the act passed in July 2025. Sam details FraxUSD's core differentiator: unlike USDC or USDT where users and venues have no relationship with the issuer and receive none of the underlying risk free yield, FraxUSD streams the risk free rate directly on chain. He walks through the concrete mechanism built with Aave V4, where a reserve link smart contract checks the average FraxUSD balance in partner protocols like Aave and Curve pools daily, mints new FraxUSD against the growing reserves, and streams it into those venues, making FraxUSD the highest TVL lent digital dollar on Aave V4. Users can view the underlying RWAs (money market fund securities and Treasury bills custodied by BlackRock, BNY, and WisdomTree). Sam frames base money stablecoins as the biggest network effect product in crypto, distinct from yield bearing 4626 vaults, and explains Frax's forward looking strategy of not fighting USDC on established venues but instead becoming the aligned default digital dollar for the infrastructure of tomorrow like Aave V4, Morpho, and new RWA pools. Spencer connects this to DeFi's promise of financial empowerment and Vitalik's critique of unnecessary rent seeking, noting the current disconnect between $300 billion in stablecoins and only $16 billion on lending protocols. Sam closes with a prediction that the stablecoin supply will double from $300 billion to over $600 billion within a year, with banks moving balance sheets into compliant stablecoins and companies running stablecoin treasuries becoming routine daily headlines. 00:00 Introduction 00:07 Winding Back to March 2025 and the Genius Act 00:51 What the Genius Act Legalized 01:17 Deconstructing the Parts That Matter 01:51 The Narrow Collateral Requirements 02:25 Why Frax Built the New Version This Way 02:58 From Algorithmic Stablecoin to FraxUSD 03:48 Being First to Build to the Act 04:31 The User Journey vs a Neo Bank or Coinbase 05:03 Why Most Venues Get No Yield From Issuers 05:32 The Aave V4 Risk Free Rate Mechanism 05:58 Highest TVL Digital Dollar on Aave V4 06:24 Looking Forward, Not Winding Back the Clock 06:58 The Aligned, Regulated, Redeemable Digital Dollar 07:32 Why the Current Lending Rate Falls Short 08:38 Viewing the Underlying RWAs on Frax's Website 09:08 Which Institutions Custody the Reserves 09:37 How the Reserve Link Smart Contract Works 09:59 A Programmable Version of Coinbase USDC Earn 10:33 Why Base Money Is the Biggest Network Effect 11:32 Network Effects vs Yield Bearing Vaults 12:06 FraxUSD as Direct Spend Across Venues 12:34 DeFi as Financial Empowerment 13:10 The $300 Billion vs $16 Billion Gap 13:39 Efficiency, Alignment, and Composability 14:04 Sustainable Infrastructure, Not a Campaign 14:37 Not Fighting USDC on Established Pairs 15:03 Targeting the Infrastructure of Tomorrow 15:37 The Two Year Vision for FraxUSD Dominance 16:32 What KPIs Frax Aligns Around 16:53 Why Eventually There Will Just Be Dollars 17:59 Banks and Companies Moving to Stablecoin Treasuries 18:51 When Billion Dollar Mints Become Daily Headlines 19:07 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 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _