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Stablecoins hit $50 trillion in transaction volume, officially surpassing Visa and MasterCard combined. Tedd Huff sits down with Keith VanderLeast to break down what that actually means for cross-border payments, compliance teams, and payment infrastructure.

This covers why payouts gained more traction than pay-ins, how blockchain monitoring flips traditional banking assumptions, and why regulated institutions struggle with seemingly simple questions about key storage and liquidity providers. Learn how Visa and MasterCard are already settling stablecoin transactions in Europe, why gig economy workers get paid faster than ever, and what happens when manufacturers in Latin America reverse the expected payment flow.

The compliance conversation gets practical with real examples of on-chain monitoring versus traditional banking trust models. Discover why weekend settlement costs disappear with stablecoins and how smart contracts automate escrow without intermediaries. This breaks down complex payment infrastructure into clear, actionable insights about where the market is heading next.

Tedd Huff, CEO of fintech advisory firm Voalyre and founder of Fintech Confidential, sits down with Keith VanderLeast, General Manager of Americas at BVNK, at FinTech Nerd Con in Miami to unpack what's really happening as stablecoins surge past traditional payment giants.

The numbers tell a story that's hard to ignore. By the end of October 2025, stablecoin transaction volumes hit somewhere between $46 trillion and $50 trillion. To put that in perspective, that's more than Visa and MasterCard combined. BVNK alone processes about $20 billion in total volume, with the Americas business making up roughly a third of that amount.

This isn't about speculative crypto trading anymore. The conversation has shifted to real payment infrastructure that moves money across borders 24/7 without the friction that's plagued traditional rails for decades. The challenge that existed when Western Union dominated cross-border payments still exists today, even with all the technology we've built since then. Sending money internationally remains expensive, slow, and complicated.

What's changed is the solution on the table. Stablecoins offer instant settlement around the clock, transparency that traditional banking can't match, and costs that make high-ticket cross-border transactions actually viable. Banks and payment companies are moving from pilot programs to actual implementation, though many remain cautious about diving in headfirst.

The use cases fall into two main categories: pay-ins and payouts. Payouts have gained more traction early on because companies prefer to test the waters by pushing payments out rather than accepting them in. When you're the one sending money, you maintain more control over who receives it and how the transaction flows. That control matters when you're dealing with compliance teams who've spent their entire careers in traditional banking.

The gig economy has become a major beneficiary. Companies can now pay workers anywhere in the world without routing through legacy banking systems that charge hefty fees and take days to settle. A freelancer in Southeast Asia can receive payment from a company in North America in minutes, not weeks. That freelancer can then convert those funds to local currency on their own terms, rather than accepting whatever exchange rate and fees the traditional system imposes.

The compliance conversation gets interesting when you compare on-chain monitoring to traditional banking. Take a hundred dollar bill. There's no way to track every wallet that bill has passed through since the Federal Reserve printed it. With blockchain-based payments, every transaction leaves a permanent record. You can see where funds originated, every wallet they touched along the way, and where they end up. That immutability means if someone tries to move money from questionable sources, the evidence doesn't disappear.

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Banks and payment companies initially struggle with this concept because it flips their assumptions about privacy and monitoring. They're used to trusting correspondent banks through Wolfsberg questionnaires and similar frameworks. The blockchain approach doesn't require the same level of blind trust. The data sits there permanently, available for review by compliance teams using tools from companies like Chainalysis and TRM Labs.

BVNK offers two paths for companies entering this space. The fully managed solution provides everything: licensing, compliance monitoring both on-chain and for fiat, EMI status in the UK and EU, money transmitter licenses, and bank accounts for moving between stablecoins and traditional currencies like dollars, euros, and pounds. The self-managed option suits regulated institutions that already have licenses and banking relationships but need the on-chain infrastructure.

The gap between "ready to go self-managed" and actually being ready is wider than most banks expect. Questions about key storage, liquidity providers, trading desks, and on-chain analytics catch many teams off guard. These aren't traditional banking concerns, and building that expertise from scratch takes significant time and resources.

Visa and MasterCard aren't sitting on the sidelines. Both networks have been testing stablecoin settlements for their issuers and acquirers, primarily in European markets where regulatory clarity arrived sooner. Issuers benefit from 24/7 settlement without posting collateral, which reduces their cost of funds. Acquirers can get merchants paid faster, moving closer to true T+0 settlement that merchants have wanted for years.

The logical next step for card networks involves their money movement products. Adding payouts to crypto wallets fits naturally into that progression. For companies doing high volumes of original credit transactions on weekends, the ability to pre-fund with stablecoins eliminates the need for expensive lines of credit just to cover settlement timing.

One surprise in the market comes from the reverse flow. While payments from the US to Latin America follow expected patterns, significant volume moves in the opposite direction. Manufacturers in Latin America want to pay their US suppliers using stablecoins. BVNK converts those stablecoin payments to dollars and pays out through traditional rails, creating a bridge that serves both sides of the transaction.

The volatility of crypto assets like Bitcoin hasn't disappeared. At the time of recording this episode, Bitcoin was at a two-year all-time low. In October 2025, the volatility score swung from 60% to 40% and back up to 80%. That instability makes Bitcoin problematic for payments, even with Lightning Network improvements. Stablecoins solve the volatility problem by pegging to fiat currencies, making them practical for actual commerce rather than speculation.

Major banks like JPMorgan have tested tokenized deposits on permissioned blockchains. For these systems to reach their potential, they need interoperability with public blockchains and the stablecoin ecosystem that's already processing trillions in transactions. BVNK positions itself to bridge that gap as banks figure out how to open their closed-loop systems.

The programmability of stablecoins opens doors that traditional payments keep locked. Smart contracts can automate escrow for lending situations, enforce terms without intermediary oversight, and create payment flows that adapt based on specific conditions being met. The industry has barely scratched the surface of what becomes possible when money itself can execute predefined logic.

This conversation arrives as Jane Fraser, CEO of Citigroup, publicly declares tokenizing real-world assets as the next frontier for banking. Mainstream financial institutions like Citi now recognize that payment infrastructure is fundamentally changing, with stablecoins leading the transformation from legacy systems to blockchain-based rails.

Traditional banks face critical decisions about adaptation speed and which use cases deliver the most value as stablecoin technology matures from pilot programs into production systems processing billions in daily transaction volume. The infrastructure shift is underway, and institutional players are mapping their strategies for a payments landscape built on programmable money and real-time settlement.

Stablecoin transaction volumes reached between $46 trillion and $50 trillion by the end of October 2024, surpassing the combined totals of Visa and MasterCard. BVNK alone processes approximately $20 billion in total volume, with the Americas business accounting for about one third of that amount.

Despite decades of technological advancement since Western Union dominated the market, sending money internationally remains expensive, slow, and unnecessarily complicated. Traditional banking rails continue to impose friction that costs businesses and consumers billions annually.

Payouts gained significantly more traction than pay-ins because companies maintain greater control when pushing money out rather than accepting it in. Compliance teams with decades of traditional banking experience prefer testing stablecoin infrastructure by sending payments first before opening the doors to receiving them.

Freelancers in Southeast Asia now receive payment from North American companies in minutes instead of weeks. Workers convert funds to local currency on their own terms rather than accepting whatever exchange rate and fees legacy banking systems impose on the transaction.

A hundred dollar bill carries no trackable history of every physical wallet it passed through since the Federal Reserve printed it. Blockchain-based payments create permanent records showing where funds originated, every wallet they touched, and their final destination.

Regulated institutions that claim readiness for self-managed solutions face unexpected challenges. Questions about key storage, liquidity providers, trading desks, and on-chain analytics catch teams off guard because these issues don't exist in traditional banking operations.

Visa and MasterCard have been testing stablecoin settlements with issuers and acquirers in European markets for multiple years. Issuers benefit from 24/7 settlement without posting collateral, while acquirers can deliver merchant funds faster than traditional settlement cycles allow.

Companies processing high volumes of original credit transactions on weekends previously needed expensive lines of credit just to cover settlement timing. Pre-funding with stablecoins eliminates those costs entirely because transactions settle around the clock without bank holiday delays.

Manufacturers in Latin America send substantial payment volumes to US suppliers using stablecoins, reversing the expected flow. BVNK converts those stablecoin payments to dollars and pays out through traditional rails, creating a bridge that serves both transaction directions.

The programmability of stablecoins enables smart contracts to automate escrow for lending situations, enforce terms without intermediary oversight, and create payment flows that adapt based on specific conditions being met. Traditional payment systems cannot execute these predefined logic operations.

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Your compliance team needs education on blockchain monitoring tools before you pilot any stablecoin payments. The BSA-AML framework works differently on-chain than in traditional banking, and this knowledge gap creates the biggest friction point when regulated institutions try to move forward with testing.

Add up what you spend on lines of credit or loans just to pre-fund settlement accounts for high-volume weekend transactions. Compare that against what stablecoin settlement would cost for the same volume. Many fintechs discover they're paying substantial fees simply for timing issues that stablecoins eliminate entirely.

On-chain analytics let you track transactions even after they exit your custody and move to your customer's wallet, then to their customer's wallet. Set up ongoing monitoring using tools that can follow the chain of custody forward, not just backward, to catch issues before they become compliance problems.

Stop assuming all cross-border stablecoin volume flows from developed markets to emerging ones. Manufacturers in Latin America want to pay US suppliers directly using stablecoins. Build infrastructure to accept payments from unexpected directions and convert to traditional rails on the receiving end.

Use smart contracts to handle escrow requirements in lending situations instead of relying on intermediaries. The programmability of stablecoins means you can write terms directly into the payment flow, enforce conditions automatically, and reduce manual oversight while improving compliance accuracy.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keithvanderleest/ 

BVNK Profile: https://bvnk.com/about-us

Website: https://bvnk.com/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bvnk/

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Keith VanderLeast is the General Manager of Americas at BVNK, where he leads strategy, sales, and customer success across the U.S. market, helping businesses unlock faster, more efficient cross-border payments through stablecoin-powered solutions. With over 20 years of experience in the financial services and payments industry, Keith has held leadership roles at Cross River Bank, American Express, Western Union, and First Data, where he built deep expertise in payment processing, instant payments, compliance, and banking partnerships. His career began at Western Union when it was owned by First Data, giving him his first exposure to both payments and cross-border money movement. At BVNK, Keith is at the forefront of stablecoin adoption in financial infrastructure, advocating for the integration of next-generation payment rails to improve global money movement and helping traditional financial institutions bridge the gap between fiat and blockchain-based payments.

BVNK is a London-based stablecoin infrastructure platform founded in 2021 by Jesse Hemson-Struthers (CEO), Chris Harmse (Chief Business Officer), and Donald Jackson (CTO). The company provides enterprise-grade payments infrastructure that bridges traditional banking systems and blockchain networks, enabling businesses to send, receive, store, and convert stablecoins and fiat currencies through a single platform. BVNK offers both managed and self-managed payment solutions, supporting clients with licensing, compliance monitoring, custody services, and access to multiple payment rails including SWIFT, ACH, SEPA, and major blockchains. With over 25 regulatory licenses across multiple jurisdictions, including money transmitter licenses in the U.S. and EMI status in the UK and Europe, BVNK processes over $30 billion in annualized payment volume. The company has raised over $90 million in funding, with recent investments from Haun Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Tiger Global, Visa, and Citi's venture arms, reaching a valuation of $750 million. BVNK serves payment service providers, fintechs, marketplaces, global payroll companies, and traditional financial institutions looking to integrate stablecoin capabilities into their payment infrastructure.

Tedd Huff is the Founder and CEO of Voalyre, a global fintech advisory and enablement firm specializing in taking companies to the next level, and the Founder and President of Diamond D3 Media, a multimedia and marketing agency that produces podcasts, live streams, and onsite interview events.

With over 25 years of experience in the fintech industry, Tedd has contributed to fintech startups and established companies as an Advisory Board Member, Co-Founder, and Chief Experience Officer, providing strategic and tactical direction for Global Payments OpenEdge, Heartland Payments, Nuvei, and TSYS, among others.

His expertise focuses on growth while delivering process improvements and user experience-driven value to simplify the complexity of payments. As host and executive producer of Fintech Confidential, Tedd brings entertaining and informative content focused on fintech industry insights, market trends, and stories from fintech leaders, thinkers, and doers.

He is a recognized thought leader and U.S. Army veteran known for making complex financial technology approachable and engaging through his conversational storytelling style and deep understanding of global payments, cross-border transactions, and payment localization.

Diamond D3 Media is a multimedia and marketing agency founded by Tedd Huff that specializes in content creation and production for the fintech and payments industry. As the production company behind Fintech Confidential, DD3 Media produces podcasts, live streams, video content, and onsite interview events that deliver engaging, educational content to global audiences. The company focuses on creating professional-grade media that simplifies complex financial technology topics through storytelling and expert interviews, helping fintech companies and financial institutions build thought leadership and connect with their audiences across YouTube, podcast platforms, and social media.