Stablecoins are rapidly moving beyond their origins in the cryptocurrency sector and becoming a core component of modern financial infrastructure. With global stablecoin transaction volumes now reaching trillions of dollars annually, businesses, freelancers, remote workers, and consumers are increasingly using digital dollars for cross-border payments, settlements, savings, and global commerce. At the same time, regulators are advancing new frameworks such as the U.S. GENIUS and CLARITY Acts, creating fresh opportunities but also challenges for the industry.
In this interview, Raagulan Pathy, Founder and CEO of KAST and former leader of USDC expansion initiatives across Asia, discusses the growing role of stablecoins in the global financial system, the impact of emerging regulation, regional adoption trends, KAST’s recent $80 million Series A funding round, and why stablecoins may become the preferred payment rails for the next generation of AI agents and automated commerce.
Q1: How would you describe today’s role of stablecoins in the global financial infrastructure? Where do you see their best fit?
Historically, if you wanted access to financial services, you had to go where the system lived. The internet created a globally connected, digitally native population that isn’t tied to any one place but still needs stable, reliable financial services. The system is now user driven. Stablecoins are fundamentally a response to that shift.
The use cases are becoming clearer. We now live in a world of global citizens, remote workers and globally mobile earners who lose significant chunks of time and money to correspondent banking delays and currency conversions. Then, you’ve got freelancers and small businesses operating across multiple countries who need settlement speed that traditional neobanks simply can’t match. And increasingly, you’ve got people in emerging markets who want to access more stable currency.
Stablecoins have shifted from being a product for crypto natives into a critical piece of financial infrastructure. Last year, global stablecoin transaction volumes crossed $33 trillion, surpassing the combined settlement volumes of many card networks. This activity is from people who need to spend or move money across borders without losing it to fees and delays.
Q2: As a stablecoin payments company how is your business affected by emerging regulation in the crypto sphere, e.g. U.S. GENIUS and CLARITY Acts? Do you see them as positive developments for the stablecoin adoption or as those hindering growth?
First, I would say we are building KAST to be the most licensed stablecoin player in the market and are exploring additional licenses across multiple jurisdictions. Some of our competitors are focused on a singular market or region.
Since founding KAST in July 2024, we’ve grown our compliance team significantly and see this as a huge differentiating factor. We are going to see a future where a small number of players win the vast majority of market share and our belief is that earning trust through investing in compliance is key to success.
Second, the US is a significant market for us moving forward, and the moves its policymakers make will influence other regulators around the world.
U.S. consumers want clarity for stablecoins and the crypto industry generally, and that’s why both the GENIUS and CLARITY Acts are so important; they will help propel our growth in the U.S. So we are closely watching the way the GENIUS Act is being implemented, and it’s crucial for Congress to pass the CLARITY Act and send it to President Trump’s desk.
Q3: One of the most controversial points of the U.S. stablecoin regulation is the prohibition of stablecoin yield or any other type of interest on stablecoin savings. What is your opinion on this? Could the regulators reach any compromise with the industry stakeholders?
The compromise on yield was carefully negotiated between Congress, the White House and all affected stakeholders in the crypto and banking industries before the Senate Banking Committee sent the CLARITY Act to the full Senate. Both the traditional banking and crypto sides had to give up something. But that’s the way compromise works, and it’s an important step in the CLARITY Act’s progress. We need a bill on the President’s desk for the regulatory certainty that is important to our business as well as all of the innovators out there.
Q4: One of your earlier roles at Circle was dedicated to expanding USDC and stablecoin adoption across Asia. How is this market ranking in terms of stablecoin adoption today compared to other regions?
Asia had concrete advantages we were betting on at Circle, including the crypto hubs in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Dubai, which are now mature and developed. More broadly, you’ve got a population that’s globally connected, engaging in cross-border commerce and remittances at scale, and much of that activity is now being run out of Asia.
As important as the Asian market is, KAST is focusing on North America, Latin America and the Middle East. In just shy of two years, we’ve grown to one million users globally, supporting about $5 billion in annualised transaction volume. In other words, KAST is being used by people all over the world managing their finances with stablecoins.
Q5: KAST just raised $80 million Series A. What are the main expansion areas?
KAST’s record $80 million Series A is being deployed to expand across North America, Latin America and the Middle East. We’re accelerating licensing, compliance, product development and headcount in these regions where we are seeing significant growth.
Beyond geography, we are building trust through our significant investments in security infrastructure to ensure KAST is the world’s most safe and secure stablecoin financial platform.
We’re partnering with key players, such as Elliptic, to make sure our AML and compliance tech is best in class. This will be critical to our longer term, sustainable growth trajectory, particularly as we grow our infrastructure to support more and more users.
Finally, a big focus is product expansion. The infrastructure for stablecoins is mature enough now that the real competition is over who builds products people actually want to use. We’re building lending, savings, investments, and spending tools to suit the needs of our customers, and we’re learning from them what tools we should be building next.
Q6: What stablecoin-related financial services are most popular today, and which ones have potential but haven’t gone mainstream?
We’re seeing significant traction in both cross-border payments and global payouts. We launched KAST Pay and Global Payouts at the end of 2025 because users kept asking for exactly this, the ability to convert digital earnings into local currency and move money across borders without losing money to friction and delays. The spend data also shows that users on the platform are often using KAST for business expenses. So, very soon will be officially launching KAST Business (which is currently in Beta for invite-only users) for fast-growing companies that earn, hire, and pay across borders or who already operate in the Web3 space and feel the friction in the traditional system.
Q7: How do you see stablecoins’ role in the emerging agentic payments segment? Does KAST plan to participate?
As more businesses automate workflows and decisions, payments need to move more and more quickly. Stablecoins are built for this change; settlement happens in seconds, with no banking hours or correspondent delays. The real question isn’t whether agents will need to transact in stablecoins because they will, it’s who will be the market-leading builder of the rails and integrations to make it all work seamlessly.
