OpenUSD launched with 140 backers. Bitget Wallet crossed 100 million users. US banks are trying to buy their way around Durbin. And Swift just went live with a blockchain-based shared ledger for tokenized bank deposits. This episode covers all four. Sam sat down with Alvin, COO of Bitget Wallet, to break down OpenUSD's consortium stablecoin model, why it shifts stablecoin yield from the reserve layer to the distribution layer, and what Bitget's 100 million user milestone actually measures. We also get into why Bitget is betting on emerging markets over the US and UK, how the wallet works without a banking license, and where AI agent payments are headed. Then Otabek and Sam cover the week's biggest infrastructure news. JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and PNC are reportedly in informal talks to acquire Star and Accel, the debit networks owned by Fiserv, whose stock has fallen sharply this year. The real motive is the Durbin Amendment, which caps debit interchange fees for large banks when transactions route over an outside network, but exempts banks that own the network itself. It is the same loophole logic behind Capital One's acquisition of Discover, and we discuss whether this leads to more merchant and consumer costs, and whether the payments world is fragmenting instead of consolidating around a few big rails. We also break down Swift's new blockchain-based shared ledger, now ready for initial use after nine months of development. Seventeen banks across six continents, including ANZ, BNP Paribas, Citi, DBS, HSBC, Lloyds, MUFG, Standard Chartered, and UBS, are piloting live transactions using tokenized bank deposits instead of stablecoins. We get into how this differs structurally from USDT and USDC, why it overlaps with a separate live initiative from Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, and NatWest, whether Swift's 11,500-bank network gives it a structural edge over consortium stablecoins like OpenUSD, and why smaller emerging markets, including Central Asia, are still missing from every major cross-border rail being built right now. Subscribe for weekly conversations on payments, stablecoins, and fintech infrastructure. Leave us five stars on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. TIMECODES: 00:00 Cold open 00:54 Bearish on trading, bullish on stablecoins 01:31 Open USD: 140 companies, one stablecoin 02:45 Cathie Wood's warning: can OUSD beat USDT and USDC? 03:40 The three layers: reserve, distribution, network 06:29 Governance: getting 140 rivals to agree 07:38 Trading vs payments — two different games 08:56 Inside Bitget Wallet: 100M users, cards and QR 11:47 Why emerging markets, and the "borderless generation" 13:03 $177B settled, and no banking licence 14:15 Can AI agents make payments? 16:48 Will the wallet become your bank account? 18:48 First time ever: payments overtake trading 21:19 Why not the US, UK and Europe? 23:00 News desk: Otabek is back 23:29 Story 1: Big banks want to own a debit network 27:14 The Durbin loophole and the Capital One precedent 29:28 Story 2: Is SWIFT a monopoly? 30:25 SWIFT's blockchain ledger: 17 banks, tokenized deposits 33:09 Fragmentation — is anyone actually coordinating? 34:42 The corridors nobody serves 37:25 Wrap: the ground is shifting
