Key takeaways
Jaun Lam says most Hopnow transactions settle T+0 and often in less than an hour.
Hopnow sells stablecoin settlement infrastructure to remittance companies, fintech neobanks and PSPs, and plans to add yield and tokenized equity access on top of its virtual accounts.
Jaun Lam expects more neobanks built for specific verticals, such as seafarers, and sees payroll and employer-of-record firms like Deel moving into embedded financial services.
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Summary
HopNow co-founder Jaun Lam says stablecoin neobanks in emerging markets are moving toward specific verticals, and his company wants to supply the settlement infrastructure behind them.
Hopnow, a stablecoin infrastructure company that spent its first year in stealth, says most of its transactions settle T+0 and often in less than an hour. Co-founder Jaun Lam said the company launched about a year ago and has been growing the business out of public view.
From trading desks to payments
Jaun Lam started his career at Goldman Sachs, then moved to Stripe, where he worked on FX and stablecoins, and also ran the Anchorage Digital trading desk before co-founding Hopnow. He says stablecoin product-market fit has existed mostly in institutional trading, and that much of the growth in stablecoin transaction volume has come from it.
“Not only sort of Stablecoins as a product, but Stablecoins as a on ramp towards financial access and ownership. Because we believe that that's gonna be sort of a wealth generator for companies of all sizes globally.”
Infrastructure for emerging markets
Hopnow uses stablecoins as "upgraded financial infrastructure" so that remittance companies, fintech neobanks and PSPs can settle global payments faster, Lam says. He sees emerging-market fintech neobank apps as the next group of adopters: their users convert local currencies into stablecoins and spend them by card in 200 different countries.
According to Lam, a good virtual accounts product depends on risk-based underwriting of users, onboarding that fits the purpose, and payments that simply work. He says many providers have friction because payments get delayed.
Adding yield and equities
On the roadmap, Jaun Lam says Hopnow wants to build ownership into its product. Users would be able to sweep idle cash into a yield-bearing product and get exposure to broad equity indices through tokenized products, both in the US and outside it.
Winning by vertical
Jaun Lam predicts more specialization, because early neobank apps were broad and newer ones target very specific verticals. Hopnow has spent time on the seafarer industry, where workers need a reliable wallet to receive wages, a card, and a way to send remittances.
The conversation also noted that Deel now offers stablecoin payroll for W-2 workers and people on its EOR product, and a week later launched a stablecoin payment app with a spend card. Lam says employer-of-record companies are well positioned to offer embedded financial services themselves.
Jaun Lam is betting that settlement speed is only the starting point for Hopnow. He sees stablecoins as an on-ramp to financial access and ownership, which he expects to be a wealth generator for companies of all sizes around the world.
Hopnow, Agora, Anchorage Digital, and Stripe come up most.
- People
- Jaun Lam
- Zach Fowler
- Companies
- Hopnow
- Agora
- Anchorage Digital
- Stripe
- Bitso
- Deel
- Goldman Sachs
- Dfns
