Stabledash Live · · 19 min

Inside The Better Money Co and Why Stablecoins Need a Clearinghouse

With Sam Broner

Key takeaways

  • Sam Broner left his investor role at a16z, where he covered stablecoins, to found The Better Money Company.

  • The Better Money Company is building a stablecoin clearinghouse meant to offer guaranteed one-to-one rates and guaranteed settlement times between stablecoins.

  • Partners include issuers such as Paxos Labs, Bridge, MoonPay and MZero Labs, and builders such as Ramp and Modern Treasury.

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Summary

Broner argues stablecoins should settle one to one like money, not trade like separate currencies, and has lined up issuers and fintech builders to make that happen.

Sam Broner has left a16z crypto, where he worked as a full-time investor covering stablecoins, to found The Better Money Company. The company is building a stablecoin clearinghouse that, he says, will let users rely on guaranteed one-to-one rates and guaranteed settlement times when sending stablecoins around.

Stablecoins as money, not currencies

Sam Broner says today's stablecoin infrastructure is built around trading, with coins bought and sold as if they were separate currencies. He compares it to having to sell Wells Fargo dollars to buy Bank of America dollars at a market price. After the GENIUS Act and the regulatory clarity it brought, he says, "we should be able to treat stablecoins like money."

He describes the clearinghouse as the piece that stitches coins together, which he contrasts with market makers that quote a spread that widens as more money moves. He calls stablecoins "better money": faster, cheaper and programmable in ways traditional rails are not.

“I'm building the better money company because I'm offended by the status quo and impatient for the future. The fundamental system of value must be faster, more open, more flexible, more resilient, but we will have to make it so.”
Sam Broner

Issuers on one side, builders on the other

Sam Broner names the issuing partners as Paxos Labs, Bridge, MoonPay, Agora, MZero Labs, Fracs and Braille. He says the company helps them get liquidity for custom-issued stablecoins in more places. On the builder side he lists Ramp, Modern Treasury, Kirby, Turnkey and Utility, companies he says want access to long-tail stablecoins. He pitches the clearinghouse as a neutral place for issuers who lack the engineering resources to integrate with everyone directly.

Treasury, payments and agents

He sees interest in three areas: treasury management, which he calls "the least sexy of them all", tools for stablecoin payments, and applications that were never possible before, such as agentic payments, restaurant loyalty apps or creator payouts. In one example, a grocery store that saves the two or 3% it pays on card swipes could give shoppers a 1% discount, maybe 2%, to keep them loyal.

The case for issuing your own

Sam Broner argues that serious money-movement companies should control their own security and compliance by owning issuance. In his view, the ability to lock a coin down can prevent a hack in the first place. He adds that issuers gain control over reserves and closer interoperability with their own ecosystems.

Sam Broner describes his move from investor to operator as a response to a "basic moral imperative" to improve payments. His bet is that a neutral clearing layer, sitting between custom issuers and the companies building on them, is what will let stablecoins work as money.

Bridge, Braille, MoonPay, and MZero Labs come up most.

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