The lobster in the warm water
How stablecoins are rewriting financial rails while Europe keeps debating definitions.
Hi all 👋
I just sent in my latest Forbes column (July edition). In it, I share something that’s been striking me more and more lately: real, large-scale use cases outside of Europe are now being solved with stablecoins - while here, we keep operating the way we always have.
I honestly believe we are deeply biased. Biased by our comfort, our regulatory frameworks, our illusions of control. By our European certainties, still sitting on a glorious past.
But the world is accelerating and we don’t even see it anymore.
Everyone is absorbed by their day-2-day, summer holidays, minor issues, inboxes overflowing… Meanwhile, elsewhere, things are building veryyyyy fast.
Products are shipping —> Companies are scaling —> User bases are exploding.
And us?
We’re dozing off.
I feel like we’ve become lobsters in warm water. And that water is getting hotter, fast. Soon, we’ll have lost all sense of urgency.
What I feel deeply is that we’ve lost our humility. And with it, our freshness.
We assume we know because we’ve read everything, seen everything, regulated everything.
But we no longer see. We no longer feel. We barely question anything anymore.
We cling to frameworks that once made sense, to mental grids that reassure us. But the game has already moved on and it’s being played elsewhere.
And frankly, I get it now why Xavier Niel only surrounds himself with young people.
Because they’re hungry. They haven’t yet learned to fear their own boldness.
They try —> They fail —> They keep going.
That’s also why I put so much energy into staying close to my four children. Their perspective, habits, their way of thinking, all of it keeps me alert.
And that’s also why I continue teaching and exchanging with students, even when I’m stretched. Because they’re building the next wave - not in 15 years, but now.
Thank you for reading. I often feel like I’m speaking into the void.
Traditional finance in Europe hums along quietly but the shake-up coming will be violent. And most still have no idea it’s on the way.
This week, I had the pleasure of welcoming back Axel Cateland (Kulipa), whose intelligence and sharp humour always leave a mark and finally bringing on Itamar Lesuisse, founder of Ready (form. Argent), whom I’ve been chasing for three years :)
The use case: what’s being built in plain sight and what most people don’t even see
There are now solutions that allow you to store your cash in stablecoins without going through a bank and without handing over custody to a centralised actor.
These so-called “non-custodial” wallets offer users full autonomy, while integrating strong security layers and interfaces that are becoming impressively smooth. Forget cumbersome recovery phrases or dashboards or scary transaction steps.
The experience now feels just like a neobank except it runs entirely on blockchain. And this autonomy is no longer limited to saving or investing.
You can now spend your stablecoins in everyday life.
How?
Through a physical or virtual card, directly linked to the wallet. The card is compatible with traditional card networks. And when a transaction is triggered, the Tech’ stack behind the scenes queries the blockchain wallet balance in real time, verifies the funds, secures the transaction and authorizes the payment.
The user? They simply pay like anyone else. Via Apple Pay, Google Pay or in-store. Often, they don’t even realise they’ve just paid in USDC from Starknet or Ethereum.
The card layer: bridging blockchain and the payment networks
What we often forget is that this apparent simplicity relies on incredibly sophisticated interfacing technology. (If you’re curious, go back and listen to my first episode with Axel - we break this down in detail : here).
The teams building these cards need to master both worlds :
On one hand, everything from card issuing, internal ledgers, real-time balance tracking, PCI-DSS compliance and banking logic
And on the other : deep blockchain fluency : non-custodial wallets, zero-knowledge protocols, smart contract standards.
What they’re doing is building a bridge between two worlds that have mostly ignored each other until now : the hyper-regulated world of traditional payments and the open and decentralised logic of public blockchains.
A real example
An Argentinian father wants to pay for his daughter’s school in USD, from a crypto wallet. But the traditional banking system blocks him (e.g. controls, FX delays, regulatory noise…). With a stablecoin-backed card, he makes the payment in seconds - fully self-custodial and without a single bank getting in the way.
The wallet side : rebuilding banking without calling it banking
In parallel, some actors are building non-custodial wallets that look and feel like neobanks but are powered entirely by decentralised infrastructure.
These Apps offer a familiar user experience: balances, transaction history, cards, notifications, basic tools… But no bank sits behind the curtain.
The user keeps full control of their funds. No one else holds the keys.
And thanks to smart design, there's no seed phrase to manage, no gas fees to handle, no crypto-native complexity.
Most importantly, the logic is reversed. Where traditional banks restrict, freeze, or ban crypto-related usage, these Apps start from real-world crypto needs and build pathways back into the traditional world.
Another powerful example
An expat, a remote worker, a freelancer paid in USDC by clients abroad. Until now, to use those funds locally, they’d need to go through an Exchange, convert to fiat, withdraw into a Bank, hope the transfer clears… only to face bank flags or account freezes.
With this new type of wallet, they can receive, store and spend their USDC directly, with the same ease as a Revolut user but with total ownership of their funds at every moment.
Honestly ? I think it’s revolutionary.
My discussion with Axel Cateland and Itamar Lesuisse
Axel and Itamar open the door this week to the back-end reality of a regulatory system that’s already cracking simply because it wasn’t built for these use cases. We dive into the gaps between crypto regulation and payment services regulation.
We see how those founders are forced to navigate in a legal fog between multiple regulators, PSD2, MiCA - none of which fully captures their business model.
And we understand how countries like Argentina have become real-world sandboxes for innovation.
There, building isn’t about disruption : it’s about necessity. A simple response to instability and broken systems.
It’s in those places (under pressure) that real innovation emerges.
And what this episode makes crystal clear is: scalability is no longer a myth. These crypto-first models are working. They’re serving real users and solving real problems. At scale.
My conclusion: holding the mic, even when it’s not trending
I know Finscale isn’t the most glamorous show out there. It’s not wellness, it’s not “millionaire mindset”, it’s not promising easy wins or shiny hacks.
But I keep going, because I believe in this mission : to highlight what’s really happening in finance.
But also, to redirect attention to what actually matters, open the eyes of those who don’t want to see yet or simply haven’t had the time to look up.
And even if it’s not what the algorithms reward (to be frankly honest with you), even if it doesn’t bring in the biggest downloads, I still believe it’s the work that needs to be done.
What I document each week on Finscale are the tremors of a system in mutation. The weak signals of tomorrow’s finance and the voices of those who are consciously building bridges between two worlds.
👏🙏🙏