Money Code

Stablecoins Are Payroll's Dollar Account Layer w/ Thierry Edde (Deel)

Money Code

Show Notes

Presented by Stablecon; Powered by BVNK.

In this episode of Money Code, hosts Chuk Okpalugo and Raj Parekh sit down with Thierry Edde, Head of Crypto at Deel, to unpack what five years building global payroll infrastructure taught him about where stablecoins add value. They break down why workers want dollar balances inside payroll apps, why compliant stablecoin salaries still run through local fiat rails, and how Deel is using Akai agents to clean up the payment failures deterministic code misses.

Subscribe and listen to the Money Code podcast here: https://lnk.to/MoneyCodeSN

Chapters 00:00 Deel's payments surface: 40,000 businesses, 150 countries 02:19 Why a late salary becomes an escalation 04:14 RFIs, SWIFT, and the missing status problem 06:44 Argentina showed every withdrawal path was in play 10:21 "Just people getting paid": hiding the chain 11:56 The wallet works because the off-ramps already exist 17:13 Businesses fund in stables, employees get paid compliantly 20:18 Reversing the stablecoin sandwich 23:29 DLUSD, card demand, and rewards behavior 28:36 Fiat payment scars matter for stablecoin scale 33:05 Akai agents and the last 1% of payout automation 36:37 Building Deel as an AI-native payment stack 40:31 Wallet expansion and where Deel goes next

Connect with the Hosts & Guest Chuk Okpalugo: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuk-okpalugo/ | https://x.com/chuk_xyz/ | https://stablecoinblueprint.com Raj Parekh: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajparekh7/ | https://x.com/rajparekh | http://monad.xyz Thierry Edde: https://x.com/thierryEdde44 | https://www.deel.com/ | https://x.com/deel

About Stablecon Stablecon (https://stablecon.com/) is the premier gathering for those at the intersection of DeFi, economic policy, financial infrastructure, and institutional integration, and those reinventing global commerce. By convening the brightest minds in fintech and crypto, Stablecon provides attendees with world class thought leadership and fosters unparalleled networking and strategic collaboration across the digital payments industry. Whether you're building, advising, or navigating this new frontier, this is the room where it happens.

About BVNK BVNK is the leading provider of stablecoin payments infrastructure, helping businesses move money faster, settle globally, and even launch their own stablecoin products. Head to https://bvnk.com/ to learn more.

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