Reap co-founder Daren Guo says Asia’s lead in stablecoins begins with infrastructure constructed for cross-border cash motion. On Bits to Bricks, Guo traced how Reap went from a Hong Kong company card and expense firm to a stablecoin card issuer shifting roughly $6 billion a yr — and why it moved stablecoin treasury administration primarily to Solana in 2025.
“In the event you attempt to transfer cash from, as an instance, Southeast Asia to the US, it is sooner should you take a boatload of money, fly it right into a airplane, after which carry it to the US versus sending it by way of current fiat rails.” – Daren Guo
Asia was constructed for worldwide flows
Guo’s case for Asia begins with the area’s default relationship to foreign money. Within the US, “multi-currency” usually means {dollars}, kilos, and euros; in Asia, Guo stated, fiat infrastructure generally spans upwards of fourteen currencies, with financial institution accounts capable of maintain currencies reminiscent of Canadian {dollars}, Korean gained, and Japanese yen.
That creates second-order results for each business-to-business and client funds:
- Firms and shoppers already handle international alternate and remittances throughout many currencies.
- Stablecoins add pace and programmability on prime of cash motion methods that had been already designed for worldwide flows.
- Hong Kong’s Asia greenback historical past, in Guo’s telling, reveals that Reap is constructing on decades-old regional capabilities relatively than inventing a brand new cross-border mannequin from scratch.
Regulation can be shifting in the identical route. Hong Kong’s Stablecoins Ordinance took impact in August 2025, with the primary HKMA licenses anticipated in early 2026, whereas the Financial Authority of Singapore finalized its “MAS-regulated stablecoin” framework in 2023.
Commerce routes drive the demand
Reap focuses on Asia as a result of the area sits on the heart of business-to-business commerce flows, bill factoring, and provider funds behind world commerce. Guo stated that place issues particularly for rising markets in Africa and Latin America, the place stablecoin adoption is rising rapidly.
Somewhat than chase Asia’s finish prospects immediately, Reap exports the infrastructure Asia gives into these markets. The ache level is sharper outdoors North America and Europe, the place primary monetary entry might be much less obtainable.
“We’re typically offering playing cards by way of our companions to people for the very first time ever” – Daren Guo
Reap’s B2B Stablecoin Fee report put numbers behind that shift. Enterprise-to-business stablecoin flows rose from beneath $100 million a month in early 2023 to greater than $3 billion by 2025, a thirtyfold enhance in two years, in keeping with Reap’s B2B Stablecoin Fee report. The report additionally recognized Asia as the most important area for stablecoin flows, at $12.5 trillion in 2025, with the Singapore-to-China hall because the busiest route.
Guo doesn’t body this as Asia dethroning the greenback. He stated the US greenback stays the world’s reserve foreign money, utilized in roughly half of world commerce, and that about 83% of remittances both begin or finish within the US. His argument is narrower: The greenback wins on demand, whereas Asia is the place the rails for shifting greenback stablecoins are maturing first.
Reap’s reluctant path to stablecoins
Guo was an early Stripe worker and the primary particular person on its development workforce, shifting to Asia in 2015 to assist launch throughout Hong Kong, Singapore, and China. In 2018, he co-founded Reap in Hong Kong as a company card and expense firm with a strategic guess on digitizing Asia’s cross-border strengths.
At first, the mannequin was tough. Guo stated banks wouldn’t transfer, and makes an attempt to enhance pace and value usually stalled with companions that weren’t prepared. Stablecoins finally modified that, however slowly.
In line with Guo, stablecoins solely moved into the mainstream during the last twelve to eighteen months. Earlier than that, Reap spent years educating card networks, banking companions, and prospects, whereas the first stablecoin use case remained on-ramping to purchase Bitcoin. The primary main demand got here from world enterprises shifting treasury throughout borders, adopted by neobanks that wished to problem playing cards the place folks wanted them most.
The cardboard layer
For the consumer, a Reap card transaction appears like an bizarre fiat swipe. Beneath, balances and settlement can run on stablecoins.
Reap’s card mannequin is explored additional in a Mint Situation episode on Reap’s stablecoin-powered card infrastructure, the place stablecoins are posted as collateral and spent in opposition to a credit score line. That retains the playing cards postpaid, in contrast to many pay as you go crypto playing cards.
Guo’s long-term focus is the settlement layer. He needs stablecoins to run by way of the cardboard settlement system — stablecoins settling with Visa, Visa settling with acquirers reminiscent of Stripe, and acquirers settling with retailers — all day, every single day, with programmability.
Reap will get there by constructing on the acceptance networks Visa and Mastercard spent many years creating. A card that works throughout Europe, Australia, Asia, and the US offers platforms world attain, whereas stablecoins add programmable settlement beneath the acquainted card expertise.
Why Reap settles on Solana
Reap made that settlement aim extra concrete in 2025, when it moved stablecoin treasury administration primarily to Solana. A enterprise settling tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} a day wants rails that stay quick and low-cost as quantity grows.
Reap nonetheless runs multi-chain, holding USDC and USDT throughout Ethereum, Polygon, and Tron. However as cost volumes elevated, Solana turned Reap’s main treasury rail, in keeping with Crowdfund Insider’s report on Reap’s Solana treasury administration.
Guo frames the bigger final result as banking with out borders. At the moment, a Mexican neobank serves Mexico and a US neobank reminiscent of Chime serves the US. 5 years out, he expects these partitions to skinny, making it attainable for a platform to serve a worldwide market from day one.
“That is been the most important unlock of stablecoins,” he stated.
Hear and skim extra
For the complete dialogue, hearken to “The Way forward for Cross-Border Finance with Daren Guo, co-founder of Reap International” on Bits to Bricks.
