Where value accrues in the payments stack

In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Dan Mottice, head of stablecoins at Modern Treasury and founder of Beam, a stablecoin payment platform it acquired in October 2025. Dan, who previously led Visa's crypto products before building Beam, explains how payment infrastructure is evolving to treat stablecoins as a default rail alongside traditional fiat systems.

He walks through why moving money remains hard, how 24/7 liquidity will transform cross-border and domestic payments, and why the layer between fiat and crypto is the real bottleneck. The conversation covers stablecoin clearinghouses as an emerging opportunity, why stablecoin neobanks need to match incumbent features and where value will accrue in the payment stack. Dan also shares lessons from building consumer versus B2B products and his advice for staying focused on the builders who stick around during bear markets.This episode is a part of the Solana Sessions campaign that Token Relations and the Talking Tokens podcast are doing, diving into founders’ journeys and startups building on Solana. Check out the accompanying newsletter on www.token-relations.com

TIMESTAMPS

(00:00) Intro
(01:40) Dan's background at Visa and building Beam
(03:36) Modern Treasury acquiring Beam in October 2025 and the vision for stablecoins as a rail
(04:16) How Visa and stablecoin platforms will become symbiotic, not competitors
(06:13) Current payment systems: pretty well solved domestically, room for improvement cross-border
(08:12) Why 24/7 liquidity will dramatically improve both domestic and cross-border payments
(09:54) Where value accrues: infrastructure layer vs customer relationship ownership
(13:04) If starting over today: building a global liquidity protocol or stablecoin clearinghouse
(17:24) Biggest misconceptions about payments and how hard it is to get money in and out of blockchains
(20:01) Why stablecoin neobanks need FDIC insurance and customer support to beat incumbents
(31:26) What Dan wants to see builders create with new onchain money movement primitives
(32:14) Final advice: focus on the people who stick around during bear markets

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