Opinion
Stern: Ethereum token value has vastly underperformed its network utility
“Ethereum, I think, has vastly underperformed its utility as a network.”
Opinion
Tether operates like a hedge fund retaining all yield, says Stern
“USDT is like a 100 hedge fund. Like they keep all Of the carry for you which speaks to how, like, much people want stable currency across the world.”
Insight
Stern: Crypto infrastructure lets startups build neobank features in one year
“A lot of early stage companies that now have the actual stack to build everything that has taken, you know, the neobanks of the world, the Revoluts, the Klarna's decades to build and they can do in a year because everything's ready for them here.”
Opinion
Stern: Tether does not need to pay yield to stay dominant
“I don't think they have to in order to stay dominant.”
Disclosure
Privy required the ability to support Stripe's competitors during M&A talks
“And this was a part of the conversations that we had at Privy when talking to Stripe about M&A, which was like, what are conditions under which we think we can be successful here? And I think one of them was the need to be able to work with competitive endeavo…”
Insight
Stern: Bundling with Stripe and Bridge turns 10-year roadmaps into 2-year roadmaps
“There's deep value to bundles and to being able to layer our software with stablecoin orchestration, stablecoin issuance, with traditional fiat money movement and rails, with the networks that Stripe has built across like, you know, marketplaces and merchants.…”
Insight
Stern: B2B adoption and emerging markets drive stablecoin US dollar dominance
“I think the majority of the stablecoin market today is B to B, and that'll change, but like the reality is basically it, where it is B to C, it's emerging markets, hence the US dollar preference, and where it's B to B, it's American companies, hence the US dol…”
Insight
Stern: Embedded accounts allow every company to build a neobanking arm
“Beyond that, there's a reality which is, you get to have a relationship with your user that's much longer lasting. Ostensibly Uber has done this where Uber drivers get financing for their cars via Uber, but now any company can really do this where instead of l…”
Disclosure
Stern: European customers experimented more under MiCA due to regulatory clarity
“The interesting like Delta for us at least was we saw European customers Trying a lot more things under MICA because at least they knew ostensibly where the lines were.”
Insight
Stern: Cash is the only traditional self-custodial asset
“The only self custodial like asset is cash.”
Disclosure
Stern: Privy built wallet-level fund freezing to prevent double-spends
“The account layer is something that we've had to build on the wallet side, Which is actually the ability to freeze funds based on the first payment to prevent double spends. It's actually something that we've had to build out for some of our customers specific…”
Disclosure
SVB was Privy's only bank account before its collapse, Stern reveals
“It was our only bank account and so we've been built basically like, you know, Accounts at like three different institutions”
Henri Stern