Presented by Stablecon; Powered by BVNK.

In this episode of Money Code, hosts Chuk Okpalugo and Raj Parekh sit down with Benji Fernandes, founder and CEO of NALA, a remittance business for diaspora customers, and Rafiki, its B2B infrastructure arm for emerging-market payouts, collections, and stablecoin settlement.

They unpack how consumer remittance volume pushed NALA to own more of the rails, why 96 out of 100 stablecoin trades in its markets are USDT, and why licenses, liquidity, and local payout infrastructure decide what stablecoins can actually do.

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Chapters

00:00 What NALA does: remittance, Rafiki, and emerging-market rails

01:56 Why Benji entered a "saturated" remittance market

04:56 The failed first version of NALA

06:35 Africa's fragmentation problem: 54 countries, 40 currencies

08:20 The FX loss that pulled NALA into infrastructure

12:48 The NALA stack: ledger, treasury, distribution

18:47 Where stablecoins actually help

20:43 Three stablecoin patterns Benji is watching

26:13 Local wallets: four customer problems inside one product

31:09 The liquidity problem behind stablecoin on/off ramps

35:29 "Solve my problem fastest": what users care about

36:10 The stablecoin hype Benji pushes back on

40:44 TAM has to follow customer behavior

44:39 Payments for the next billion

47:40 Why Rafiki scaled after everyone called it a distraction

49:56 Where to find Benji and NALA

Connect with the Hosts & Guest

Chuk Okpalugo: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuk-okpalugo/ | https://x.com/chukxyz/ | https://stablecoinblueprint.com

Raj Parekh: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajparekh7/ | https://x.com/rajparekh | http://monad.xyz

Benji Fernandes: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminf7/ | https://x.com/BenjiFernandes | https://www.nala.com | https://www.rafiki.com

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.