KAST CEO Raagulan Pathy on building a stablecoin neobank that barely mentions crypto, and why its tagline is now simply "Money by KAST."Raagulan Pathy (Raags) ran Circle's Asia Pacific business as VP and CEO of Circle Singapore, after a first cloud startup that didn't work out. His second company, KAST, is a stablecoin neobank for people who earn, spend and save across borders. It has passed one million users and processes close to $5 billion in annualized transaction volume.In this episode of the unhashed podcast , Raags tells host Sri Misra why most of the world is already dollarized, and why network effects will keep USDT and USDC ahead of challenger stablecoins. He expects tokenized stocks to grow the way online shopping did, a point or two a year. He also explains how KAST plans to approach stablecoin remittances to India by focusing on inward flows, so it doesn't become a channel for capital flight.KAST raised an $80 million Series A in March 2026, co-led by QED Investors and Left Lane Capital, at a reported $600 million valuation. This conversation is about who gets to build the first truly global money app.Key highlights:👉Why KAST dropped crypto language and rebranded as "Money by KAST"👉The Amazon playbook: retailer, then marketplace, then AWS, with an acquired infrastructure layer for fintechs building their own neobanks👉 Why Raags names only Revolut, Nubank and the large banks as long-term rivals👉 How KAST is approaching India's remittance market ($135.4 billion in FY25 inflows), starting with a lawyer as its head of India👉 What the Credit Suisse collapse taught him about keeping customer deposits in treasury-backed stablecoins👉Why he calls tokenization "up only," and how tokenized stocks drive demand for stablecoins👉What stablecoin neobanks will look like by 2030Chapters:00:00 From failed startup to stablecoin neobank04:36 What a stablecoin neobank really is06:40 KAST's Amazon playbook: from app to infrastructure08:57 Global money app vs Revolut and Nubank12:09 Euro stablecoins and dollarization16:04 Stablecoin remittances to India17:51 Safe yield and tokenized stocks21:31 Why tokenization is "up only"23:57 Unbundling banking and USDT vs USDC27:17 Stablecoin neobanks by 2030Subscribe to un# (unhashed) for weekly founder conversations on stablecoins, DeFi and tokenization.Follow Sri Misra on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/srimisra/Guest: Raagulan Pathmanathan (Raagulan Pathy), Co-founder and CEO, KAST#Stablecoins #KAST #Neobank #Tokenization #Fintech#RaagulanPathy #KAST #SriMisra #unhashed #Stablecoins #StablecoinNeobank #Neobank #Fintech #CryptoPodcast #DeFi #USDC #USDT #Tokenization #TokenizedStocks #GlobalMoneyApp #StablecoinPayments #CryptoCard #RemittancesIndia #futureofbanking Disclaimer: The information presented is for educational purposes only. Views expressed are those of the speakers, not necessarily the channel. You are responsible for your own research and decisions.Copyright: © 2024 Aarna AI Pte Ltd, Singapore. All rights reserved.

The entire ad-funded internet exists because of one missing capability in 2008: no way to move a fraction of a cent. Circle's Chief Product and Technology Officer explains why stablecoin payments for AI agents remove that constraint, and why he would not build Android the same way today.Few people have watched the internet's business model form from as many seats as Nikhil Chandhok, an early Google and YouTube product lead who launched YouTube on the first iPhone, ran AR at Meta, and is now CPTO at Circle, issuer of USDC. His argument here is blunt: mobile app ecosystems went ad supported by constraint, not by choice, because nothing underneath them could clear a microtransaction, and much of what we now call DeFi was simply unbuildable in 2008. He walks through Circle Agent Stack and the Arc blockchain competing internally for the same developers, why Circle will not lock agents onto its own chain, and why settlement finality is the feature that actually matters once agents start trading. Recorded with Sri Misra weeks before Arc's public mainnet, the conversation lands as tokenization, onchain credit, and non dollar stablecoins move from thesis to roadmap.👉Why the Android and early iPhone app economies defaulted to advertising, and what that reveals about payment rails as a core platform primitive rather than a feature bolted on later👉How nanopayments and agent wallets unlock business models that were structurally impossible when Google and Facebook ad networks were the only monetization option available to developers👉What happens inside Circle when Agent Stack is mandated to grow USDC on every chain while Arc is mandated to grow Arc, a tension Chandhok compares to Google Maps shipping on iOS👉Why settlement finality is the single argument Arc has to win with agent developers running onchain trading, and what unwinding a trade would do to that model👉How cheaper company formation plus fully auditable onchain activity could move credit underwriting itself on chain, one of the founding ideas behind Arc👉Why Nikhil thinks saying no to stablecoins is like saying no to the internet, and why non dollar stablecoins still have a real role even if the dollar stays dominantSubscribe to un# for weekly conversations at the frontier of crypto, AI, and money, and follow Sri Misra on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/srimisra/ for daily insights.00:00 - Why Payment Rails Shape Every Platform00:49 - How Money Decides User Experience01:01 - Why Android Became An Ad Business02:47 - Payments As Core Platform Capability03:03 - Are Agent Wallets Native To Arc03:32 - Agent Stack Versus Arc Inside Circle04:48 - Building A Neutral Stablecoin Stack05:25 - Next Two Years In Digital Assets05:57 - Tokenization And Onchain Credit Formation08:02 - Will Every Country Issue Stablecoins#NikhilChandhok #Circle #USDC #ArcBlockchain #CircleAgentStack #SriMisra#Stablecoins #StablecoinPayments #AgenticEconomy #AIAgentPayments #Nanopayments #Tokenization #RWA #DeFi #OnchainCredit #FutureOfPayments #StablecoinRegulation #CryptoPodcast #web3payments Disclaimer: The information presented is for educational purposes only. Views expressed are those of the speakers, not necessarily the channel. You are responsible for your own research and decisions.Copyright: © 2024 Aarna AI Pte Ltd, Singapore. All rights reserved.

The best way to keep money on your chain is to make it effortless to move off it. That contrarian bet sits at the centre of the Circle Arc blockchain, and Circle's Chief Product and Technology Officer Nikhil Chandhok explains why liquidity that cannot leave is liquidity nobody sends.Four and a half years at Circle, issuer of $73.3 billion of USDC, taught Nikhil Chandhok two things: receiver preference drives stablecoin distribution, and people leave money where they know they can pull it out. Speaking with host Sri Misra, he explains why Arc was built as a USDC liquidity hub rather than a walled garden, why settlement finality and USDC denominated gas matter to enterprises, and why agentic payments today look like websites in 1997. Arc mainnet goes live on 16 September 2026.👉Why Arc was designed so USDC deploys in one click across the roughly 30 chains it already reaches, instead of locking liquidity in.👉How settlement finality and USDC denominated gas change the pitch to enterprises that do not want to hold a native token.👉Why nested AI agents hiring other agents create a new internet architecture that three day settlement money cannot serve.Subscribe to un# for weekly founder conversations and follow Sri Misra on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/srimisra for daily insights.00:00 - Circle, USDC And What Comes Next05:19 - Liquidity Fragmentation Across EVM Chains06:22 - Arc As A USDC Liquidity Hub10:07 - Morpho, Uniswap And cirBTC On Arc13:12 - AI Agents And The 1996 Internet#NikhilChandhok #Circle #USDC #ArcBlockchain #ArcMainnet #Stablecoins #StablecoinLayer1 #SriMisra #alphaunhashed #DeFi #AgenticPayments #AIAgents #CryptoPodcast #futureofpayments Disclaimer: The information presented is for educational purposes only. Views expressed are those of the speakers, not necessarily the channel. You are responsible for your own research and decisions.Copyright: © 2024 Aarna AI Pte Ltd, Singapore. All rights reserved. You may share this video using the YouTube share function.