May 26, 2026 · 50 min · 11 segments
In this episode, **Kirill Gertman**, Co‑Founder and CEO of **Conduit**, explains how stablecoins are quietly replacing legacy payment rails like SWIFT without end users ever touching crypto. We…
Kirill GertmanGuestLuther MadayHostRamy SuleimanHostI mean, I, I like what you said, which is the more the level of pain, the more the level of adoption.
It has vastly grown the adoption period.
Like the volumes are there, the indicators are there, but with the increase in volume and the, with the increase in adoption, there's also an increase in, uh, pressure for the reduction of pricing and-
... you know, how, how has that, how have you, how, how have you seen that change over the past couple of years, and where do you see that going?
That's a great question, honestly, because I actually think this industry as a whole, and I mean like stablecoin sort of payment industry, uh, is facing tremendous pressure from margin compression, right? Um, if you're just doing like fiat to stables exchange on and off-ramps and, and nothing else, um, your margins are compressing, right? That's, that's the reality of the business.
For a number of reasons, there are more players in this market than ever before.
Mm-hmm.
So like you congratulate us on a raise, that's a pretty like small raise in comparison to some of the other folks who operate in this space.
And some of them, um, are like using the money they raised to essentially subsidize, right? And so they're not even making money, they're just spending their VC money to win market share essentially, which is great in the beginning, but I don't know how that's gonna play out long term.
Not sustainable.
Yeah.
I, again, like there's, there's, you know, th- these are smart people, by the way.
Um, I suppose the idea there, you win over the market, you push everybody else out, and then you're the main player left, and then you can drive prices back up, I guess or, or something like that.
And the reason I say this is a good thing is because it's good for the customers.
They get more choice, they get lower pricing, they get more competition for their business.
So they generally get, uh, better offers, right? It's also good for the industry because this forces us in particularly Conduit, but I think others just as well, right? It forces us to essentially innovate, right? If you're just competing on price, it's a race to the bottom and eventually everybody's gonna lose, right? And so the way to, uh, get around that or, or, you know, not be locked into this race is to offer, at least in my opinion, right? And I'm not, [chuckles] I'm not pretending to have all the answers here.
I mean, I, I like what you said, which is the more the level of pain, the more the level of adoption.
It has vastly grown the adoption period.
Like the volumes are there, the indicators are there, but with the increase in volume and the, with the increase in adoption, there's also an increase in, uh, pressure for the reduction of pricing and-
... you know, how, how has that, how have you, how, how have you seen that change over the past couple of years, and where do you see that going?
That's a great question, honestly, because I actually think this industry as a whole, and I mean like stablecoin sort of payment industry, uh, is facing tremendous pressure from margin compression, right? Um, if you're just doing like fiat to stables exchange on and off-ramps and, and nothing else, um, your margins are compressing, right? That's, that's the reality of the business.
For a number of reasons, there are more players in this market than ever before.
Mm-hmm.
So like you congratulate us on a raise, that's a pretty like small raise in comparison to some of the other folks who operate in this space.
And some of them, um, are like using the money they raised to essentially subsidize, right? And so they're not even making money, they're just spending their VC money to win market share essentially, which is great in the beginning, but I don't know how that's gonna play out long term.
Not sustainable.
Yeah.
I, again, like there's, there's, you know, th- these are smart people, by the way.
Um, I suppose the idea there, you win over the market, you push everybody else out, and then you're the main player left, and then you can drive prices back up, I guess or, or something like that.
And the reason I say this is a good thing is because it's good for the customers.
They get more choice, they get lower pricing, they get more competition for their business.
So they generally get, uh, better offers, right? It's also good for the industry because this forces us in particularly Conduit, but I think others just as well, right? It forces us to essentially innovate, right? If you're just competing on price, it's a race to the bottom and eventually everybody's gonna lose, right? And so the way to, uh, get around that or, or, you know, not be locked into this race is to offer, at least in my opinion, right? And I'm not, [chuckles] I'm not pretending to have all the answers here.
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