Monad's Mainnet Launch and their Stablecoin Strategy

In this Stabledash Live interview from Stablecoin Conference LATAM 2025, Drew sits down with Raj Parekh, Head of Stablecoins and Payments at Monad (previously Portal founder), to explore his journey building stablecoin infrastructure at Visa and beyond. Raj led Visa's crypto products globally, launching stablecoin settlement that now processes hundreds of millions in volume and enabled a fundamental unlock: 24/7 settlement instead of banking hours only.

The Visa chapter reveals how Facebook Libra legitimized crypto and forced companies to build dedicated crypto teams. When Libra collapsed after government pressure, Visa accelerated its stablecoin strategy. The insight: Visa tolerates crypto companies like Coinbase at the edges, but a new class of crypto-native issuers actually prefer settling in stablecoins because that's how they run their business. Visa's play was simple: accept stablecoins from issuers, handle last-mile settlement to merchants in fiat across 20+ currencies.

The breakthrough eliminated weekend settlement risk. Before stablecoins, Black Friday through Monday created massive lump-sum settlements stressing Treasury teams. Now with 24/7 stablecoin settlement, risk distributes across every day. Every card issuer posts collateral because Visa guarantees merchant payment even if the issuer fails. Stablecoins make this more efficient while enabling dollar-backed cards in Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia markets that never had access before.

Raj founded Portal as chain-agnostic stablecoin infrastructure, starting with Bitso as an early customer building self-custody wallets. Portal was recently acquired by Monad Foundation as a wholly owned subsidiary. Monad scaled EVM to 10,000 TPS as an L1 (comparable to Visa's 8,000-10,000 TPS messaging layer) but with settlement happening simultaneously on-chain. Mainnet launches late Q3/early Q4 2025

Timestamps:
01:13 - Raj's background: Visa security platform to crypto products lead
03:03 - How Visa "tolerated"crypto companies at the edges
03:59 - Facebook Libra Association legitimized crypto for enterprises
06:08 - US government pressure killed Libra but accelerated Visa's crypto strategy
08:13 - Why stablecoin settlement made sense: new class of crypto-native issuers
09:08 - How Visa settlement works: issuers to Visa to merchant banks
10:30 - Accepting stablecoins from issuers, paying merchants in 20+ fiat currencies
11:22 - The unlock: 24/7 settlement eliminated weekend risk concentration
12:05 - Stablecoins enabling dollar-backed cards in emerging markets
13:53 - Building Portal: chain-agnostic stablecoin infrastructure for neobanks
17:08 - Monad acquisition: Portal continues as subsidiary, Raj leads stablecoin strategy
18:03 - Monad's 10,000 TPS at L1 level (settlement and messaging simultaneously)
19:51 - Mainnet launch timeline: late Q3/early Q4 2025
20:38 - Mexico City hackathon and Network State founder residency

About Raj Parekh, Monad & Portal:
Raj Parekh is Head of Stablecoins and Payments at Monad and founder of Portal (acquired by Monad Foundation as wholly owned subsidiary). Previously led crypto products globally at Visa, launching stablecoin settlement infrastructure now processing hundreds of millions in volume. At Visa, Raj was on the front lines of the Facebook Libra Association and led the strategy to accept stablecoins from crypto-native issuers while settling to merchants in 20+ fiat currencies. Portal provides chain-agnostic stablecoin infrastructure for neobanks, freelancer platforms, and fintech companies. Monad scaled EVM to 10,000 TPS at L1 level with mainnet launching late Q3/early Q4 2025.

About Stabledash Live:
Stabledash Live brings exclusive conversations from leading stablecoin conferences, exploring infrastructure innovations, payment rails evolution, and the builders scaling digital dollar adoption globally.