As payments company Stripe’s recent $1.1 billion acquisition of stablecoin platform Bridge.xyz has sent shockwaves through the crypto payments sphere, attention is turning to the next generation of infrastructure providers stablecoin payment.
These include BlindPay, winner of the Consensus 2024 hackathon and batch company Y Combinator 2025 (W25) that is taking a different approach to the global payments challenge (if you want to apply for the EasyA Hackathon at Consensus Hong Kong 2025, go here ).
While Bridge.xyz captured the US and European markets with its enterprise-focused strategy, BlindPay is betting on emerging markets, particularly those in Latin America, as the key to widespread stablecoin adoption. This approach comes at a time when cryptocurrency a16z predicts growing enterprise acceptance of stablecoins for payments, calling them “the cheapest way to send a dollar.”
“What sets us apart from Bridge is our focus on emerging markets,” says BlindPay CEO Bernardo Simonassi Moura, 26. “We already operate in Argentina, Mexico, Colombia and Brazil, and we have our compliance and regulations to incorporate clients in those regions.”
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Unlike Bridge’s enterprise-focused model that relies on monthly commitment fees, BlindPay takes what Moura calls a “Shopify approach” of trying to democratize access to global payment avenues for small and medium-sized businesses through a transaction fee model. This strategy aligns with a16z’s prediction that small and medium-sized businesses will be among the first to adopt stablecoin payments to avoid the high transaction fees charged by traditional financial companies.
Since launching in July, the approach has proven highly effective, with BlindPay securing 19 clients across gaming, payments and DAOs, including notable names like LootRush in gaming and Hifibridge and WalaPay in payments. Monthly payment volumes have increased from $30,000 at launch to more than $300,000 recently, and Moura expects that figure to grow to $2.5 million with the addition of new customers.
BlindPay’s competitive advantage lies in its deep integration with Latin American markets, particularly Brazil, where cryptocurrency adoption ranks in the top ten globally, according to Chainlysis. Additionally, Moura focuses heavily on developer experience, drawing on his seven years of experience as a software engineer and product designer. “I’m always striving to bring the seamless and intuitive developer experience offered by platforms like Resend, Stripe, Ankey, SVX, and Clerk to the Web3 space,” he says.
The market opportunity
BlindPay’s market potential is substantial. The cross-border payments industry, currently dominated by SWIFT, processes approximately $33 trillion a year. Stablecoins, which will move $8.5 trillion in 2024, offer a compelling alternative. “If I want to send money from Brazil to Argentina using stablecoins, it takes 30 seconds, while SWIFT takes five business days,” says Moura.
Looking ahead, BlindPay’s ambitions extend beyond stablecoin integrations. “We have a long-term strategy to leverage our team’s fintech expertise to launch banking-as-a-service features powered by stablecoins,” says Moura. To that end, the company plans to connect with card networks, enable stablecoin spending through card issuance, and facilitate the purchase of tokenized stocks from regulated regions.
With its four co-founders bringing traditional fintech expertise, including Silicon Valley’s Lending Club and Brazilian fintech unicorns, BlindPay is well positioned to bridge the gap between traditional finance and crypto-native solutions. As the stablecoin payments landscape evolves, its focus on emerging markets, developer-friendly infrastructure, and the development of a comprehensive stablecoin-powered banking ecosystem could prove to be a winning strategy in the race to revolutionize global payments. .
