Remy Blaire: Stablecoins are fast shifting from crypto speculation to mainstream financial piping, while macro analysts at firms like Citrini Research pointed digital dollars as the primary settlement layer for future commerce. Enterprise adoption is hitting scale. Meanwhile, Samsung is embedding USDC directly into its wallet across 82 million eligible US Galaxy devices, and regulated infrastructure provider Bastion powering the compliance as well as cross-border bank remittances under the hood. Joining us live here at the New York Stock Exchange on this Friday morning is founder and CEO, Nass Eddequiouaq. Well, great to have you here. Thank you so much for joining us. So many of us have been digesting the impact of this announcement following Token 2049, as well as what's happening with Samsung Wallet. So at Bastion, give us a sense of how long this has been in the works and why it's so significant.
Nass: I would say that the largest companies in the world don't take decisions that lightly, especially as it comes to building the next evolution of financial services that are embedded within their platform. It's been a multi-year journey with the Samsung team, really understanding where do stablecoins build the most value for them, where money is flowing, and where they can actually optimize things across their entire ecosystem. And they're extremely excited. And now that the regulations are in place, it is safer than ever, essentially, for them to integrate the best that money has to offer. So we're excited to go on this journey with them.
Remy Blaire: Yes, and we are here in the final quarter of 2026, and we have been paying attention to the evolution of stablecoins. But when it comes to viewers out there who are perhaps sitting at the nation's airport gates or business lounges or even hotels, and they're watching right now, and if they do have a Samsung device, what does it mean for them as we head into year end as well as 2027?
Nass: Yes, so imagine a world where, to start, 82 million people in the US are going to be able to access just the best of what money has to offer, which is really an account where they can seamlessly fund, earn rewards, and funds essentially across over 60 countries around the world. So really beyond what we see on the market today with those embedded wallet applications, really, I would say global connectivity is, is, is the focus in this first launch with Samsung, and then over time expanding the spendability and the utility around those embedded financial accounts.
Remy Blaire: And many of us have mobile devices that function not just in one region but also regions around the globe. So when it comes to cross-border remittances, what more do you think needs to be done?
Nass: You know, most markets are really fragmented. It is really hard to send funds to people and family and businesses abroad, right? This is the reason why you have Western Union and MoneyGram and many others that are not just large players but kind of keep growing and are integrating stablecoins. Here we really do believe that the form factor of having the phone in everyone's pocket that natively comes with a stablecoin account that is cross-border in nature is the best way, essentially, to make money, to defragment money really globally.
Remy Blaire: And while I have you here, we are indeed at the center of finance and capital here in the US at the New York Stock Exchange. And when we take a look at, say, stocks or even asset classes, whether we're talking about crypto, Bitcoin, or commodity, uh, we know that they're dollar-denominated. So give us an understanding of some of the regulatory tailwinds as well as headwinds when it comes to stablecoins.
Nass: You know, a lot of people are talking about the Clarity Act when it comes to digital assets and tokenized stocks and derivatives and futures and various financial products. The thing that is great is that stablecoins already got the clarity moment with the Genius Act. Right, the legislation has already been signed and outlined and is being further defined, right, in terms of the edge cases, I would say, of stablecoins with regulators. But this is already clear to people, and so we're extremely excited about this because ultimately money is the ubiquitous common denominator to all of finance here. And we want to make sure that we solve money at Bastion first before enabling the rest of the financial products, which we will keep adding both with Samsung here. We also signed Sony as a client, and we're launching their stablecoin and more things across their ecosystem. And so we're very excited for more large companies to build financial ecosystems that are extremely robust.
Remy Blaire: And while I have you here, I do want to ask you about the OCC charter for the National Trust Bank. So what does this mean, and do you think this gives a green light to, say, some of the boards of companies listed here at the New York Stock Exchange?
Nass: Yes, I'm extremely excited about this, seeing more companies in the space that are highly trusted like Bastion reach, I would say, the highest bar in terms of regulatory. Obtaining approval and conditional approvals for OCC Trust Bank charter means that large financial institutions can finally rely on us from a compliance perspective. That is not the case when you're a fintech with money transmitter licenses. It's very different than being a bank. And so now we're in active conversations and progressing very quickly with some of the largest financial institutions, not just in the US but in the world, to actually fully rely on Bastion to launch, uh, stablecoin-based products and other forms of products, which we're excited to announce more.
Remy Blaire: And for viewers out there who might be watching right now and they're not as familiar with Bastion, what would you say are some of the advantages, especially when it comes to your infrastructure and being white label?
Nass: I believe we are the best partner in this Bitcoin journey for the largest enterprises in the world. So whether that is financial institutions, non-financial institutions, tech companies, payment services providers that operate at a very, very large scale, we're really geared towards those clients, and we help them send, hold, receive, earn on stablecoins and really build entire ecosystems around stablecoins in a way that is safe, that is secure, that is compliant, and that is scalable. And so that is really the focus of Bastion as a custodian, an issuer, and a payment platform.
Remy Yeah, and finally, Nass, before I let you go, infrastructure plumbing is something all of us are watching when it comes not just to digital assets but also artificial intelligence. And at the top of the show, you also mentioned that this deal, this partnership with Samsung, has been years in the works. So when you look ahead beyond year end, beyond 2027, what is your vision for Bastion?
Nass: Something that we're extremely excited about when it comes to intelligence is actually the fact that we're going to be embedding, we are already embedding intelligence and AI within our systems internally for risk management and compliance and security and more. But also we're serving use cases where some of the largest companies in the world that we're actively working with want to leverage AI and agent tech and really solve agent commerce and payments and leverage stablecoin. It is part of that because ultimately stablecoins are just going to be a better form of money for those agents in the future. It is 24/7. It is programmable. It is cross-border, and we believe that intelligence is going to want to use that new form of money.
Remy Blaire: And less than 60 seconds here, but since you mentioned intelligence, there are a lot of existential questions about the role of AI as well as agentic AI. So what will that look like when we're talking about stablecoins?
Nass: I think there's going to be just trillions and trillions of AI agents that are going to be paying each other, negotiating with each other. They are going to be creating contracts and trade and perform a lot of different actions on behalf of users, businesses. And so this is why we believe that building a highly scalable infrastructure and safe infrastructure is critical so that intelligence in the future can operate at that 1 trillion entity scale. So very, very excited for that. And yes, let's see what the next years are going to look like. I can't wait.
Remy Blaire: Well, Nass, appreciate your time. Thank you so much for joining us here at the New York Stock Exchange on the heels of that Samsung announcement.
Nass: Thank you so much.
