Bitcoin, Fiat & Rock'n'Roll

State of Stablecoins 2026: Architecture, Power, and Risk

How stablecoins are rewriting global financial architecture. In this solo episode of Bitcoin, Fiat & Rock’n’Roll, co-host Michael Blaschke steps away from the usual interview format to unpack a topic that is rapidly moving from crypto niche to systemic relevance: stablecoins. The episode is built around his newly published study with the FERI Cognitive Finance Institute, “Stablecoins: How Tokenized Money is Changing the Global Financial Architecture,” co-authored with Dr. Heinz-Werner Rapp. This is not a hype-driven discussion about token prices. It is a deep dive into the monetary layer of the token economy: why tokenized assets need tokenized money, why stablecoins are emerging as the dominant settlement instrument, and why this shift matters for banks, regulators, corporates and policymakers. Michael introduces the study’s two-pillar model: tokenized assets on one side, tokenized money on the other. He explains why a digital bond or tokenized fund remains incomplete if settlement still depends on slow legacy payment rails, limited business hours and correspondent banking chains. Stablecoins, in this view, are not just another crypto asset. They are the missing monetary infrastructure. The episode also explores the scale of the market, the role of stablecoins in US Treasury demand, the geopolitical implications of dollar dominance, and the widening gap between Europe’s regulatory leadership and America’s strategic push. Michael examines the core risks institutions need to understand: depegs, reserve quality, intermediary fragility, regulatory shocks and run dynamics in 24/7 markets. A major focus is Europe’s response under MiCA, including euro-denominated initiatives such as AllUnity and the Kivalis consortium. Looking ahead, the episode also connects stablecoins with the rise of agentic AI, asking what happens when autonomous systems begin to rely on programmable, always-on digital money. This is a dense but practical episode for anyone working in institutional DLT, treasury, payments, compliance, digital assets or financial infrastructure. If you want to understand how tokenized money could reshape global finance, this is the episode to start with. Blaschke & Rapp (2026) — "Stablecoins: How Tokenized Money Is Changing the Global Financial Architecture," published by the FERI Cognitive Finance Institute (the study that the episode is built around). [https://www.feri-institut.de/media/euzpiwx4/202604_stablecoins_kurz.pdf?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=feri&utm_content=post&utm_campaign=c8615f4c-42cc-4bc8-b87f-df00290f381d] FERI Cognitive Finance Institute press release [https://www.feri.de/newsroom/stablecoins-wie-tokenisiertes-geld-die-globale-finanzarchitektur-veraendert] Michael Blaschke on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-michael-r-blaschke] Bitcoin, Fiat & Rock’n’Roll Website [https://www.bfrr.de/] Bitcoin, Fiat & Rock’n’Roll Telegram Channel [https://t.me/+jA3nMkERPtc5YjQ0] Brunnermeier & Niepelt (2019) — Referenced for the argument that private and public money can be economically equivalent, but only under specific conditions (equivalence breaks down when trust in the private issuer erodes). [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmoneco.2019.07.004] Lyons & Viswanath-Natraj (2020) — Analyzed the stablecoin peg mechanism and compared arbitrageurs to authorized participants in the ETF market. [https://www.nber.org/papers/w27136] Gorton & Zhang (Yale) — Compared bond-based stablecoins (Tether, Circle) to the Wildcat Banks of 19th-century America, i.e., private money issuers backed by reserves with historically mixed results. [https://lawreview.uchicago.edu/print-archive/taming-wildcat-stablecoins] Ahmed & Aldasoro (BIS working paper, 2026) — "Stablecoins and Safe Asset Prices" — Empirically demonstrated that stablecoin inflows depress three-month US Treasury bill yields by 2.5 to 3.5 basis points (5 to 8 basis points during tight supply periods). [https://www.bis.org/publ/work1270.htm] Diamond & Dybvig (1983) — The classic bank run model showing that coordinated withdrawals can be individually rational even when the institution is fundamentally solvent; applied by Michael to the stablecoin context. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1837095] ---------------------------------------- Relai*: Buy Bitcoin with Relai—you can do a one-time purchase or savings plan: Click here [https://relai.ch/rock/]. Use the referral code "ROCK" to reduce transaction fees by 0.1% while supporting Bitcoin, Fiat & Rock’n’Roll. Value4Value Podcast Streaming: Support our podcast by listening to our episodes on the Fountain Podcast App. This way, if you wish, you can support us "Value4Value" while listening to the podcast. You can find us on the Fountain Podcast App here: Click here [https://fountain.fm/show/wNv0vSPWzu8Gh7bZTorB] Disclaimer: The content of this podcast reflects the private opinions of the hosts, serves exclusively for general information purposes and does not constitute investment advice. Always remember: Do your own research—inform yourself before making any investment decisions, such as buying Bitcoin. First try to understand what Bitcoin is and how to store it. This podcast does not provide financial advice. Note that the co-hosts might be invested in crypto assets. Read more on our website: Click here [https://www.bfrr.de/disclaimer/] ---------------------------------------- All links marked with "*" are affiliate links. If you use these links for purchase, the podcast receives a small share of the revenue without any additional costs to you. On the contrary, affiliate links often include discount promotions, so you can even save money. We would appreciate it if you use these links to support us. Thank you very much!

From BIS Payments Innovation to GFTN Impact Globally

A run-through of Singapore’s BIS innovation Hub Projects and GFTN Solutions Mission with Maha El Dimachki In this episode of BFRR, Manuel speaks with Maha El Dimachki, the newly appointed CEO of GFTN Solutions, for a wide-ranging conversation on the future of financial infrastructure, cross-border payments, and the role of innovation in public policy. With a career spanning retail banking, payments, regulation, the UK’s FCA, Pay.UK, and most recently the BIS Innovation Hub in Singapore, Maha brings a rare perspective from both the public and private sides of finance. The discussion begins with her journey through the payments industry, long before payments became one of the most dynamic areas in financial services. From there, the episode dives into her work at the BIS Innovation Hub, where she helped lead some of the most closely watched experiments in cross-border payments. Maha explains the thinking behind Project Nexus, which aims to connect domestic instant payment systems across borders; Project Mandala, which explores how compliance checks could become more efficient through privacy-preserving technology; and Project Rialto, which looks at new approaches to FX clearing and settlement using tokenized money. What makes this conversation especially valuable is its practical lens. Rather than treating innovation as a buzzword, Maha unpacks where the real frictions in global payments still sit today: compliance, foreign exchange, fragmented infrastructure, and the challenge of coordinating across jurisdictions. She also reflects on why compliance may be the most important problem to solve if the industry wants faster, cheaper, and more transparent international payments without compromising standards. The second half of the episode turns to GFTN Solutions and Maha’s new mission: translating insights into real-world implementation. She explains how GFTN, originally known for flagship forums such as the Singapore FinTech Festival and Point Zero Forum, is now expanding into policy development, ecosystem building, and capacity building for governments, regulators, and financial centers around the world. This is a fascinating episode for anyone interested in the future of money, the modernization of financial market infrastructure, and the increasingly important collaboration between regulators and industry. It is a conversation about how innovation moves from theory to implementation and why the next generation of finance will be shaped as much by cooperation as by technology. GFTN Website [https://gftn.co/] GFTN Solution’s Project in Odisha, India [https://odisha.gftn.co/] Bitcoin, Fiat & Rock’n’Roll Website [https://www.bfrr.de/] Bitcoin, Fiat & Rock’n’Roll Telegram Channel [https://t.me/+jA3nMkERPtc5YjQ0] ---------------------------------------- BFRR partners with GFTN as a media partner at this year’s Point Zero Forum taking place in Zurich on 23-25 June. BFRR listeners get 30% off the full price industry pass with code BFRR2026. Make sure you join the podcast hosts at this high-profile conference. Registration link with discount [https://registration.pointzeroforum.com/2026/register?ref=BFRR2026&code=BFRR2026&c_7164712=41966045®_type_id=1063177] Relai*: Buy Bitcoin with Relai—you can do a one-time purchase or savings plan: Click here [https://relai.ch/rock/]. Use the referral code "ROCK" to reduce transaction fees by 0.1% while supporting Bitcoin, Fiat & Rock’n’Roll. Value4Value Podcast Streaming: Support our podcast by listening to our episodes on the Fountain Podcast App. This way, if you wish, you can support us "Value4Value" while listening to the podcast. You can find us on the Fountain Podcast App here: Click here [https://fountain.fm/show/wNv0vSPWzu8Gh7bZTorB] Disclaimer: The content of this podcast reflects the private opinions of the hosts, serves exclusively for general information purposes and does not constitute investment advice. Always remember: Do your own research—inform yourself before making any investment decisions, such as buying Bitcoin. First try to understand what Bitcoin is and how to store it. This podcast does not provide financial advice. Note that the co-hosts might be invested in crypto assets. Read more on our website: Click here [https://www.bfrr.de/disclaimer/] ---------------------------------------- All links marked with "*" are affiliate links. If you use these links for purchase, the podcast receives a small share of the revenue without any additional costs to you. On the contrary, affiliate links often include discount promotions, so you can even save money. We would appreciate it if you use these links to support us. Thank you very much!

Crossing the Chasm: How Architecture Unlocks Stablecoin Adoption

IT architecture is where enterprise stablecoin adoption is won or lost. In this episode of BFRR – Bitcoin, Fiat and Rock and Roll, co-host Michael Blaschke speaks with Stefan Arnold, Lead Architect of the SAP Digital Currency Hub, about one of the most important but least discussed questions in institutional digital finance: what will actually enable stablecoins to move from experimentation into mainstream enterprise adoption? While much of the public conversation focuses on regulation, issuers, liquidity, and market structure, this discussion goes deeper into the operational reality inside companies. What happens when a corporate treasury team wants to use stablecoins in practice? Where does the process break down? And why is the real bottleneck often not demand, but architecture? Drawing on his work at SAP and conversations with enterprise customers, Stefan explains why CFOs and treasury teams are not looking for “crypto products” as such. They need complete, reliable, enterprise-grade payment solutions that are faster, cheaper, more transparent, and easier to reconcile than legacy rails. That means stablecoins only become relevant when they are embedded seamlessly into existing ERP and finance workflows. The conversation explores the gap between rapidly evolving Web3 innovation and the slower, highly controlled world of enterprise finance. Stefan outlines the practical blockers that still stand in the way of adoption: missing standards, fragmented custody models, manual reconciliation, wallet complexity, and the challenge of integrating blockchain-based payments into existing payment runs, account statements, and audit processes. Together, Michael and Stefan unpack why this “crossing the chasm” moment is now becoming real. Stablecoins are no longer viewed as a fringe experiment. The question has shifted from whether they matter to how companies can get started. From intra-company treasury flows to cross-border payments, the episode shows where early adoption is already happening and what needs to change for the broader market to follow. This is a conversation about the invisible infrastructure behind digital money — and why the winners in enterprise stablecoin adoption may not simply be those building the best token, but those building the best bridge between blockchain and core financial systems. If you want to understand where institutional stablecoin adoption is actually heading, this episode is for you. Stefan Arnold on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/0xst3fan/] Michael Blaschke on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-michael-r-blaschke] Bitcoin, Fiat & Rock’n’Roll Website [https://www.bfrr.de/] Bitcoin, Fiat & Rock’n’Roll Telegram Channel [https://t.me/+jA3nMkERPtc5YjQ0] Paypal and SAP on how to optimize digital payments for treasury operations [https://www.linkedin.com/posts/sharyn-tan-reveals-how-to-optimize-digital-ugcPost-7394404276938375169-XRw5/] ---------------------------------------- Relai*: Buy Bitcoin with Relai—you can do a one-time purchase or savings plan: Click here [https://relai.ch/rock/]. Use the referral code "ROCK" to reduce transaction fees by 0.1% while supporting Bitcoin, Fiat & Rock’n’Roll. Value4Value Podcast Streaming: Support our podcast by listening to our episodes on the Fountain Podcast App. This way, if you wish, you can support us "Value4Value" while listening to the podcast. You can find us on the Fountain Podcast App here: Click here [https://fountain.fm/show/wNv0vSPWzu8Gh7bZTorB] Disclaimer: The content of this podcast reflects the private opinions of the hosts, serves exclusively for general information purposes and does not constitute investment advice. Always remember: Do your own research—inform yourself before making any investment decisions, such as buying Bitcoin. First try to understand what Bitcoin is and how to store it. This podcast does not provide financial advice. Note that the co-hosts might be invested in crypto assets. Read more on our website: Click here [https://www.bfrr.de/disclaimer/] ---------------------------------------- All links marked with "*" are affiliate links. If you use these links for purchase, the podcast receives a small share of the revenue without any additional costs to you. On the contrary, affiliate links often include discount promotions, so you can even save money. We would appreciate it if you use these links to support us. Thank you very much!

Stablecoins, Tokenized Deposits, and the Race for Institutional Rails | Monthly Briefing

March 2026 shows the trend clearly: stablecoins are scaling, tokenized securities are moving forward, and institutional DLT adoption is no longer a future story. In this March 2026 news episode of BFRR – Bitcoin, Fiat & Rock’n’Roll, Michael Blaschke, Manuel and Simon Seiter, CFO of AllUnity, unpack one of the most important months yet for institutional blockchain, digital money and tokenized assets. While crypto prices remain under pressure and sentiment stays deep in fear territory, the infrastructure story is moving in the opposite direction: regulation is maturing, institutional adoption is accelerating and the rails for the next financial system are being laid. The episode begins with a market overview, from Bitcoin and Ether price action to ETF flows and a major milestone for crypto-native banking: Kraken Financial becoming the first digital asset bank in US history to receive a Federal Reserve master account. From there, the conversation shifts into the heart of the episode: the global race to define regulated digital money. A central focus is the rise of stablecoins and tokenized deposits. The hosts examine Europe’s rapidly evolving landscape, including AllUnity’s expansion from a euro to a Swiss franc stablecoin and the growing significance of projects such as Kivalis. Beyond Europe, they discuss parallel developments in the UAE and Hong Kong, arguing that a global consensus is emerging around fully reserved, regulated and institution-led stablecoins. At the same time, they explore how banks are defending the deposit franchise through tokenized deposit models, regulatory lobbying and new shared ledger initiatives. The episode also covers major moves from payment giants and fintech infrastructure players, including Mastercard, Visa, Stripe and BVNK, as well as the growing importance of agentic payments and machine-to-machine commerce. On the asset side, the hosts review groundbreaking US regulatory progress on tokenized securities, momentum in tokenized money market funds and important developments in Germany, from Börse Stuttgart Digital to Deutsche Börse’s expanding digital asset strategy. Overall, this episode captures a defining moment for institutional DLT: a market that may look weak on the surface, but underneath is becoming more regulated, more connected and far more consequential. Bitcoin, Fiat & Rock’n’Roll Website [https://www.bfrr.de/] Bitcoin, Fiat & Rock’n’Roll Telegram Channel [https://t.me/+jA3nMkERPtc5YjQ0] ---------------------------------------- Relai*: Buy Bitcoin with Relai—you can do a one-time purchase or savings plan: Click here [https://relai.ch/rock/]. Use the referral code "ROCK" to reduce transaction fees by 0.1% while supporting Bitcoin, Fiat & Rock’n’Roll. Value4Value Podcast Streaming: Support our podcast by listening to our episodes on the Fountain Podcast App. This way, if you wish, you can support us "Value4Value" while listening to the podcast. You can find us on the Fountain Podcast App here: Click here [https://fountain.fm/show/wNv0vSPWzu8Gh7bZTorB] Disclaimer: The content of this podcast reflects the private opinions of the hosts, serves exclusively for general information purposes and does not constitute investment advice. Always remember: Do your own research—inform yourself before making any investment decisions, such as buying Bitcoin. First try to understand what Bitcoin is and how to store it. This podcast does not provide financial advice. Note that the co-hosts might be invested in crypto assets. Read more on our website: Click here [https://www.bfrr.de/disclaimer/] ---------------------------------------- All links marked with "*" are affiliate links. If you use these links for purchase, the podcast receives a small share of the revenue without any additional costs to you. On the contrary, affiliate links often include discount promotions, so you can even save money. We would appreciate it if you use these links to support us. Thank you very much!

The Shopify Moment for Tokenisation?

How Tokenforge is turning tokenisation into a scalable, product-driven experience Tokenisation has long promised to transform capital markets, yet many projects remain slow, expensive, and highly bespoke. In this episode, Moritz Stumpf, founder of Tokenforge, shares a different perspective: what if tokenisation behaved less like a complex financial engineering exercise and more like a scalable digital product? By introducing an “e-commerce mindset,” Tokenforge aims to simplify issuance, automate workflows, and provide intuitive portals for both issuers and investors. We explore how this product-driven approach challenges the current state of the market. Instead of focusing purely on infrastructure, Tokenforge emphasises distribution, user experience, and cost efficiency — key ingredients that have driven scale in other industries. The conversation dives into where today’s tokenisation efforts fall short, how automation can coexist with regulatory requirements, and what it takes to move from isolated pilot projects to real adoption. Finally, we turn to Tokenforge’s recent launch of the TKFG token on Base and Aerodrome, unpacking the strategic thinking behind it. Is this about incentives, ecosystem building, or a broader shift toward crypto-native growth models? The discussion highlights the opportunities — and tensions — of combining institutional ambitions with token-based strategies, offering a forward-looking view on how tokenisation might truly scale. Bitcoin, Fiat & Rock’n’Roll Website [https://www.bfrr.de/] Bitcoin, Fiat & Rock’n’Roll Telegram Channel [https://t.me/+jA3nMkERPtc5YjQ0] ---------------------------------------- Relai*: Buy Bitcoin with Relai—you can do a one-time purchase or savings plan: Click here [https://relai.ch/rock/]. Use the referral code "ROCK" to reduce transaction fees by 0.1% while supporting Bitcoin, Fiat & Rock’n’Roll. Value4Value Podcast Streaming: Support our podcast by listening to our episodes on the Fountain Podcast App. This way, if you wish, you can support us "Value4Value" while listening to the podcast. You can find us on the Fountain Podcast App here: Click here [https://fountain.fm/show/wNv0vSPWzu8Gh7bZTorB] Digital Euro Conference: Bitcoin, Fiat & Rock’n’Roll ist again partnering with the Digital Euro Conference that takes place on March 26, 2026, in Frankfurt. The DEC is one of Europe’s leading conferences on the future of money, discussing the digital euro but also the role of stablecoins and tokenized deposits for the future of payments. More information about the DEC, can you found here* [https://www.eventbrite.de/e/digital-euro-conference-2026-dec26-tickets-1478227812179?dicsount=BFRR20]. Secure 20% off with the discount code “BFRR20”. Disclaimer: The content of this podcast reflects the private opinions of the hosts, serves exclusively for general information purposes and does not constitute investment advice. Always remember: Do your own research—inform yourself before making any investment decisions, such as buying Bitcoin. First try to understand what Bitcoin is and how to store it. This podcast does not provide financial advice. Note that the co-hosts might be invested in crypto assets. Read more on our website: Click here [https://www.bfrr.de/disclaimer/] ---------------------------------------- All links marked with "*" are affiliate links. If you use these links for purchase, the podcast receives a small share of the revenue without any additional costs to you. On the contrary, affiliate links often include discount promotions, so you can even save money. We would appreciate it if you use these links to support us. Thank you very much!