Western Union launching a stablecoin on Solana marks a major shift in payments infrastructure. In this episode of Stabled Up, we sit down with Stepan Simkin and Garrett Harper from Squads Protocol to discuss how they built the infrastructure for Western Union's Solana strategy, why vertically integrated infrastructure wins, and the path to $3.7 trillion in stablecoin market cap. We discuss: - How Western Union secured $15B in assets on Solana - Western Union's Solana strategy & why they chose Squads - Enterprise vs crypto-native stablecoin approaches - Why vertically integrated infrastructure wins - The path from $300B to $3.7T in stablecoins - Altitude: On-chain business banking for enterprises - Getting paid in USDC: The future of payroll Timestamps 00:00 Intro 01:39 Stepan & Garrett's Background: Building Squads 03:13 Blockworks Transformation Story 04:15 Squads' Founder Journey 07:58 Western Union Goes to Solana: The Inside Story 10:40 The Squads Value Proposition for Enterprises 12:34 Relay Ad 13:35 Why Vertically Integrated Infrastructure Wins 15:53 Stable Chains vs Open Networks: The Trade-offs 17:27 Payment Stablecoins vs Loyalty Stablecoins 19:54 Balancing Security & Trust at Scale 21:02 Growing Stablecoin Supply: What's Driving It 22:54 Enterprise Chain Preferences Revealed 25:05 $15B Breakdown & Geography: Where the Money Is 26:24 Alvara Ad 26:49 Coinbase Partnership: What It Unlocks 32:48 Getting Paid in Stablecoins: The Payroll Future 33:17 Closing Thoughts Website: https://therollup.co/ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1P6ZeYd... Podcast: https://therollup.co/category/podcast Follow us on X: https://www.x.com/therollupco Follow Rob on X: https://www.x.com/robbie_rollup Follow Andy on X: https://www.x.com/ayyyeandy Join our TG group: https://t.me/+TsM1CRpWFgk1NGZh The Rollup Disclosures: https://therollup.co/the-rollup-discl ๐๐๐ฆ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ฅ: ๐๐ฏ๐ท๐ฆ๐ด๐ต๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ค๐ณ๐บ๐ฑ๐ต๐ฐ๐ค๐ถ๐ณ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ค๐บ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐๐ฆ๐๐ช ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ข๐ต๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฎ๐ด ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต ๐ณ๐ช๐ด๐ฌ๐ด ๐ช๐ฏ๐ค๐ญ๐ถ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ฆ๐ค๐ฉ๐ฏ๐ช๐ค๐ข๐ญ ๐ณ๐ช๐ด๐ฌ, ๐ฉ๐ถ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ณ, ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ข๐ต๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฎ ๐ง๐ข๐ช๐ญ๐ถ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ. ๐๐ต ๐ค๐ฆ๐ณ๐ต๐ข๐ช๐ฏ ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ช๐ฏ๐ต๐ด ๐ต๐ฉ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ถ๐จ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ค๐ฉ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ญ, ๐ธ๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ข๐บ ๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ๐ฏ ๐ข ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ช๐ด๐ด๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ง๐ฆ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ด ๐ข ๐ด๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ด๐ฐ๐ณ๐ด๐ฉ๐ช๐ฑ, ๐ช๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ช๐ด ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ข๐ด๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐ข๐ญ๐ธ๐ข๐บ๐ด ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ถ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ต ๐ช๐ด ๐ค๐ญ๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ. ๐๐ฆ ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ต๐ณ๐ช๐ค๐ต๐ญ๐บ ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ฆ๐ฅ๐ถ๐ค๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ต๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ข๐ต๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฎ, ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ธ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ง๐ง๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ช๐ด ๐ง๐ช๐ฏ๐ข๐ฏ๐ค๐ช๐ข๐ญ ๐ข๐ฅ๐ท๐ช๐ค๐ฆ. ๐๐ฆ ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ง๐ฆ๐ด๐ด๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ๐ด ๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ญ๐ช๐ค๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ฅ๐ท๐ช๐ด๐ฐ๐ณ๐ด.
