Fintech Thought Leaders

Stablecoins just crossed a line in the U.S. from “maybe” to “real,” and the consequences are bigger than a single rule release. We sit down live at QED Investors to unpack the OCC’s final rules under the GENIUS Act and what they signal for payment stablecoins, tokenization, and the future of digital dollars. The biggest shift: the federal government is no longer asking whether stablecoins can exist here. It’s telling the market they can, and now it’s time to operate under supervision.We walk through what the rules clarify and what they don’t, including the questions everyone cares about: Who regulates stablecoin issuers? How do trust charters fit? What do reserve, liquidity and capital expectations imply for day-to-day operations? And why does less prescriptive guidance often mean more “mother may I” with examiners? We spend real time on the grayest topic of all: yield. The statute restricts interest, the market wants rewards, and the OCC leaves it to facts-and-circumstances review, setting up a new era of product design under uncertainty.Then we zoom out to winners and losers across the stablecoin ecosystem: crypto-native issuers who moved early, banks weighing tokenized deposits, and the infrastructure providers building custody, compliance, settlement, and reporting rails. We also hit the CLARITY Act’s stalled path, the tradeoff between SEC interpretation and durable legislation, and why crypto becoming partisan is a serious long-term risk for regulatory stability.

Beyond the Noise: The Fintech Investor Series is a LinkedIn Live Series hosted by Bill Cilluffo, partner and head of global early stage investments, where Bill talks to industry experts to break down the most important topics in global fintech.In this episode, The hybrid future: How stablecoins will complement existing payment systems, Bill dives into a core belief shared during his last discussion with QED's Gbenga Ajayi and Adams Conrad: the future of payments is hybrid. Listen to learn why QED believes the future of payments is a mix of old and new systems, what the trade-offs are across speed, cost, security, reversibility, and more, across stablecoins and other payment rails and why QED believes the winners will be the ones who connect payment systems, not just build new ones.

Beyond the Noise: The Fintech Investor Series is a LinkedIn Live Series hosted by Bill Cilluffo, partner and head of global early stage investments, where Bill talks to industry experts to break down the most important topics in global fintech.In this episode, Will stablecoins disrupt global finance?, you can listen to Bill's discussion with QED's Gbenga Ajayi and Adams Conrad to explore emerging trends, including real-world use cases in emerging markets and the U.S., and what has been solved and what open challenges remain.

In LATAM countries, particularly Mexico, 10% of the population has a credit card. However, within credit card transactions, according to Mexico's central bank Banxico,  around 65% of transactions from credit cards in any given year are installment-based.While working at Morgan Stanley in NYC, Angel Peña, co-founder and CEO of Aplazo, a modern payment network offering payment solutions and merchant tools to help merchants sell more and grow their brands, discovered Mexico's huge cultural preference for paying in installments but also that the country had a major roadblock for mass adoption of purchase financing installment plans.In this episode of the Fintech Thought Leaders podcast, Host Bill Cilluffo and Aplazo CEO Angel Peña discussed Mexico's underbanked population, the benefits of merchants being able to offer installment payment plans (BNPL) to 88% of the Mexican population who do not have credit cards and campaign installments, and the work Aplazo is doing to achieve financial ubiquity in Mexico.

Could the Costco model revolutionize business banking? Meow CEO Brandon Arvanaghi reveals how Meow is redefining the landscape by passing the majority of interest economics back to their customers, surpassing $1 billion assets on the platform with a lean team of appromimately 15 people. We'll uncover the critical role fintech and bank partnerships play, especially in the wake of significant events like the collapse of SVB and Synapse's bankruptcy and we'll share advice for fintech founders on recognizing red flags to avoid potential pitfalls, ensuring your company remains on solid ground.Finally, we delve into the strategic considerations of selecting and managing bank partners for long-term success. Emphasizing the need for redundancy for operational resilience and risk mitigation, we guide you through the critical process of reassessing current banking relationships. 

Bill Cilluffo sits down with co-founder & CEO of Capchase, Miguel Fernandez Larrea, to discuss critical lessons learned from his early entrepreneurial ventures, creating a category with Capchase, the importance of talking to customers early-on and the importance of managing risk in lending in order to succeed. 

Bill Cilluffo sits down with QED Principal, Ale Piedrahita, to discuss how living in multiple countries during her childhood has influenced her international life, her perspective on the European VC ecosystem, the competitive edge that Europe’s fintech sector has and the market trends she's most excited about.

Bill Cilluffo sits down with Aidan Rushby, founder and CEO of Carmoola, to discuss coming to terms with failure,  the importance of taking care of one's mental health and founding Carmoola to enable cheaper, easier and faster car finance.

Bill Cilluffo sits down with Eduardo della Maggiora, founder and CEO of Betterfly, to discuss the life-altering events that catalyzed the birth of his company, the importance of social impact in Betterfly's business model and how the platform is integrating the worlds of insurance, well-being and purpose with a big mission to empower people to help them live longer, healthier, happier lives.

QED's Partner and Head of International Early Stage Investments Bill Cilluffo sits down with QED's Partner and Head of Latin America Mike Packer to discuss how Mike's eagerness to digitize corporate banking led him to fintech investing in Latin America.