Email Was Instant. Payments Will Be Next.

In maybe three, five, or ten years, the very concept of a cross-border payment will be as absurd as the concept of a cross-border email. Jeremy Allaire, CEO of Circle

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Imagine a world where moving money across continents feels as effortless as sending a message. This isn’t some distant dream—it’s already taking shape through blockchain technology. Yet despite decades of financial innovation, today’s cross-border payments remain trapped in a labyrinth of correspondent banks, delays, and hidden fees. To understand how we move from this architecture to instant global value exchange, it helps to recall how communication evolved—from paper letters to real-time messaging.

Traditional international transfers depend on correspondent banking: each payment travels through a chain of intermediaries before arriving at its destination, much like a letter journeying from London to Tokyo through multiple postal hubs. Every stop adds cost and delay.

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Alternative systems have sought to simplify this process. Picture a friend flying from London to Tokyo—you hand her your letter, and she posts it locally upon arrival. That’s essentially how hawala networks and modern fintech platforms like Wise operate. Money rarely crosses borders in real time; instead, local accounts settle transactions domestically, with firms balancing their books across markets afterward.

These solutions have made global transfers faster and cheaper, but they remain tethered to legacy banking rails and intricate liquidity management.

Now imagine skipping the postal system entirely—teleporting your package directly from London to Tokyo. That’s the leap blockchain enables. Stablecoins represent dollars (or other currencies) on a blockchain, allowing instant, permissionless transfer anywhere in the world—no intermediaries, no friction. In this new paradigm, the term cross-border payment may soon sound as quaint as cross-border email.

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The Stablecoin Sandwich

For stablecoins to fulfill this promise, they must connect seamlessly to local payment systems, because most individuals and businesses still operate in their domestic currencies. The average shopkeeper in São Paulo doesn’t want to hold USDC, and a freelancer in Paris expects euros, not dollars.

Although stablecoins can’t replace domestic real‑time payment systems such as Brazil’s Pix or Europe’s SEPA, they can serve as a bridge between them, allowing transactions to bypass traditional international networks like SWIFT—a setup known as the “stablecoin sandwich”:

Here’s how it works:

1. On the sending side, euros are sent via SEPA and converted to USDC
2. The USDC moves across the blockchain—instant, transparent, and borderless.
3. On the receiving side, the USDC is converted into Brazilian reais and sent through Pix.

In this setup, stablecoins form the middle layer—the “filling” that connects two local fiat systems. When both ends use instant payment networks, the entire transaction—from euros to reais—can settle in seconds.

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The “stablecoin sandwich” positions stablecoins as the middleware that stitches together disparate national payment networks into a seamless, interoperable system.

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Stablecoins' Geo-Politics → Bitcoin

It is hard to praise stablecoin efficiency and innovation without confronting the geopolitical forces that underpin them.

At their core, stablecoins are tokenized dollars—digital stand-ins for U.S. currency, typically backed by short-term Treasury securities. This makes them far more than a technological convenience. In effect, they operate as a Trojan Horse for dollar expansion, extending the global reach of U.S. monetary power. Each new USDC or USDT issued not only reinforces the Treasury's ability to monitor and police global finance, but also bolsters international demand for U.S. debt.

This system works smoothly—until politics intervenes. Imagine a U.S. president imposing sweeping sanctions on Denmark over a territorial dispute in Greenland. Would Circle be compelled to freeze Danish wallets or block USDC-krone conversions? It sounds (or at least, sounded) far-fetched, but no longer unimaginable.

This is precisely where Bitcoin enters the conversation. If stablecoins represent the globalization of state money—tied to sovereign debt and vulnerable to political control—Bitcoin serves as their philosophical opposite: a stateless, censorship‑resistant store of value. It has no issuer, no central bank, and no treasury; its security and issuance are derived solely from cryptography and decentralized consensus.

As financial systems grow ever more entangled with geopolitical interests, Bitcoin offers a neutral alternative—its rules are defined by mathematics, not by political agendas. Innovations such as Ark and Spark, which extend the Lightning Network, make Bitcoin’s role in cross‑border payments increasingly clear.

The arc is clear: from the legacy SWIFT system, through the "stablecoin sandwich", we’re beginning to glimpse a truly borderless, permissionless, tamper‑proof network that can power global payments.

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Backing Fipto

We’re proud to announce our investment in Fipto, a global stablecoin payment infrastructure provider.

Our conviction stems not only from the strength of the founding team and the robustness of Fipto’s platform, but also from its disciplined approach to compliance. With VASP licenses in Luxembourg and France—and a Payment Institution (PI) license in France—Fipto exemplifies the regulatory rigor essential for sustainable growth and scalability.

Just as compelling is Fipto’s momentum in B2B integrations. Partnerships with Kyriba, a leading treasury management platform, and TerraPay, a global payments processor, showcase the team’s ability to connect seamlessly with established financial infrastructure.

At Cabrit, our thesis is straightforward: we believe in regulated, institutional-grade corridors on top of blockchain rails. Whether those corridors are powered by tokenized dollars or Bitcoin, the infrastructure being built today will define how money moves for the next generation. Fipto is among the first examples of this future—certainly not the last.

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_{Related investment themes
This insight reflects Ajeej Capital’s venture capital focus on institutional fintech, stablecoin-enabled payments, and next-generation financial infrastructure across global markets. Through its venture capital strategy in emerging and developed economies, Ajeej invests in regulated digital payments platforms, blockchain-based settlement infrastructure, and scalable financial technology that supports long-term, conviction-led growth. The firm’s approach to venture capital in MENA and international markets prioritises regulatory alignment, institutional adoption, and durable value creation across both public and private market ecosystems.}