With payments firm Stripe’s recent $1.1 billion purchase of stablecoin platform Bridge.xyz sending shockwaves through the crypto-payments sphere, attention is turning to the next generation of stablecoin payment infrastructure providers.

Among them is BlindPay, a 2024 Consensus hackathon winner and Y Combinator 2025 (W25) batch company taking a distinct approach to the challenge of global payments (if you’d like to apply for the EasyA Hackathon at Consensus Hong Kong 2025, go here).

While Bridge.xyz captured the US and European markets with its enterprise-focused strategy, BlindPay is banking on emerging markets — especially those in Latin America — as the key to widespread stablecoin adoption. This focus comes at a time when a16z crypto predicts increasing corporate acceptance of stablecoins for payments, calling them “the cheapest way to send a dollar.”

“What sets us apart from Bridge is our focus on new markets,” says Bernardo Simonassi Moura, BlindPay’s 26-year-old CEO. “We already operate in Argentina, Mexico, Colombia and Brazil, and we have our compliance and regulations in place for customers in these regions.”

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Unlike Bridge’s enterprise-centric model, which relies on monthly commitment fees, BlindPay takes what Moura calls a “Shopify approach” to try to democratize access to global payment rails for small and medium-sized businesses via a transaction fee model. This strategy aligns with a16z’s prediction that SMEs will be among the first to embrace stablecoin payments to avoid the large transaction fees charged by traditional finance companies.

Since launching in July, the approach has proven highly effective, with BlindPay securing 19 customers across gaming, payments and DAOs, including notable names such as LootRush in gaming and Hifibridge and WalaPay in payments. Monthly payment volumes have grown from $30,000 at launch to over $300,000 recently, and Moura expects that number to grow to $2.5 million as new customers are added.

BlindPay’s competitive advantage lies in its deep integration with Latin American markets, particularly Brazil, where crypto adoption ranks top ten globally, according to Chainlysis. In addition, Moura focuses heavily on developer experience, drawing on his seven years of experience as a software engineer and product designer. “I always strive to bring the seamless and intuitive developer experience that platforms like Resend, Stripe, Ankey, SVX and Clerk offer to the Web3 space,” he says.

The market opportunity

BlindPay’s potential market is significant. The cross-border payments industry, currently dominated by SWIFT, processes around $33 trillion annually. Stablecoins, which will move $8.5 trillion by 2024, offer a compelling alternative. “If I want to send money from Brazil to Argentina using stablecoins, it takes 30 seconds, while SWIFT takes five business days,” Moura points out.

Looking ahead, BlindPay’s ambitions extend beyond stablecoin integrations. “We have a long-term strategy to leverage our team’s fintech experience to launch banking-as-a-service features powered by stablecoins,” says Moura. To that end, the company plans to connect to card networks, enable stablecoin spending through card issuance, and facilitate the purchase of tokenized shares from regulated regions.

With its four co-founders bringing experience from traditional fintech – including Silicon Valley’s Lending Club and Brazilian fintech unicorns – BlindPay is well positioned to bridge the gap between traditional finance and crypto-native solutions. As the stablecoin payments landscape evolves, their focus on emerging markets, developer-friendly infrastructure, and developing a comprehensive stablecoin-powered banking ecosystem could prove to be a winning strategy in the race to revolutionize global payments.