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Meet Rich Widmann, a leader at Google Cloud helping build the infrastructure that allows enterprises to confidently move into stablecoin and blockchain based payments.

Rich operates at the intersection of cloud, financial services, and digital assets.

As stablecoins move from experimentation to real world enterprise adoption, the infrastructure layer has become one of the most critical pieces of the stack and Rich is one of the people helping shape it.

That work recently brought him to the stage at Consensus Hong Kong, where he joined Anchorage Digital’s Head of Stablecoin Solutions, Sergio Mello, to discuss how regulated stablecoins are already supporting global payments in the U.S. and abroad.

One insight stood out:

The real opportunity for stablecoins is solving the cross border payment challenges that have slowed international commerce for decades, particularly in regions like Southeast Asia. His perspective was clear. The U.S. may have started the conversation, but the innovation is happening globally, and infrastructure providers like Google Cloud are positioning themselves as the backbone of that shift.

Check it out firsthand 👈

Rich represents the Introduction.com community at its best. People not just watching the future of finance unfold, but actively building it.

Say hey to Rich 👋 👇

LayerZero

LayerZero Labs secured a strategic investment from Tether to integrate its messaging layer with the new Tether WDK, building the foundation for AI-agent-led payments

This funding will scale agentic finance and autonomous wallet infrastructure across 70+ chains.

Huge shout out to our member, Simonas Baksys, for his leadership on this mission-critical raise!

Bullshot

Bullshot secured $7.5M from heavyweights like Animoca Brands and Genesis Capital to scale its AI-powered meme token launchpad on BNB Chain.

The funding will accelerate product development and global user acquisition for their "one-click" creation terminal.

Big congrats to Brad Feinstein and the rest of the team at AWS on the raise! Web3 and the digital asset space would not be the same without you.

Levl

Galaxy Ventures led a $7M seed round for LEVL to modernize B2B cross-border payments by unifying fiat and stablecoin rails.

The funding will be used to double their team and expand into emerging markets in Latin America and Africa.

Massive win for our member, CJ Huntzinger, for leading the platform and brand strategy on this massive infrastructure play!

STBL

STBL secured a strategic investment from OKX Ventures to launch the first Ecosystem-Specific Stablecoin (ESS) on X Layer, backed by Hamilton Lane’s billion-dollar Senior Credit fund.

This "Stablecoin 2.0" architecture uses a dual-token model to separate liquid settlement from RWA-generated yield, ensuring compliance with the latest US regulations.

Love to see our member, Duke Kim at Securitize, for bridging institutional private credit with onchain liquidity!

EdgeX 

EdgeX secured a strategic investment from Circle Ventures to integrate native USDC and CCTP into its high-performance EDGE Chain.

This partnership positions EdgeX to scale institutional-grade perps trading across crypto, stocks, and commodities with unified liquidity.

We see you Thomas Malone at Circle, love his critical work in driving this cross-chain settlement infrastructure forward!

YOM

YOM secured a $3M strategic round led by the Avalanche Foundation and Borderless Capital to scale its decentralized cloud gaming infrastructure (DePIN).

The capital will accelerate the repurposing of industrial mining fleets to stream AAA gaming directly inside Telegram and Discord at near-zero costs.

A massive showing from the introduction.com roster; shout out to the teams at Avalanche, Borderless, and Outlier Ventures for driving this next-gen gaming play!

UniSwap

Uniswap Labs partnered with Securitize to bring BlackRock’s BUIDL fund into the DeFi ecosystem, enabling seamless onchain liquidity for tokenized treasuries.

This integration bridges the world’s largest asset manager with the most liquid DEX, allowing institutional RWAs to move at the speed of DeFi.

A massive shout out to our member, Porter Geer, and the Uniswap team for this absolute masterclass in institutional capture!

OpenMind: OpenMind officially launched its Robot App Store and the $ROBO token this February, marking its transition to a community-governed robotics economy.

Cap Labs: Cap Labs raised $15M via a public sale in February 2026 at a $150M valuation. The round was supported by a group of individual investors as the project scales its modular liquidity solutions.

DreamCash: Tether announced a strategic investment in Dreamcash, a self-custodial trading app for Hyperliquid. The partnership aims to scale RWA perps and accelerate the adoption of USDt0-backed global payments for mobile users.

Keyrock: Liquidity giant Keyrock has acquired its long-time partner Fija Finance. This move integrates Fija’s compliant, automated vault technology directly into Keyrock’s market-making stack to bolster institutional onchain asset management.

Iveniam Capital: Inveniam and MEASA Partners merged to create a global RWA infrastructure leader. The new entity combines patented data valuation tech with Middle Eastern sovereign networks to bridge institutional capital with digital markets.

The $700 billion "hyperscale" capex race of 2026 has hit a structural wall as massive infrastructure spending fails to translate into bottom-line results.

While 98% of firms are currently experimenting with AI, McKinsey’s Joe Ngai recently revealed that a staggering 95% of these companies see no meaningful impact on profit.

As depreciation costs begin to cannibalize balance sheets, the market is signaling a brutal valuation correction for firms that cannot prove a direct link between AI investment and quarterly earnings.

The January jobs report beat expectations with 130,000 new payrolls, signaling a shift away from the stagnation seen in late 2025, even as the unemployment rate ticked down slightly to 4.3%.

New CBO projections released in February 2026 show the Social Security retirement trust fund is now expected to be exhausted in 2032, potentially triggering an automatic 23% reduction in benefits.

An executive at Consensus Hong Kong projected that if Asian wealth managers recommended a mere 1% crypto allocation, it would trigger $2 trillion in new inflows, roughly 60% of the current total market cap.

DraftKings posted a massive 43% year-over-year revenue jump for Q4 2025, reaching its first-ever annual profit and beating Wall Street expectations, though forward guidance for 2026 remains cautious.

The SEC’s Prediction Market Pincer:

SEC Chair Paul Atkins has signaled a major jurisdictional shift, asserting that the agency may already have sufficient authority to regulate prediction markets.

By arguing that a security is defined by its structure rather than its form, the SEC is challenging the CFTC’s role as the sole federal overseer.

This "harmonization" effort could force platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket to navigate a dual-agency gauntlet as the sector expands into a $63 billion market.

Polymarket’s Federal Preemption Play:

Following a state-level crackdown that forced rival Kalshi to halt operations in Massachusetts, Polymarket has filed a federal lawsuit against the state's Attorney General.

The suit argues that the CFTC holds exclusive authority over event contracts, making state-level gambling bans unconstitutional.

The outcome will decide if the industry faces a unified federal standard or a fragmented 50-state "patchwork" of licenses.

The "Atkins Era" Enforcement Pivot:

In testimony before the Senate, Chair Atkins emphasized a move away from "regulation by enforcement" toward clear, tech-neutral rules.

However, his focus on "overlapping jurisdiction" suggests that while the tone is friendlier, the SEC intends to be more involved in DeFi and prediction markets than previously anticipated, seeking to ensure that digital assets adhere to traditional investor protection standards regardless of their specific wording.

Hong Kong’s Stablecoin Launchpad:

The HKMA has confirmed it will issue the first batch of official stablecoin licenses in March 2026.

This milestone follows the end of the transition period on January 31, after which unlicensed issuance carries criminal penalties.

With 36 applicants, including giants like Standard Chartered and Ant Group, Hong Kong is positioning its "regulated mint" as a primary competitor to the USD-dominated offshore market.

The EU’s "Total Block" on Russian Crypto:

The European Commission has proposed its 20th sanctions package, which includes a sweeping ban on all crypto transactions with Russian entities.

Moving beyond previous limits, this "zero-tolerance" policy targets the "crypto loophole" by blacklisting third-country platforms, such as Kyrgyzstan’s TengriCoin, that facilitate stablecoin trades for Russian state-linked interests.

Dubai’s Institutional VASP Milestone:

Animoca Brands has secured a VASP license from Dubai’s VARA, authorizing it to provide broker-dealer and investment services to institutional clients.

This move coincides with Dubai's updated framework that strictly targets "clean" institutional capital over retail experimentation, signaling a pivot toward attracting global Web3 foundations into a well-regulated Middle Eastern framework.