Thursday, 21 May, 2026
2 PM SGT

Beyond the hype: a payments leader's guide to cards, stablecoins, and the multi-rail reality

APAC STABLECOIN WEBINAR

In partnership with

Why attend

The stablecoin conversation in APAC has moved from "if" to "where." B2B cross-border payments, treasury settlement, and supplier payouts are where stablecoins are genuinely outperforming cards today: faster settlement, near-zero on-chain costs, and no correspondent banking chain.

But consumer transactions, dispute resolution, and mass merchant acceptance still belong to the card rails, and the consumer protection gap in stablecoin payments is real and unresolved.

This panel cuts through the hype to give APAC payments leaders the honest comparison: the use cases where stablecoins are already the better choice, the ones where cards still win, what the cost structure actually looks like once middleware is accounted for, and how the schemes are planning to bridge both worlds.

The key take-aways

Where has rail selection already been decided by the market?
B2B cross-border payments have moved to stablecoin rails at genuine scale — the volume growth is undeniable. But consumer transactions, dispute resolution, and mass merchant acceptance remain structurally dependent on card infrastructure. The panel maps which use cases have shifted, which haven't, and why.

What does the cost comparison actually look like?
On-chain transaction fees are transformatively low, but the full cost stack — gateways, compliance tooling, off-ramp infrastructure — is rarely presented honestly. This section pressure-tests whether the savings are real or simply redistributed to different intermediaries.

How do cards and stablecoins coexist in practice?
The panel's arc moves deliberately from "where stablecoins win" through "where cards win" to the convergence question: how APAC fintechs should think about building across both rails, not choosing between them. The closing section delivers a practical decision framework rather than an ideological position.

And many more

The webinar panel

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Jesse Guild, Vice President, Product Management – Crypto & Digital Assets | Mastercard

Jesse Guild is Vice President, Product Management – Crypto & Digital Assets at Mastercard, where he leads the commercialization of crypto card and digital asset payment solutions across APAC. He has held product roles across banking and Web3 at Citibank, DTCC, Zero Hash, and Ava Labs. His experience spans blockchain payments, regulated tokenization, crypto settlement, Layer 1 ecosystems, and emerging onchain AI protocols.

Gabriel J Pan, VP, Global Head of FI | PhotonPay

Gabriel J Pan is a fintech executive with two decades of experience at the intersection of cross-border payments, digital assets, and emerging market financial infrastructure. He has held senior leadership roles at Ant International and Binance, where he operated at scale across emerging markets — building payment rails, managing large-scale fiat flows, and working directly with regulators and financial institutions on the ground. Having worked across both Web2 payment infrastructure and crypto-native operations in real commercial environments, Gabriel brings a first-handed market-grounded perspective on where stablecoins are already delivering in the real economy — trade settlement, supplier payouts, and cross-border B2B flows — and where the gaps remain. He currently leads global partnerships and globalisation strategy at PhotonPay, focused on the multi-rail payment reality reshaping world economy today.

Damien Gough, Head of Asia Pacific, Thredd

Damien Gough is a fintech and payments specialist with deep experience across issuing, issuer processing, global payment networks, and emerging financial technologies. He has built a reputation for bridging strategy and execution, working with issuers, processors, and global fintechs to design and scale payment programs across multiple markets. His expertise spans commercial and consumer card issuing, cross-border payments, fraud and risk infrastructure, and partnership development, with a strong focus on identifying high-growth opportunities in rapidly evolving ecosystems.

As Head of Asia Pacific at Thredd, Damien currently leads the company’s regional teams and commercial growth within the region.

Prior to Thredd, Damien was at Visa for 9 years, where he supported global fintechs such as Revolut, Airwallex and Wise to start their issuing programs in Asia Pacific. With 15 years of experience working with Banks and Fintechs in Asia Pacific, brings a deep understanding of navigating the complex payment ecosystem across the diverse region.

Join the Discussion

This webinar is in partnership with

THREDD

We are Thredd, formerly Global Processing Services. Thredd sits at the heart of the global payments revolution, processing billions of issuer transactions annually across 44 countries for the world’s leading fintechs, digital banks, and embedded finance providers.

Thredd’s unique offering is its client-centric approach combining hands-on support with modern, reliable, and scalable technology. Thredd’s assured solution accelerates the development and delivery of consumer and corporate payments components embedded within digital banks, as well as for expense management, B2B payments, crypto, lending, credit, Buy Now Pay Later (“BNPL”), FX, remittance, and open banking innovators. By partnering with our clients from concept to creation with our easily configurable solutions, we allow these leaders the agility to achieve their core business aspirations.

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