Share this article
Agora's Nick van Eck bets on stablecoin boom in enterprise payments
Agora CEO Nick van Eck sees stablecoin adoption shifting to real-world business for cross-border payments.
Jan 24, 2026, 6:00 p.m.
Make us preferred on Google
What to know:
- Agora, founded by Nick van Eck, is shifting its focus from DeFi growth toward using its AUSD stablecoin for enterprise payroll, B2B and cross-border payments.
- Van Eck argued that traditional companies will adopt stablecoins slowly due to infrastructure, policy and education gaps, but sees the biggest gains in replacing costly, pre-funded cross-border payment systems.
- He said he expects corporate-controlled chains like Circle's Arc, Coinbase's Base and Stripe's Tempo to dominate as the market consolidates, and aims for Agora to become a top-five global stablecoin issuer by building tools that feel more like bank accounts than crypto.
Agora, a startup founded by entrepreneur and VanEck heir Nick van Eck, is positioning itself for a stablecoin market that’s moving beyond crypto-native trading.
While decentralized finance (DeFi) remains a key growth engine – Agora’s total value locked (TVL) grew 60% last month from DeFi launches, he said — his focus is shifting toward a longer-term bet: stablecoin-powered enterprise payments.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
“We’re spending a lot of time across payroll, business-to-business, cross-border payments. Problems real companies actually need to solve,” van Eck, who will be speaking at CoinDesk's Consensus Hong Kong conference next month, said in a recent interview.
He believes adoption by traditional firms is inevitable but slow, delayed by unfamiliar infrastructure, lack of internal policies, and basic education gaps. "If stablecoin knowledge in the crypto world is a hundred," he said, then outside of is "a five."
Agora issues AUSD, a U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin, and also offers stablecoin-as-a-service for crypto projects wanting to mint their own branded tokens. But van Eck doesn’t recommend it for most. “It only makes sense if you have a closed-loop ecosystem,” he said. “Otherwise, use a major stablecoin."
The bigger opportunity, van Eck argued, lies in replacing clunky cross-border payment systems, where pre-funding and transaction costs eat into corporate margins. “If they save 1% on revenue, that might be 5% on EBITDA,” he said. The most likely early adopters? Multinational firms with global vendor networks.
Looking ahead, van Eck sees corporate chains like Circle's Arc, Coinbase's Base or Stripe's Tempo pulling activity away from open-source blockchains. “You’ll see consolidation into a handful of chains,” he predicted, as major firms bring “money, firepower and distribution.”
In this increasingly competitive landscape, Agora’s ambition is to be one of the top five global stablecoin issuers — and to win by building tools businesses actually know how to use.
“They don’t want crypto,” van Eck said. “They want something that feels like a bank account, but better.”
More For You
KuCoin captured a record share of centralised exchange volume in 2025, with more than $1.25tn traded as its volumes grew faster than the wider crypto market.
What to know:
- KuCoin recorded over $1.25 trillion in total trading volume in 2025, equivalent to an average of roughly $114 billion per month, marking its strongest year on record.
- This performance translated into an all-time high share of centralised exchange volume, as KuCoin’s activity expanded faster than aggregate CEX volumes, which slowed during periods of lower market volatility.
- Spot and derivatives volumes were evenly split, each exceeding $500 billion for the year, signalling broad-based usage rather than reliance on a single product line.
- Altcoins accounted for the majority of trading activity, reinforcing KuCoin’s role as a primary liquidity venue beyond BTC and ETH at a time when majors saw more muted turnover.
- Even as overall crypto volumes softened mid-year, KuCoin maintained elevated baseline activity, indicating structurally higher user engagement rather than short-lived volume spikes.
More For You
Coinbase CEO says Big banks now view crypto as an ‘existential’ threat to their business
Brian Armstrong returns from World Economic Forum with message: traditional finance is taking crypto seriously
What to know:
- Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said a top executive at one of the world’s 10 largest banks told him crypto is now the bank’s “number one priority” and an “existential” issue.
- At Davos, Armstrong highlighted tokenization of assets and stablecoins as major themes, arguing they could broaden access to investments for billions while threatening to bypass traditional banks.
- He described the Trump administration as the most crypto-forward government globally, backing efforts like the CLARITY Act, and predicted that AI agents will increasingly use stablecoins for payments outside conventional banking rails.
Top Stories
