Stablecoins vs Traditional Banking | Farooq Malik

On this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with Farooq Malik, co-founder and CEO of Rain, a company building the payment rails powering the next wave of stablecoins, tokenized money, and digital banking worldwide. Recorded live at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium, Farooq explains why regulatory clarity unleashed a boom in institutional stablecoin adoption and how Rain enables anyone, from fintechs to governments, to instantly spend and settle with digital dollars. The conversation covers the launch of Wyoming’s Frontier Stable Token which includes Rain’s partnership with Avalanche, and why “making payments boring again” (fast, invisible, interoperable) unlocks the real future of crypto. Farooq also shares insights from his career in traditional finance, reveals the real tech behind Rain’s APIs, and why openness, not walled gardens, will define the next era of global banking. Plus: contrarian takes, instant holiday settlements, and why believing the world can be better is his ultimate founder advice.

This episode is sponsored by Across Protocol.
⏱️ Timestamps
00:00 – Intro
00:48 – The challenge: Why market cap isn’t enough—real usage matters
01:09 – Farooq’s founding story: From DeFi to “tokenized money” infrastructure
03:39 – Betting early: Why regulatory clarity transformed stablecoin adoption
04:00 – Wyoming’s Frontier Stable Token: How Rain and Avalanche are building government-backed money
05:02 – Real purpose of money: Making payments possible everywhere
06:26 – Bringing stablecoins to merchants—making transactions seamless
07:14 – How Rain cards let anyone spend stablecoins “just like dollars”
08:15 – Removing off-ramps: True blockchain native payments
08:47 – Lessons from TradFi: Reconciling payments, eliminating manual work
09:43 – Making settlement instant, reducing costs and risks
10:11 – The magic of tokenized money—using USDC for instant, holiday payments
14:01 – Deciding what to change vs. what to keep in payment experiences
16:35 – Distribution matters: Why Rain partners with Visa for global merchant acceptance
17:39 – Who’s really using stablecoin payments?
18:58 – Making money boring again: Stablecoins behind the scenes
20:10 – Security, custody, and why Rain avoids single points of failure
22:20 – Rain’s APIs: How banks, fintechs, and remittance platforms connect to stablecoins
23:37 – Going global: Rain’s unified product stack for worldwide customers
25:06 – Now that regulatory clarity is here, what comes next for banks and institutions
26:33 – Tokenized money is inevitable—how efficiency wins over legacy infrastructure
27:01 – Big banks, small banks: Why technology shifts create new winners
29:13 – U.S. leads the way—surprising adoption trends and mainstream integrations
31:16 – Interoperability unlocks value: The magic of connecting payments, apps, and platforms
32:09 – Why retail users don’t need to “opt in” to stablecoins
33:29 – Farooq’s contrarian view: Stablecoins are just instant, non-fungible money
35:01 – How slowness costs—why instant settlement will replace payday lenders and legacy systems
36:12 – Rain’s big mountain: Expanding global coverage and showing tokenized money can scale
37:49 – Founder advice: Believe the world can be better
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