WasabiCard Focuses on Enterprise Payment Infrastructure as Stablecoin Payments Evolve

At any offline event this year, stablecoin payments and the U Card remain among the most discussed topics.

For regular users, the logic behind these products is straightforward: connect the stablecoin balance in your wallet to a card, and you can spend it at merchants just like using a traditional debit card. To the user, it’s just a card—but for the service provider, the card is merely the front-facing touchpoint. Behind it lies an entire system encompassing card issuance, fund conversion, transaction authorization, clearing and settlement, compliance, anti-money laundering, fraud prevention, and ongoing operations.

But when this capability is applied to cross-border payroll, advertising procurement, platform revenue sharing, supplier payments, and corporate expense management, the question is no longer whether stablecoins can be spent—it’s whether businesses can truly integrate stablecoins into their daily operations.

This is also the core perspective through which Du Jun, Founding Partner of Vernal Capital, views stablecoin payments and invests in WasabiCard.

From co-founding Huobi, to co-founding ChainUp, which provides technological solutions for enterprises, and then moving into investment activities, Du Jun’s career spans user-facing trading platforms and financial infrastructure serving businesses. [1] This experience leads him to evaluate projects not just by whether they can acquire users quickly, but by asking a deeper question:

Does it address a persistent, real-world need? Can the capabilities it builds be used long-term by more businesses?

In this interview, Du Jun explained that Vernal Capital continues to focus on trading and payments in the crypto space, while also observing opportunities in AI application layers; its investment thesis considers not only financial returns but also strategic synergies with existing businesses.

In his view, the most noteworthy direction for stablecoin payments is gradually shifting from “who can issue more cards” to “who can handle more corporate payment services.”

And WasabiCard is betting on the latter.

The popularity of U cards has provided an intuitive entry point for stablecoins into everyday spending.

But in Du Jun’s view, consumer-facing card issuance is only one part of the payments market. For C-end products, customer acquisition and service capability determine whether the business can launch; however, as user scale grows, it is the technology platform, payment channels, risk control systems, clearing and settlement capabilities, and customer support that determine whether the business can operate sustainably in the long term.

Cards can be launched quickly, but infrastructure cannot be built overnight.

The complexity increases significantly when payment capabilities extend from personal spending to business operations. Businesses need more than just “sending money”; they also require how to integrate payments into existing workflows, how to handle reconciliation, how to enable recipients in different regions to use the funds, how to meet compliance requirements, and who is responsible for responding to and resolving transaction anomalies.

Therefore, when stablecoin payments truly enter enterprise scenarios, they essentially become a set of treasury operation capabilities rather than a standalone product.

The application scenarios mentioned by Du Jun in the interview also confirm this shift: payments to streamers or freelancers in different countries by general entertainment companies, enterprises purchasing advertising services, foreign trade companies handling cross-border payments, and payments for AI-related accounts and services.

These companies may not care about how the underlying blockchain technology works. What they truly care about is whether payments, receipts, and settlements can be completed at a more suitable cost and with greater stability.

The appeal of WasabiCard lies in its provision of underlying card issuance and fund distribution capabilities to fintech platforms, internet companies, and cross-border business clients—not just end users. Businesses can retain their own users, branding, and business scenarios while delegating complex tasks such as card issuance, fund allocation, payment channel management, and subsequent operations to the infrastructure platform.

This shifts the investment judgment from “How many users can this card attract?” to “How many businesses can continuously use this set of capabilities?”

Du Jun mentioned that one detail that left a strong impression on him was that some card teams seeking investment were using WasabiCard as their underlying platform.

This means that the capabilities provided by WasabiCard have been integrated into the actual business processes of other companies. Customers are not adopting it for conceptual or short-term hype, but rather to leverage its infrastructure and services to solve their own payment challenges.

Regarding the WasabiCard, Du Jun said, "Its business model has already been validated."

For a startup, this statement carries significant weight. Investors cannot judge long-term outcomes based solely on limited historical data, but they can observe whether there is genuine demand, whether customers are willing to continue using the product, and whether the team has the ability to deliver consistently.

“I really like this business model,” Du Jun said.

Placing this investment back into the industry context of 2024–2025 helps clarify Du Jun’s assessment.

On June 30, 2024, the EU’s MiCA regulations concerning asset-referenced tokens and electronic money tokens came into effect, bringing stablecoin issuance and market access under a clearer regulatory framework. [7]

Entering 2025, the integration between traditional payment institutions and stablecoin infrastructure has further deepened. On February 4, Stripe announced the completion of its acquisition of Bridge; on April 30, Visa and Bridge announced a partnership to launch a card issuance product, enabling developers to offer stablecoin-linked cards to users across multiple countries through a single API integration, initially covering six Latin American markets. [8][9]

Regulators, payment platforms, and card networks may appear to operate at different levels, but they all point in the same direction: stablecoins are being integrated into existing international commercial and payment systems.

This does not mean that stablecoins have replaced traditional payment networks. On the contrary, it indicates that competition in the coming period will increasingly occur at the layer connecting traditional financial systems with on-chain funds.

For businesses looking to participate in this market, technical integration is just the beginning. The real barriers to long-term success lie in how payment channels are structured, how risks are managed, how compliance is implemented, and how services are sustained.

Du Jun did not attribute his assessment of WasabiCard to any single regulatory policy or industry merger. He focused on whether the underlying trends in capital flow could generate genuine commercial demand, and whether the startup team could establish a clear, sustainable business model throughout the process.

From this perspective, competition in stablecoin payments is not merely a product competition, but a battle of infrastructure capabilities.

Du Jun clearly expressed confidence in the direction of stablecoin payments and clearing and settlement during the interview.

But he also cautioned that on-chain data inevitably contains some "inflated" figures, and transaction volume growth should not be directly equated with genuine payment demand. For investors, what matters is not merely seeing a set of rapidly growing numbers, but identifying which cash flows can support long-term, sustainable businesses.

According to institutional research, enterprise demand is becoming a key pillar supporting stablecoin payments.

Allium’s public summary of “State of Stablecoins and Payments,” released in September 2026, estimated that stablecoin payments from January to August 2026 amounted to $401 billion to $527 billion, representing a year-over-year growth of 42% to 63%; business payees accounted for 58% to 64% of payments, with B2B settlement totaling approximately $137 billion to $153 billion. [2]

The significance of these numbers lies not in proving that stablecoin payments are fully mature, but in showing that payment demand has begun to integrate into businesses’ daily operations: supplier payments, service fees, payroll, and fund management are ongoing business activities, not one-time experimental purchases.

Of course, this data must be interpreted with caution. Allium's payment amounts are estimated figures and cannot be equated with the total on-chain transfer volume of stablecoins, nor can they be directly used as a measure of the stablecoin card market size.

But it at least provides a clear signal: corporate cash flows are becoming a significant source of demand for stablecoin payments.

For enterprise clients, payment is never an isolated action. Whether funds can be transferred is just the first step; more importantly, whether payments can integrate into existing workflows, whether transaction records are easy to manage, whether recipients in different regions can access the funds, and whether reliable customer support is available in case of issues.

The liquidity of stablecoins can only form a truly sustainable payment business when combined with enterprise-grade service capabilities.

This also explains why WasabiCard’s B2B approach is worth noting. Its services are not limited to end cardholders but also include fintech and internet platforms requiring card issuance capabilities, as well as enterprises needing cross-border payment and fund distribution solutions.

It addresses not the short-term popularity of a card, but the existing and ongoing operational needs of businesses.

The stablecoin card business is also showing observable growth.

In an official article updated in March 2026, Visa disclosed that payment volume processed through its stablecoin-linked cards in 2025 reached approximately $5.2 billion, a 319% year-over-year increase, yet still accounted for only about 0.04% of Visa’s global payment volume. [3]

This data reflects a representative market state: rapid growth, but still in the early stages of adoption.

In the same month of June, Visa disclosed that more than 160 stablecoin-linked card projects were either live or in development worldwide. [4]

An increasing number of projects entering the market shows that the integration of stablecoins with existing card networks is no longer just a proof of concept; however, the growth in project numbers also means that the infrastructure capabilities behind card issuance will become increasingly important.

A single card enables enterprise users to complete payments, but behind it, multiple processes must work together—transaction authorization, fund allocation, clearing and settlement, ledger management, compliance, anti-money laundering, and fraud prevention.

For businesses looking to launch their own branded cards, the hardest part is often not just showing a card application page, but ensuring the entire business operates reliably across different markets, customer needs, and risk scenarios over the long term.

This is precisely what Du Jun has consistently emphasized.

When asked what a competitive global card issuance solution should include, he first mentioned "reliable service," further breaking it down into settlement and clearing, ledger management, compliance, anti-money laundering, fraud prevention, and the ability to communicate with card networks.

He gave an intuitive example: if a company has already served 100,000 users and a底层 card service experiences an outage, the impact will not remain at the technical level but will directly propagate through the company’s operations to end users.

For B2B payment companies, stability is not an abstract product feature—it’s a prerequisite for customer operations.

The larger the customer base, the higher the requirements for reconciliation, risk control, anomaly handling, and service response. As a result, the more stablecoin card projects there are, the more evident the market’s demand for mature infrastructure becomes.

If the business model of stablecoin issuance has been proven, competitors will continue to enter. What sets WasabiCard apart?

Du Jun's response focused on service capabilities, the ability to organize channel resources, and the team's understanding of complex business operations.

When discussing Rain, which has a similar stablecoin card infrastructure, Du acknowledged similarities in their business models. However, when evaluating WasabiCard, he placed particular emphasis on the team’s communication efficiency and service responsiveness.

For enterprise clients, this is not an added benefit in terms of experience, but a component of business stability.

Cross-language communication, business confirmation, compliance requirements, payment anomalies, and customer complaints all consume significant operational resources. In cross-border payment scenarios, customers need to quickly locate the service provider, clearly identify the issue, and drive its resolution.

Therefore, service capabilities must be developed in sync with system capabilities.

The smoothness of integration, the ability to sustain support as business grows, and the capacity to respond promptly to anomalies all affect a company’s long-term evaluation of a payment platform.

Another point Du Jun focuses on is WasabiCard’s approach of collaborating with different BIN sponsors to aggregate card issuance resources. A BIN sponsor refers to a partner institution that provides access to card network infrastructure and related card issuance support.

In his assessment, the richness of cooperative resources enables the platform to offer more implementation options and reduces reliance on a single channel. This resource organization capability holds practical significance for customers needing to operate across different markets.

Of course, multiple channels do not automatically eliminate all disruption risks. Their true value lies in enabling the platform to organize viable, sustainable service solutions across different partnership rules, applicable regions, and customer needs.

The more partnerships there are, the higher the demand on management capabilities.

From a corporate procurement perspective, when evaluating a card issuing platform, you should not only consider what card products it offers, but also how consistently it delivers: whether the channels align with your business needs, if clearing and settlement are transparent, whether risk controls are robust, and if service scalability can keep pace with customer growth.

Fireblocks' "State of Stablecoins 2025" also presents similar enterprise-level requirements. A survey conducted in March 2025 of 295 professionals in banking, payments, and related industries found that 41% of respondents identified speed and 34% identified compliance as non-negotiable infrastructure requirements. [5]

This survey is not a product review of WasabiCard, but it provides an industry reference for understanding Du Jun’s investment judgment: competition in enterprise payments has extended to service quality, compliance, and operational capabilities.

He is not betting on any single easily replicable feature, but rather on the foundation WasabiCard has already built across these dimensions.

Doing finance is different from doing internet or other things.

When talking about the team, Du Jun placed great importance on professional expertise.

He recalls that before investing, he had multiple discussions with the WasabiCard founding team. The team has extensive experience in traditional finance and card networks, with over 10 years in global payments and card issuance—a key factor in his confidence in the company.

For enterprise payments, the value of this experience should not remain merely on a resume—it must be reflected in resource coordination and service delivery: understanding which payment channels suit the client’s business, knowing how accounting and settlement processes connect, and identifying and establishing necessary risk controls before business expansion.

Another trait Du Jun values is the team's groundedness and lack of impulsiveness.

In his description, WasabiCard has established a clear business model and is able to operate by consistently serving its customers.

New business data has provided more specific observational dimensions for this judgment.

WasabiCard spent three years refining its global localization strategy to achieve 100% compliance, becoming a dedicated practitioner and leader in regulatory compliance across regions. To date, WasabiCard has issued over 700,000 cards, experienced nearly 500% growth in transaction volume and a 30% month-over-month increase, with cumulative transaction volume reaching $1 billion; corporate customer churn rate is nearly zero, with over 700 corporate clients served.

Among these, a 500% year-over-year increase in trading volume and a 30% month-over-month increase in card issuance reflect business progress at different levels.

For a B2B platform, the significance of these metrics goes beyond scale growth.

Quarterly trading volume reflects growth in business activity; the number of enterprise customers and their retention provide another perspective on service sustainability. Customers need to do more than just make their first integration—they must continue using the platform’s capabilities over time.

Whether payments can run stably, issues can be promptly addressed, and channels can adapt to business growth will directly impact the continuation of the partnership.

Therefore, when evaluating WasabiCard's growth, it's not enough to look only at transaction volume or the number of cards issued; you must also consider its capacity to sustain that growth.

WasabiCard integrates global card issuance and global fund distribution under a single API, enabling businesses to offer virtual cards, physical cards, white-label card issuance, and bulk payments.

For platforms that already have users and business scenarios, this means they can integrate payment capabilities tailored to their own needs without having to independently manage all the underlying components.

This is also the most critical point in Du Jun’s investment logic: truly valuable infrastructure does more than help clients make a single connection—it grows alongside them, continuously handling increasing business complexity.

For the next steps of WasabiCard, Du Jun did not center the discussion on funding or exit.

The core is still to have strong business development.

In his logic, a business can gain more capital options only when it is performing well. Financing can provide resources, but it cannot replace customer demand or actual operations.

This is also why he set boundaries for post-investment collaboration.

“Help more, cause less trouble.” Du Jun used this phrase to summarize the role of investors.

He believes that startup teams, being on the front lines of operations, are more likely to identify specific issues. Investors should respect the team’s expertise, fulfill their responsibilities in board and shareholder meetings, and promptly coordinate resources and provide support when the team raises needs.

In the interview, he mentioned that after observing WasabiCard’s business progress and engaging with the team, the investors arranged their post-investment team to respond to new demands. Regarding its specific operations, his evaluation remained direct: “This increment is very strong, and the growth rate is excellent.”

From industry trends to the ToB model, and further to team and post-investment synergy, Du Jun’s assessment of WasabiCard has always revolved around the same core theme:

Identify genuine needs, recognize platforms capable of fulfilling those needs, and help the team sustain the business.

Whether stablecoin payments can ultimately become mainstream depends not on how many cards are available in the market, but on whether they can integrate into businesses' real, ongoing cash flows.

A single cross-border settlement, a single payment of compensation, an advertising purchase, or a platform launching its own payment product—all are concrete pathways for stablecoin payments to enter real-world commerce.

As the industry narrative shifts from “who launched a card” to “who can support payment operations for more businesses,” the B2B payment infrastructure represented by WasabiCard will become an increasingly indispensable component of the stablecoin payment pipeline.

And this is precisely why Du Jun chose to bet on WasabiCard.

Source

[1] Vernal Capital Acquisition Corp.'s filing with the U.S. SEC, Management Team section. Used to verify Du Jun's experience at Huobi, ChainUp, and investment activities. View original text

[2] Allium, State of Stablecoins and Payments: September 2026, September 15, 2026, Public Summary. Payment data is institutionally estimated and does not include card-based statistics. View original

[3] Visa, How stablecoin-linked cards are modernizing money movement, updated March 31, 2026. Payment volume and growth rate are based on related card business within its network. View original article

[4] Visa, Visa Announces New AI, Stablecoin and Token Innovations to Power Intelligent, Programmable Commerce at Visa Payments Forum, June 10, 2026. “Over 160” includes both launched and in-development projects. View original article

[5] Fireblocks, State of Stablecoins 2025, May 2, 2025. Survey conducted in March 2025, sample of 295 professionals from banks, payment, and related institutions. View original

[6] WasabiCard, WasabiCard Series Pre-A Round Funding Announcement, July 22, 2026. Previous public funding announcement. View original

[7] ESMA, ESMA_QA_2404, January 17, 2025. Clarifies that MiCA-related stablecoin rules apply from June 30, 2024. View original

[8] Stripe, Stripe completes Bridge acquisition, February 4, 2025. View original article

[9] Visa, Visa, and Bridge Partner to Make Stablecoins Accessible for Everyday Purchases, April 30, 2025. View original article