How stablecoins are reshaping merchant payments | Lydian

Quick take

In this episode of The White Papers, hosted by The Block's Kelvin Sparks, Lydian's Head of Growth Nikolas Huth explores how stablecoins are reshaping merchant payments around the world.

Key Topics

• Connecting stablecoins with traditional merchant payments
• Growing stablecoin adoption among payment processors 
• Lydian's expansion into Southeast Asia 
• Stablecoin-linked cards versus direct wallet payments
• The role of stablecoins in AI-driven agentic payments

Timestamps

• 00:00 - Introductions
• 1:46 - Onboarding merchants to stablecoins
• 5:55 - Client attitudes to stablecoins and digital assets 
• 9:50 - Lydian’s asset and chain coverage
• 12:42 - Southeast Asian market expansion
• 15:44 - Lydian as the ‘last mile’ infra layer for payments

Summary

Stablecoins are going mainstream, and the infrastructure supporting them is evolving to meet the demand. However, while consumers have access to an ever-expanding range of stablecoin payment options, the merchants they buy from are still largely dependent on legacy payment processors and settlement rails. A new cohort of crypto-native infrastructure providers is looking to change that.

In episode nine of The White Papers, recorded at Token2049 in Singapore, The Block's Kelvin Sparks spoke with Nikolas Huth, Head of Growth at stablecoin infrastructure firm Lydian, about the growing adoption of stablecoin payments, the company's expansion into Southeast Asia and the potential role of AI agents in commerce.

Lydian’s mission is to bridge the gap between digital assets and traditional payment infrastructure. This means forging relationships with payment service providers (PSPs) and merchant acquirers — the firms that process transactions for merchants and facilitate settlement. The company's infrastructure allows merchants to accept payments funded by digital assets while receiving settlement in their preferred fiat currency.

Huth explained that this means digital assets can function like any other currency within these payment ecosystems. "I think the messy relationship between merchants, consumers, and the payment processors is one that requires a lot of work. And you don't want the merchant doing that work, right? So we kind of exist to bridge that gap,” he said.

Bridging that gap has grown significantly easier as stablecoins have entered into mainstream conversations in finance. Huth said much of his work used to center on educating potential clients on the fundamentals of stablecoins and blockchain. Now, however, that groundwork is already firmly laid. “There's not really that educational lag,” he added. “It's really changed a lot in the past two years, which is great." Conversations now revolve around which specific assets and networks the client wants to integrate. 

Asked where he currently sees the biggest growth opportunities for stablecoin companies, Huth pointed to Southeast Asia. Singapore in particular is one location the company is targeting, while regulatory developments across Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines could forecast strong opportunities to come. He explained how expansion into new markets also brings demand for additional supported assets, with stablecoins pegged to local currencies being especially popular.

Looking further ahead, Huth also addressed the potential for AI-driven agentic payments to increase demand for stablecoins. For a company like Lydian, he says, the goal is less about predicting how transactions will be initiated and more about ensuring the infrastructure is there to process them.

"I like to think of us as that kind of infrastructure and last mile layer," he said, explaining that whether payments originate from AI agents, point-of-sale terminals or online checkouts, merchants ultimately need assurance that funds are available and will arrive promptly.

For Huth, the most significant opportunity is in making digital assets as accessible as possible for merchants, who needn’t even need to know their incoming payments are being processed on stablecoin rails. In the near future, blockchain will cease to be a technological curiosity and become invisible everyday infrastructure. 

About the guest

Nikolas Huth is Head of Growth at Lydian, a digital asset payments infrastructure provider enabling merchants to accept cryptocurrencies and stablecoins with fiat settlement. He is also co-founder and managing partner at B3 Capital, a venture capital firm, and previously worked in investment banking at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. His work focuses on fintech, digital assets and payment infrastructure.