Loyalty becomes lifestyle: Rain and Uptop on stablecoin rewards

In Episode 7 of Layer One, The Block’s Kelvin Sparks and Hypha founder Steven Gates were joined by Charles Yoo-Naut, co-founder of Rain, and John Gomez, co-founder and former CEO of Uptop.

The group discussed the convergence of stablecoin payments and on-chain loyalty infrastructure, why rewards plus payments are becoming table stakes, and how sports and IP are driving real-world adoption.

OUTLINE
00:00 – Intro
03:58 – What is Rain
04:30 – Uptop + acquisition fit
06:01 – Fundraise & M&A lessons
12:43 – Why rewards matter
16:29 – Stablecoin “aha” moment
25:26 – Regulation, timing, builders
33:53 – Lifestyle banking & IP
41:59 – Marketplaces, on-ramps, costs
47:35 – Why raise $250M
50:11 – Stablecoins in 3 years
51:56 – Proliferation of issuers
53:59 – Closing remarks

Charles Yoo-Naut – twitter.com/cnaut
Rain – twitter.com/raincards
John Gomez – linkedin.com/in/john-timoney-gomez-a64b669b/
Uptop – twitter.com/uptop_xyz
Steven Gates – ⁠⁠⁠twitter.com/stvngts⁠⁠⁠
Kelvin Sparks – ⁠⁠⁠twitter.com/imyoungsparks⁠⁠⁠
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