{"id":887714,"date":"2026-01-25T22:12:03","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T04:12:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/25\/agoras-nick-van-eck-bets-on-stablecoin-boom-in-enterprise-payments\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T22:12:03","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T04:12:03","slug":"agoras-nick-van-eck-bets-on-stablecoin-boom-in-enterprise-payments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/25\/agoras-nick-van-eck-bets-on-stablecoin-boom-in-enterprise-payments\/","title":{"rendered":"Agora’s Nick van Eck bets on stablecoin boom in enterprise payments"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Agora CEO Nick van Eck sees stablecoin adoption shifting to real-world business for cross-border payments.<\/h2>\n

Jan 24, 2026, 6:00\u202fp.m. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Agora, a startup founded by entrepreneur and VanEck heir Nick van Eck, is positioning itself for a stablecoin market that\u2019s moving beyond crypto-native trading.<\/p>\n

While decentralized finance (DeFi) remains a key growth engine \u2013 Agora\u2019s total value locked (TVL) grew 60% last month from DeFi launches, he said \u2014 his focus is shifting toward a longer-term bet: stablecoin-powered enterprise payments.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re spending a lot of time across payroll, business-to-business, cross-border payments. Problems real companies actually need to solve,\u201d van Eck, who will be speaking at CoinDesk’s Consensus Hong Kong conference<\/a> next month, said in a recent interview.<\/p>\n

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.” <\/p>\n

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\u2019t recommend it for most. \u201cIt only makes sense if you have a closed-loop ecosystem,\u201d he said. \u201cOtherwise, use a major stablecoin.”<\/p>\n

The bigger opportunity, van Eck argued, lies in replacing clunky cross-border payment systems, where pre-funding and transaction costs eat into corporate margins. \u201cIf they save 1% on revenue, that might be 5% on EBITDA,\u201d he said. The most likely early adopters? Multinational firms with global vendor networks.<\/p>\n

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. \u201cYou\u2019ll see consolidation into a handful of chains,\u201d he predicted, as major firms bring \u201cmoney, firepower and distribution.\u201d<\/p>\n

In this increasingly competitive landscape, Agora\u2019s ambition is to be one of the top five global stablecoin issuers \u2014 and to win by building tools businesses actually know how to use.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t want crypto,\u201d van Eck said. \u201cThey want something that feels like a bank account, but better.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"16:9<\/figure>\n

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