Circle's most well-known product is its stablecoin USDC. Currently, the circulation scale of USDC has exceeded 77 billion dollars, making it one of the largest stablecoins in the world. However, Circle's goals do not stop there.
The company is committed to building a complete set of infrastructure to drive blockchain payments and financial services towards true mass adoption. Specifically, Circle provides blockchain-based payment capabilities and financial functions for businesses by offering developer tools, launching the Circle Payments Network, and building its own blockchain Arc, enabling almost any company to access the on-chain financial system.
Circle's Chief Business Officer Kash Razzaghi (responsible for corporate partnerships and strategy) stated: "We are building a system called the internet finance platform, aimed at truly driving and accelerating the flow of funds on-chain."
In his view, migrating financial infrastructure to the blockchain is expected to make fund flows faster, cheaper, and more transparent. However, he also pointed out that reshaping the entire payment ecosystem cannot be done by any single entity alone, so Circle is partnering with multiple companies, including Mastercard, to expand the use and acceptance of stablecoins globally. This week, Mastercard announced its new Crypto Partner Program, and Circle has also become a part of it.
Razzaghi added: "This requires the entire ecosystem to participate. Mastercard's involvement brings tremendous credibility to what this technology can evolve into and the future forms this industry might take."
Kash Razzaghi (Circle's COO): When stablecoins and the entire technology truly achieve mainstream adoption, they will become the underlying infrastructure like 'water and electricity pipelines', where people use them without even realizing they are holding stablecoins.
Shortly after Kash Razzaghi returned from the World Economic Forum in January, he was interviewed by Mastercard News Center. During Davos, he engaged with many individuals from the finance and financial services sectors, aiming to attract more institutions into the ever-growing blockchain ecosystem.
The following Q&A content has been edited for clarity and brevity.
How do you view the current freely floating cryptocurrency market?
Market volatility is to be expected. In fact, speculation has been the primary driver throughout much of the crypto industry's history.
What truly excites us is that this industry is shifting from speculation to infrastructure. Of course, trading and speculation won't disappear entirely, and that's not the point. The key is that the industry is undergoing an evolution: moving from a speculative market to financial infrastructure.
The crypto market has indeed gone through prosperous times and more turbulent phases. These cycles have always existed. If some choose to exit, new participants will inevitably enter the market—this is how the market operates.
What were the key discussion points about blockchain at this year's Davos?
This year's discussions at Davos were almost entirely centered around infrastructure.
The discussion revolves around how blockchain technology and digital assets can solve real-world problems or enhance the flow of funds, value storage, and accessibility to the financial system.
This year's Davos felt very positive. As regulations gradually pave the way for institutional participation, the advantages of blockchain infrastructure are becoming more evident. The focus of discussions has shifted away from speculation to:
How to leverage this technology to transfer billions or even trillions of dollars in value instantly, securely, and at low cost.
How to upgrade a financial system infrastructure that has undergone virtually no fundamental changes for the past 75 years.
It is generally believed in the industry that this transformation will benefit the entire ecosystem. Whether it's financial infrastructure companies, market participants, or financial service institutions, they can leverage this technology to upgrade their businesses and provide better services.
For a long time, the narrative in the market has been: will blockchain replace banks? Will it replace card organizations? Will it replace traditional financial systems?
But the reality isn't quite that.
What is truly exciting is that today's discussions have shifted to how to upgrade and collaborate on top of the existing financial system. Banks, financial institutions, traditional exchanges, and card organizations are all embracing this technology because everyone expects: the cost of fund flows will approach zero, and the speed of fund flows will significantly increase.
If the financial system is really going to upgrade, what does this mean for Mastercard? How can both sides collaborate and achieve a win-win situation?
What essentially does Mastercard provide?
trust.
You have built a global trust network. I personally have a Mastercard. When I swipe my card, merchants feel secure because they know the funds will arrive—because Mastercard guarantees it.
In my view, the importance of trust will never fade.
Mastercard's role in this ecosystem is not only to maintain this trust network but also to: provide more advanced technology for transactions, simplify payments, make financial services more inclusive, reduce intermediaries, lower friction costs, and over time, further decrease transaction costs.
For Circle, the benefits are the: adoption of stablecoins and digital assets.
We believe that future fund flows will increasingly occur on-chain. We expect that, in the long run, on-chain fund flows will be more efficient.
Of course, to achieve this, many things still need to be done, such as: infrastructure development, regulatory frameworks, and compliance systems.
We haven't fully reached that stage yet. But when Mastercard begins to build on-chain products and offer on-chain services to its customers, it will greatly accelerate the adoption of stablecoins.
What are the main current use cases for stablecoins?
Currently, there are three main use cases.
Trading and investment
Currently, the biggest use case for stablecoins remains in crypto asset trading and investment.
If you invest in digital assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum, using USDC as a trading medium is very convenient. You can switch between different assets at any time and keep your funds in a stable-value asset when needed.
Payments (especially cross-border payments)
The second use case is payments, especially cross-border payments. If you need to transfer funds from one country to another, whether it's institutional fund allocation or personal remittances, stablecoins are a very efficient way.
Transferring funds on the blockchain can: reduce intermediaries, lower costs, and shorten settlement time from days or even weeks to seconds or minutes.
We have already seen massive capital transfers across almost every industry. Even a large institution can use stablecoins to transfer funds from Singapore to New York without being limited by bank hours.
In the future, stablecoin payments will not only be used for cross-border scenarios but will also expand into almost all payment fields.
value storage
The third use case is value storage.
This demand primarily arises in countries with severe currency devaluation, such as: Iran (my birthplace), Venezuela, and Argentina.
In these high-inflation countries, residents often lose trust in their local currency and prefer to hold dollar assets for hedging. Stablecoins provide a digitalized dollar storage tool.
We believe that the demand for payments and value storage will drive the stablecoin market size far beyond today's levels.
When do you think stablecoins will achieve mainstream adoption?
There is a viewpoint that when stablecoins and the entire blockchain technology achieve mainstream adoption, they will become the underlying infrastructure. In other words, people will just be holding dollars and sending dollars without realizing they are actually holding stablecoins.
We often use an analogy: when you visit a website, there's HTTP in front of the URL. But most people don't understand the HTTP technology; they simply use the internet.
Stablecoins may also experience a similar situation, where on-chain finance becomes the infrastructure, and users hardly perceive its existence.
Your career experience spans multiple industries; how does this help with your work today?
There is really no such thing as a 'standard career path.' Career development requires both luck and timing, as well as the accumulation of experience.
Looking back at my career, you'll find it quite eclectic: fashion industry, sports social platforms, video distribution platforms, and the crypto space.
But the commonality behind these experiences is: entrepreneurial spirit, go-to-market capabilities, business development, and sales skills.
I have always loved building things from scratch and want to be part of projects that can impact a large number of people.
