Chris Harmse
Podcast appearances as guest
Episode 22 - Chris Harmse
In this episode, I sit down with Chris Harmse, Co-founder of BVNK.
On the podcast
Chris started in trading, mostly on BNP Paribas's emerging-markets FX desk, where slow settlement of exotic currencies sparked his interest in payments.
In 2016–17 he ran a small crypto hedge fund in Cape Town doing cross-exchange arbitrage, becoming an early stablecoin user when the market was under $1 billion.
BVNK, co-founded about five years ago with Jesse and Donald, provides stablecoin payments infrastructure so enterprises can send, receive, convert and store stablecoins and fiat.
BVNK's team spans 42 nationalities.
BVNK's first product was a "stablecoin sandwich": collecting in Southeast Asia and Africa and settling merchants in euros and pounds.
BVNK holds e-money licences in the UK and Europe, money-transmitter licences in 22 US states with applications for all 50, and crypto-asset licences, with a Singapore licence expected.
BVNK powers stablecoin payouts for Deel into about 85 markets and announced deals with Lianlian Global and Worldpay.
Visa invested in BVNK as a strategic investor in its Series B.
BVNK uses AI agents in onboarding and KYB, significantly cutting onboarding times and manual reviews.
Over the last 12 months regulation has turned from a headwind to a tailwind for stablecoins, especially in the US.