Episode 22 - Chris Harmse
In this episode, I sit down with Chris Harmse, Co-founder of BVNK.
Guests
Show notes
In this episode, I sit down with Chris Harmse, Co-founder of BVNK.
Chris is native from South Africa, where he also started his career in finance, starting at Renaissance Capital, Rezco asset management and most importantly the trading desk of fixed income at BNP Paribas.
He then went on working in the hedge fund industry, at Asymmetry asset management and Excelsia capital. During this experience he discovered the world of crypto and stablecoin, and that was the push that led him to launch BVNK. BVNK builds enterprise-grade payments infrastructure for stablecoins, and is one of the biggest payments providers in this industry, with more than 300 employees and over $12 billion in transactions managed.
With him, we will be talking about his experience coming from South Africa to London and San Francisco, his take on the fintech market, and most importantly the present and future for stablecoin.
In this episode
Chris Harmse traces his path from an emerging-markets FX desk at BNP Paribas to a crypto hedge fund in Cape Town and then to co-founding BVNK, which provides stablecoin payments infrastructure to enterprises. He explains how BVNK built compliance-first before regulation existed, how MiCA and the US GENIUS Act have turned regulation into a tailwind, and how users are moving from simply moving money to holding digital dollars. He sees card settlement, bank adoption and agentic commerce as the next stablecoin frontiers.
Chapters
- 0:00Introduction and BVNK
- 3:07From a trading desk to crypto
- 7:40First encounter with Bitcoin
- 10:48Where stablecoin payments are heading
- 16:33Building compliance-first
- 19:49MiCA vs the GENIUS Act
- 23:10From moving money to holding digital dollars
- 26:22Stablecoins in business treasury
- 28:49Card networks and stablecoin settlement
- 32:10When will banks move?
- 34:52AI inside BVNK
- 37:32Agentic commerce
- 40:37Advice for founders
Key facts
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.
MiCA is sound overall, but requiring issuers to hold reserves at European banks rather than in treasuries adds counterparty risk.
Settling card flows in stablecoins is a big unlock, because issuers today pre-fund four or five days with the networks.
Banks are exploring stablecoins, and a wave of bank announcements is likely within 6–12 months.
Founders should focus relentlessly on product-market fit and a niche they can be the best in the world at.
Questions and answers
How did BVNK operate before stablecoin regulation?
It ran as if regulated under payments rules, with KYC, KYB, screening and transaction monitoring, which made the later switch easy.
Why do users want to keep stablecoins?
In markets like Argentina, a digital dollar protects savings from inflation and can be stored, spent by card or at checkout, and earn yield.
How will AI agents pay?
Through stablecoin wallets with guardrails on limits and merchants, plus know-your-agent checks.