Episode #195: "Scale to $100 Billion or Die:” KAST CEO Raagulan Pathy on the Stablecoin Neobank Race

Hey everyone,Raagulan Pathy is the CEO of KAST, one of the fastest growing stablecoin neobanks in the world. I caught up with him at Blockchain Rio 2026 to discuss what a year of scaling has done to his thesis on consumer stablecoin banking.Raags first joined the show roughly a year ago, back when KAST was arguing that builders had neglected the consumer layer on top of stablecoin rails.Since then the company has raised around $80 million in a Series A, started acquiring its own licenses, made several acquisitions, and launched a business product.It has also swapped a planned token airdrop for equity exposure, which is a bet worth watching as the rest of the sector figures out how to reward loyal users over the long-term🙌 You can listen to Bits and Borders on your favorite podcast platform YouTube | Spotify | Apple Podcasts🔥 Join our English language Telegram group to continue the conversationBits & Borders is Presented by SumsubSumsub recently released its fourth annual State of the Crypto Industry report. The new research reveals how digital asset companies are balancing fraud prevention, regulatory pressure, and user experience as they scale in 2026. This report draws on Sumsub’s internal data from 2024–2025 and insights from 300 crypto companies surveyed outside Sumsub’s customer base.Some of the key global highlights include:* Crypto firms are moving away from ‘growth at all costs’, with 74% now prioritizing verification accuracy over user onboarding speed (39%).* Despite fraud rates remaining flat at 2.2% from 2024 to 2025, crypto firms operate in a structurally riskier environment where targeted, automated and AI-driven attacks are the new normal.* Over half (55%) of surveyed companies confirmed they experienced fraud at least once in 2025, with 15% unsure if it happened or not–emphasizing the lag between detection capabilities and growing fraud sophistication.Key Takeaways:* Raags treats the category as winner take most. By his count a handful of stablecoin neobank players already hold something like 90% of the market while more than 100 others split the remainder, and scale is what buys the partner economics needed to fund incentives at all.* KAST pulled its planned token in favor of equity exposure. A single digit percentage of users left to farm elsewhere, and the team is now working out how to make part of that position spendable so anyone who wants an exit can take one.* The company is launching Reserve, a yield product paying boosted rates of 6, 9 and 12% through the end of the year, up 50% from its base tiers. KAST subsidizes the gap.* Roughly 20 to 30% of consumer users were already running business spend through their KAST card. The company identified this from MCC codes and used this as the basis for building a business product.* Latin America has the strongest product-market fit because the region is dollar-linked and people move across it constantly. Brazil has been something of an exception given the strength of BRL this year but it still remains a key market. and KAST is rolling out zero FX across the region.* Growth is now moving beyond crypto-natives and aimed at regular people who are looking for practical financial tools. * On regulation, Raags compares governments to a regulator that would make every Uber driver get a taxi license. Most write stablecoin rules off a banking and payments starting point, and most do not land it on the first try.I enjoyed this conversation with Raags and I hope you do as well. You can connect with him on LinkedIn.Have a great weekend everybody.-AWSRecent Episodes Get full access to Bits and Borders at <a hre