Stablecoins, smart contracts and the rise of more intelligent cash
Plus: Crimson Education founders to teach at Auckland Uni and Kiwi Edtech wins big across Tasman.
Happy Thursday!
Kia ora Caffeinators, hope anyone down south is holding up okay as the weather simply refuses to improve.
Lot brewing in the newsey today, including a win to celebrate across the ditch and sad loss for our space industry which may or may not have triggered me emotionally. To kick off with though, help yourself to another guest column from our friends over at Easy Crypto unpacking Stablecoins, smart contracts and the rise of more intelligent cash.
Here’s what’s brewing in your Daily Shot:
Stablecoins, smart contracts and the rise of more intelligent cash
Crimson Education founders teaching startup course at Auckland Uni
Events: Techstar Startup Weekend Taranaki
Kiwi Edtech startup notches major win across Tasman
Pod Pick: Business is Boring - Ben Forman & Kat Lintott
Meet Joe, BNZ’s PayTech legend - Ask him anything!
Taxpayer funded satellite loses contact with the ground
As always, thank you to everyone who has upgraded to a paid subscription or simply recommended Caffeine to friends and whānau. We couldn’t do any of this without you.
Finn and the CAFFEINE team
Stablecoins, smart contracts and the rise of more intelligent cash
Paul Quickenden - Chief Commercial Office of Easy Crypto
Fintechs already have the talent, the ingenuity and after a decade of challenger success with innovations like Wise’s borderless accounts, Stripe’s one-click checkout and Revolut’s multi-currency wallets - the credibility to reshape finance on a global stage. Those breakthroughs gave consumers faster payments and slicker front-ends; but let’s call that Act I.
Act II is unfolding now: money itself is becoming programmable, composable and borderless. Stablecoins can settle in seconds, smart contracts can execute “if-this-then-that” logic without humans in the loop and tokenised assets can move 24/7 across jurisdictions. The rails we lay today - whether they’re open, interoperable and secure or fragmented and proprietary - will determine not just how fast value moves tomorrow, but how fairly it’s distributed and who gets to participate in the next wave of financial innovation.
The challenge to builders today is this: if your vision begins and ends with speeding up domestic payments or making bill-splitting cuter, you’re missing the bigger prize. Programmable money rewrites the playbook for remittances, trade, treasury and even machine-to-machine transactions. Are we building for that horizon - or solving tomorrow’s problems with yesterday’s stack?
What’s the biggie with blockchain?
Behind the scenes, blockchain infrastructure is becoming the default layer for secure, real-time, permissionless value transfer. J.P. Morgan’s Onyx platform, for instance, has settled more than US $1 trillion in tokenised intrabank payments on permissioned chains.
If you’re designing for the next five years, on-chain rails offer instant settlement, embedded logic and global composability that legacy systems simply can’t match. No, it won’t replace every system but it is rapidly becoming the preferred foundation for anything that needs to be fast, transparent and interoperable. This isn’t about riding the crypto wave but about recognising a smarter way to move value - one that’s auditable, modular and increasingly composable.
If you’re designing for the next five years, building with blockchain gives you access to speed, programmability and network effects that simply don’t exist in traditional architecture. We need to shift our thinking from ‘What is blockchain for?’ to ‘What’s already working, and how does it fit into my stack?’
Could stablecoins be the new fuel behind an AI-driven economy?
At Stripe’s 2025 Sessions conference, co-founder Patrick Collison didn’t mince his words: “There are not one, but two, gale-force tailwinds... reshaping the economic landscape around us: AI and stablecoins.” In a world increasingly run by AI’s, programmable stablecoins are the natural currency and could become the financial fuel behind an AI-driven economy.
Stripe has just rolled out stablecoin-powered financial accounts to businesses in 101 countries which allow companies to hold, receive and send stablecoins and crucially, to hedge against inflation and plug directly into the global economy. All of this without needing a traditional bank account. And it's not just Stripe, Worldpay, Mastercard, X and even Apple are exploring how to turbocharge their business using Stablecoins.
This isn’t theory; this is infrastructure and entrepreneurs in high-inflation countries can now operate in stable, digital USD. What’s more, startups can pay contractors in stablecoins, skip wire transfer fees and move capital in minutes via lower-cost cross-border transactions .
Stablecoins have quietly moved from the fringes to becoming the go-to method for paying global contractors (instantly, with zero FX fees), cross-border commerce (settling USD payments in mere seconds), accessing savings (even in inflation-prone regions) and plugging into on-chain treasury and lending protocols (without needing a bank account).
So if you’re building a payments platform, now is the time to ask yourself: can my product evolve with how digital finance is actually being used? If the answer is no - it might be worth reconsidering your architecture because what works here must scale there.
That sounds like “money, but faster.” What else is cool?
Think of smart contracts as ‘if this, then that’ logic for money - basically code that executes financial actions automatically when certain conditions are met. There’s no middleman, no lag and no manual work. This is where money stops just moving and starts doing.
Imagine if paying contractors happened the moment work is verified; if refunds were triggered instantly when goods didn’t arrive; if cross-border trade ran on rules baked into your code, not your paperwork.
This is already happening globally - programmable finance means stablecoins that plug into automated workflows and APIs that react to real-world events. The question now moves on from can we move money faster? .. to can our money move smarter?
What’s the next move?
What separates good from game-changing companies is vision. The winners in fintech will be the ones who design for what’s coming, not just what’s current right now.
If you believe that money will be programmable…
If you see that global commerce demands truly global rails…
If you know that the rules of infrastructure are being rewritten in real-time right now…
… then now’s the moment to double down. Build with stablecoins. Plug into on-chain rails. Create APIs that are blockchain-ready. It’s time to think like the internet: borderless, open and lightning fast.
Let’s not just build for today’s money; let’s help define tomorrow’s.
Kiwi Edtech startup notches major win across Tasman: We love to see our homegrown startups succeed on the world stage and if they beat some Aussie competition while they’re at it, all the better. Ripyl, an innovative educational platform redefining how business and commerce are taught in schools, has been named Best Startup at EDUtech 2025, winning the prestigious Shark Tank Competition at one of the world’s largest EdTech events.
More than 11,000 educators, innovators, and industry leaders gathered at the ICC Sydney to explore new ideas, hear from global voices, and celebrate the future of education. Ripyl stood out from a strong field of 48 companies, with 26 pitching live to a panel of judges, including impressive finalists like Well-Nest, Lima AI, and Gradeo.
“In a space increasingly dominated by AI-driven content, Ripyl stood out by keeping educators and learners at the centre,” said Dave Craig, Ripyl’s Founder. “Our modules aren’t auto-generated by AI. They’re built by teachers, shaped in classrooms, and informed by the students we serve. This is EdTech redefined, a platform built with and for teachers, and one that never forgets who education is really for, our students!”
Founded in 2019 in New Zealand, Ripyl provides curriculum-aligned, ready-to-use resources, from lesson starters and case studies to design thinking challenges and extended projects, giving teachers practical tools to engage students with real-world business challenges. Congrats to the team!
Crimson Education founders teaching startup course at Auckland Uni: A story we missed covering a little while ago which I think is still worth a shoutout is the fact that one of our most successful founders and so called ‘Thanos of Linkedin’ Jamie Beaton will be teaching a university course aimed at aspiring young entrepreneurs at Auckland University, alongside his co-founder.
The course content is modelled on the Harvard Business School case method, where students will learn key entrepreneurship concepts through case studies. Students will study globally successful New Zealand companies like Xero, Zuru, Halter and Pushpay, and the entrepreneurs will also share lessons from helming Crimson Education.
Auckland Uni published an interesting interview with him yesterday revealing some more details and one section caught my eye, that he is not only infront of the class but also still fleshing out his already absurdly stacked resume. He recently completed a Military Studies degree at King’s College London and is now studying sociology and political science at Cambridge University. Way to make the rest of us look bad, Jamie.
Events: Techstar Startup Weekend Taranaki: One of our favourite startup events is back in the Naki next week and as the 10th Anniversary event, it promises to be the biggest and best. These events are where you can apply the skills and life experiences you already have as we help you learn to think, work, and build like a startup in 54 thrilling hours.
Since 2015 this has been the flagship event of Taranaki’s startup and innovation ecosystem, attracting participants from across the country and contributing significantly to a culture of innovation, autonomy and creativity.
Courtesy of long-time sponsor and supporter, iTaranaki, the judges will award $10,000 in services and support to the winning team. See below for terms and conditions.
Details:
Where: Manifold Coworking Space New Plymouth
Timing: Friday evening 5:30-11pm, Saturday 8am-11pm and Sunday 8am to 8.30pm
Childcare: Subsidised childcare is available from 9am-4pm, Saturday and Sunday (July 12-13) at a nearby venue. The number of spaces are limited though, so book the childcare option early!
Out-of-towners: Our sponsor, Novotel, has offered a huge discount on rooms: pay only $50 for two nights' accommodation (Friday and Saturday night). This is a twin share option. If you want a room to yourself, contact us for other Novotel discounts.
Student discount: Enter SWSTUDENT as a discount code if you are a student so that you can get a ticket for 50% off
Check out more details here.
Pod Pick: Business is Boring - Ben Forman & Kat Lintott: Can’t let a Thursday go by without shouting out the latest block rocking ep from friend and Caffeine and all around legend Simon Pound. On the latest ep of Business is Boring, Kat Lintott and Ben Forman join Simon Pound to reflect on what it takes to build a studio from scratch, the lessons learned through success and challenge, and what it means to evolve your identity and work while staying connected to your creative roots. Listen here.
Meet Joe, BNZ’s PayTech legend. Ask him anything.
Startups can be hard. Banking shouldn’t be. Whether you’re bootstrapping or wanting to attract VC investment, having a strong relationship with your bank can be a key factor in your start up’s success.
BNZ’s Technology Industries team is running an ‘Ask Me Anything’ Q&A series for Caffeine Daily readers – an easy way for founders to get any finance-related questions answered.
This week, get ready to dive into the world of payments with Joe Rastrick, BNZ’s Head of PayTech and Emerging Payments. With two decades of banking experience, spanning financial markets, retail, and business banking, Joe’s the mastermind when it comes to tech that’s driving payments as a service, digital wallets, open banking, Web3, SoftPos, blockchain, and embedded finance.
Now’s your chance to pick his brain. Got questions about blockchain’s role in payments, the rise of digital wallets, or what’s next for embedded payments? Email your questions to us at hello@caffeinedaily.co or Joe_Rastrick@bnz.co.nz by Tuesday 8th July, and Joe will tackle them in next week’s newsletter.
Taxpayer funded satellite loses contact with the ground: Sooooo you know a while ago when I shared those stories about how strangely emotional I get when I hear about a satellite or spacefaring machine becoming lost and then drifting eternally into the void? Well, now we seem to have one of our own and its causing a political headache.
The New Zealand government put $29 million towards MethaneSAT, a satellite designed to help track methane emissions, which has been lost in space after going off course. The US Group behind the satellite, the Enviromental Defense Fund, said in a statement overnight "While this is difficult news, it is not the end of the overall MethaneSAT effort, or of our work to slash methane emissions”.
Certainly the end of this little guys work though, isn’t it? God speed satellite. Enjoy hurtling through the darkness, forever.
That’s it for today, thanks for reading. Want to get in touch with a news tip, bit of feedback or just to chat? Email hello@caffeinedaily.co