Serg Gulko

One click, two payments? Not on your watch! In financial services, reliability isnt a nice to have, it’s non negotiable. A dropped connection, or automatic retry shouldn’t mean duplicate payments. In my next post for Tyk , I dive into designing for idempotency. https://lnkd.in/exbAy_AZ

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Attending Rowan Simpson's "How to Be Wrong" book launch this week and reading Team Topologies' recent article on Trade Me's "thinnest viable platform" sparked memories of my time there. What made Trade Me not just wildly successful but genuinely fun to work at? This is something I've reflected on for many years. Perhaps simplicity might be the superpower we've forgotten. In our era of increasing complexity, what lessons could we extract from those simpler, more effective days? https://lnkd.in/gXSvVHkt #SystemsThinking #SoftwareEngineering #Simplicity

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ANNOUNCEMENT: BNY selected to serve as the primary reserve custodian of Ripple’s enterprise-grade stablecoin, Ripple USD (#RLUSD). The relationship builds upon BNY’s proven track record of providing end-to-end services across #stablecoin infrastructure and furthers our efforts to support future interoperability between stablecoins and traditional assets. #BNY and Ripple are jointly committed to paving the way for digital asset adoption at institutional scale and together are helping to bridge the gap between the traditional finance and cryptocurrency ecosystems. Learn more here 👉 https://lnkd.in/ejDM4VrC

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Perspective on an IMO quite incorrect vendor change attempt method. I have witnessed a number of occassions this year where vendors introduce some form of Chatbot or interactive capability. Those capabilities are either automatically enabled OR those vendors rely on the users who have access to click some acknowledge/agree box including sometimes click-through terms. Respectfully, this is not good process management - advance your capabilities (all for that), but then consider whom at your client is best positioned to engage with, get full approvals from and support for your change. Consider Privacy, Security, Contract, Compliance etc. These are not just new vendors I am referring to, seeing it with established vendors who I perceive should know better. Thanks Jason

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Some thoughts on why FiServ launched FiUSD and how stablecoins fit with "core banking" ICYMI: Fiserv said in a press release it will launch its own stablecoin, “FIUSD will be powered by the infrastructure of Paxos and Circle, and targets interoperability with other stablecoins,” and will launch on the Solana network. Fiserv also plans to work with banks on deposit tokens The partnership with PayPal is to make their two stablecoins interoperable… which is fascinating 🧠 Everyone needs a stablecoin story. Analysts are asking about it, its moving stocks, and so “announcing” something is smart PR. 🧠What do I need a “core” ledger for if I have stablecoins? There’s the small matter fo all of the assets in all of the world existing on existing core ledgers. If stablecoins are going to get liquidity that’s going to need to work well with the banking sector. Banks are becoming the ISPs of onchain finance. 🧠 Every bank would need new tech to work with their existing tech. Banks don’t replace their core in the same way you don’t replace your heart and brain in a single surgery. The existential risk is too high. 🧠Deposit tokens will find their place in the market. Onchain finance will need many funding models. Just as sponsor banks did very well in BaaS, the banks (and shadow banks) that lean into stablecoins will reap a massive opportunity. 🧠Paxos and Circle are strange bedfellows. Paxos is a major competitor to Circle, behind the USDG consortium (which Robinhood and Mastercard are a part of). It’s custodied in Singapore meaning it offers 4.1% yield. 🧠Compatibility with PYUSD is a sign of the thinking here. There’s an interoperability problem in stablecoins. Do this fix it? 🧠We’re at peak stablecoin PR surely. SoFi launched global remittances, the Visa CEO was on CNBC talking about them, Kraken launched “Krak” their stablecoin-only wallet to compete with PayPal / Wise etc

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As Gina Heeb reports here, Fiserv will be helping facilitate on-ramps to the blockchain world among its core community and regional bank customer base. Even the marginal movement of liabilities into stablecoin will mean assets need to fill that gap. Figure’s technology provides that asset origination via its tokenization technology and has meaningful usage by regional banks, credit unions and mortgage companies. This is all part of the broad shift we have seen from the banking to non bank / private credit world with stablecoin and blockchain being the next accelerant. https://lnkd.in/eZc7u3JN

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As the US embraces onchain finance, it needs a secure foundation. Wormhole is that foundation. Celebrating 5 years of being the most secure interoperability infrastructure, Wormhole is trusted by institutions like BlackRock via Securitize and the U.S. Department of Commerce via Pyth Network.

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The Citi and Swift trial is a useful signal that digital money is moving from slides to something that actually works. A major bank and one of the most important financial utilities just tested a fiat to digital settlement workflow inside the current supervisory framework, which is exactly where serious progress happens. The design matters. No new money instrument. No leap outside the rules. The digital piece behaved like an extension of existing deposits and stayed anchored to the same protections banks already operate under. That approach keeps the risk understandable and the benefits measurable. There is still distance to cover. We do not have true atomic settlement across technologies yet. Governance needs clarity. The industry still has to prove that this reduces trapped liquidity and cuts operational friction at scale. Even so, it is a meaningful step. It shows that tokenised value and existing financial infrastructure can meet in a way that is both innovative and controlled. If more projects take this path, we will reach a point where cross border settlement becomes faster, cleaner, and easier to trust without rewriting the entire system. Real progress looks like this: focused, tested and built to stand up under scrutiny.

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🆕 We’re pleased to announce that Collateral Access is now available for Crypto.com Custody Institutional users can engage in margin products for trading on the Crypto.com Exchange while keeping their collateral in cold storage 🔒Collateral stays in cold storage with zero hot-wallet exposure 🏦 Safeguarded by a compliant custodian with institutional-grade security 📑 Wallets are segregated to comply with regulatory requirements 🪙 Accepted collateral: CRO, BTC, ETH, SOL and more Here are more reasons to use Crypto.com Custody: 👥 Dynamic policy controls 🛡️ Multi-party computation (MPC) security 📊 Comprehensive reporting options Learn more 👇 crypto.com/custody Only available in select jurisdictions.

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FINRA dings Apex Clearing for security lending infractions ( quoted from the article) The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (Finra) has fined RIA custodian and clearing firm Apex Clearing $3.2m for infractions related to its fully paid securities lending program. Clearing firms operate fully paid securities lending programs which allow broker-dealers to borrow a client’s fully paid or excess margin securities, then lend them out to a third party for a daily fee. That fee is typically split between the clearing firm, the introducing broker-dealer and the client who owns the borrowed security. In this case, Finra said many clients who opted into Apex’s program from January of 2019 through June of 2023 did not receive any of the borrowing fee despite taking on risks like potentially higher taxes, loss of voting rights and loss of protection during the loan term. Apex also distributed certain documents to introducing broker-dealers allegedly misrepresenting the compensation clients would receive for loans they made through the program, Finra said, and additionally failed to provide written disclosures to many participating clients. In a statement, Finra noted it previously brought charges in December of 2023 against four brokerage firms, including SoFi Securities, fining them a combined $2.6m for failing to maintain and enforce adequate supervisory systems for their securities lending offerings. Customers of those four firms participated in Apex’s program. #finra #fines https://lnkd.in/gDhjFJvn

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From tokenizing collateral to enable instantaneous movement and reduce intraday liquidity risk, to asset managers tokenizing funds, Frank La Salla, President & CEO @ The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), noted that multiple initiatives are advancing in parallel across the financial services industry. While regulatory readiness and operational execution remain critical, adoption will happen faster than many expect once the foundations are in place👇

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