Stablecoins at scale: Why PayFi Infrastructure Matters

On September 26, 2025, Concordium CTO Peter Marirosans sat down with Yulgan Lira, Co-Founder & CEO of COLB, for a focused discussion on the future of institutional stablecoins and tokenized finance.

• The conversation explored
  • Why COLB chose Concordium’s protocol-level tokens (PLTs) for its USC stablecoin
  • How Concordium’s identity layer and zero-knowledge proofs provide privacy with accountability
  • The road to mass adoption of stablecoins and the role of trust
  • COLB’s mission to democratize access to investments — from USD-backed stablecoins to pre-IPO equities
  • How PLTs and programmable payments create real-world utility for enterprises and cross-border transactions

This summary that follows captures the full dialogue, section by section, with Peter’s questions and Yulgan’s answers distilled into clear, concise takeaways.

1  Introduction & Setting the Stage

1 Introduction Setting the Stage

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• Peter Marirosans opens session, quick conversation planned
• Yulgan Lira introduces himself – CEO & Co-Founder of Co Finance (Geneva, 2020)
  • Mission: build next step of finance powered by blockchain
• Peter Marirosans introduces himself – CTO of Concordium
  • Building rails for COLB stablecoin issuance
• Comments
  • https://t.me/c/1659427635/35020 (24 words)

2  What Makes COLB Special

2 What Makes COLB Special

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• Yulgan Lira
  • Mission is to connect TradFi with DeFi
  • First to tokenize top institutional funds (e.g. BlackRock) in 2020–2022
  • Launched USC stablecoin under Swiss law (green light in 2023)
  • Pioneered tokenized Swiss wealth management
  • Next target: pre-IPO tech equities, tokenizing access for blockchain community
• Peter Marirosans
  • Stablecoin usage is growing, but real-world payments still small — Concordium aims to solve this via infrastructure
• Comments
  • https://t.me/c/1659427635/35021 (347 words)

3  Why COLB Chose Concordium

3 Why COLB Chose Concordium

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• Yulgan Lira
  • Institutional approach always a priority
  • Early in blockchain-powered financial revolution
  • Carefully selects partners; Concordium’s institutional focus fits COLB ecosystem
  • Believes Concordium’s native tokens will be adopted by global institutional players — “the inevitable future”
• Peter Marirosans
  • Highlights Concordium’s protocol-level tokens (not smart contracts)
  • No fee spikes under network load → predictable cost
  • High scalability, consistent performance
• Comments
  • https://t.me/c/1659427635/35022 (132 words)

4  Payments Infrastructure & PLTs

4 Payments Infrastructure PLTs

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• Ylgan Lira Sees stablecoins as foundation layer for payments
• First use case: large cross-border transactions
• Already moving millions from Latin America to Europe and the US
• Concordium tech supports these transfers effectively
• Comments
  • https://t.me/c/1659427635/35023 (26 words)

5  Identity Layer & Compliance

5 Identity Layer Compliance

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• Peter Marirosans
  • Highlights Concordium’s baked-in identity
    • Identities hidden via cryptography, but accountability enabled
    • Accountability layer 
• Yulgan Lira
  • Crucial for institutional finance to know beneficial owners
  • Privacy must still be respected — a core blockchain principle
  • Key challenge: balance AML controls with individual privacy rights

6  Mass Adoption of Stablecoins

6 Mass Adoption of Stablecoins

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• Yulgan Lira says mass adoption occurs when stablecoins proven more efficient than fiat requiring:
  • Better UX and acceptance worldwide
  • High level of trust (like fiat)
  • Strong tech + principles behind currency
  • Broader tech progress (AI, quantum, robotics, space) will make adoption inevitable
• Peter Marirosans
  • Stablecoins reduce cost of trus
  • Infrastructure enables speed, scalability, efficiency
• Yulgan Lira (follow-up)
  • Trust is historic foundation of money
  • System needs updating after decades of stagnation
  • Stablecoins offer:
    • Price stability
    • Flexibility to move value globally
    • Compatibility with today’s tech
    • Believes we are very close to mass adoption

7  Future Vision & Roadmap

7 Future Vision Roadmap

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• Yulgan Lira
  • Major entrepreneurs predict ~5 years for significant tech shifts (e.g. AGI)
  • Adoption of stablecoins will accelerate accordingly
  • Politics could slow progress
  • Sees mass adoption aligning with end of current economic cycle and start of next one (5–10 year horizon)
• Comment
  • https://t.me/c/1659427635/35028 (75 words)

8  Regulatory Landscape & ZKP

8 Regulatory Landscape ZKP

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• Yulgan Lira
  • Regulators focus on product implications, not tech itself
  • Key principles: privacy, freedom to transact, DeFi compatibility, PLT - smart contracts
  • Convincing regulators is challenging — they lack deep blockchain knowledge
• Peter Marirosans
  • Concordium engages with regulators to explain ZKPs
  • ZKP proofs generated on device, no personal data on-chain
  • Enables jurisdiction, age, or eligibility checks while preserving privacy
• Yulgan Lira
  • Supports idea — can audit contracts and processes to prove compliance
  • Education process is large but necessary
• Peter Marirosans
  • Regulators are catching up and becoming increasingly open
• Yulgan Lira
  • ZKP is ideal: controls information without exposing it
  • Current legal view sometimes misunderstands spirit of law (protecting system & people, not demanding disclosure)

9  Enterprise Use Cases & Payments

9 Enterprise Use Cases Payments compressed

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• Peter Marirosan
  • Highlights Concordium’s travel-rule-ready infrastructure and asks about COLB’s enterprise use case
• Yulgan Lira
  • Goal is not to be just another stablecoin — must solve real utility problems
  • Latin America context:
    • Hard to access USD, funds like BlackRock, or pre-IPO shares
    • Wealth access is concentrated with elites
  • COLB aims to onboard users via USD-backed stablecoin, then give access to investments
  • Stablecoin also used for international large-value cross-border payments
  • People seeking alternatives for wealth preservation and cheaper/faster global payments
• Peter Marirosan
  • highlights Concordium PLTs
    • Custody at protocol level (not honeypot) → more secure
    • Programmability enables conditional, fast, low-cost payments
    • Stable fees and scalable performance ideal for cross-border use
• Yulgan LIra
  • praises PLT design — tailored for today’s world, strengthens stablecoin use case
• Peter: merchants and marketplaces already recognizing benefits
• Yulgan: sees formula for success, adoption starting to take shape

10  Tokenization & Access to Wealth

10 Tokenization Access to Wealth

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• Traditional process is slow & complex:
  • Offshore holding structure, wealth manager, bank accounts
  • Takes 6–12 months (longer in Switzerland)
• Tokenization makes it simple:
  • Only need wallet + stablecoin → immediate access
  • Removes geographical and banking barriers
  • Shifts focus to trust in asset and issuer
• Considers stablecoin itself a tokenization use case and adds
  • COLB tokens are freely usable on DeFi (no restrictive business/legal logic)
  • Tokens (e.g. SpaceX, OpenAI, BlackRock) are interoperable across infrastructures
  • Traditional banks do not offer this freedom
• Comments
  • https://t.me/c/1659427635/35031 (231 words)

11  Excitement About Partnership & Closing

11 Excitement About Partnership Closing

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• Yulgan Lira
  • PLT architecture ideal for institutional investors
  • Sees chance for strong institutional adoption powered by Concordium
• COLB’s stablecoins and TKSPs (tokenized structured products) align with Concordium’s principles of security, quality, and compliance
• Peter Marirosans
  • Excited to see PLTs, ZKPs, and Concordium infrastructure solving real-world issues
  • Partnership with COLB aligns with Concordium’s vision — adoption already taking shape
  • Mutual agreement on shared mission and excitement
• Call-to-action
  • Yulgan: launch COLB app on website to onboard, invest, and use stablecoin
  • Peter: merchants and developers can access docs at concordium.com and start integrating stablecoin for PayFi