Jack Zhang probably didn't foresee that a remark he made on X in June 2025 would become one of the most iconic "face-slapping quotes" in crypto history.

The post was unequivocal: "I see no way stablecoins can reduce fees—the exit channel from stablecoin to receiving currency is far higher than interbank foreign exchange markets."

Shortly after, he added an even more biting comment in the replies: "After 15 years, crypto has solved not a single real-world problem."

The author of the post was Jack Zhang, co-founder and CEO of Airwallex, a Melbourne-based cross-border payments company valued at $6 billion at the time, holding 80 financial licenses globally, operating across 200 countries and regions, with annualized revenue just surpassing $1 billion—giving him ample confidence to speak so boldly.

The reaction from the crypto community was predictable: a full-scale backlash.

Dragonfly partner Omar Kanji mocked him; Richard Liu, co-founder of Huma Finance, published a lengthy rebuttal. Eventually, Zhang conceded slightly in the comments: acknowledging that stablecoin wallets could serve as alternative payment rails in emerging markets.

Just 17 months later, on November 10, 2026, a blockchain startup named Alta announced a $47.5 million Series A round led by Index Ventures, with participation from GV (Google Ventures), Blackbird Ventures, and Square Peg—bringing total funding to $80 million, including a prior $32.5 million seed round.

Among Alta’s founding team list: Jack Zhang.

From Bearish to Full-Stack Entry

Zhang’s pivot wasn’t sudden.

After the June 2025 stablecoin debate, several major developments reshaped the global payments landscape.

Stripe acquired Bridge, a stablecoin infrastructure firm, for $1.1 billion; then jointly incubated Tempo, a payment-specific public blockchain, with Paradigm.

Circle’s USDC saw annual transaction volume reach $18.3 trillion in 2025—surpassing USDT. Total stablecoin market cap doubled from $150 billion to over $300 billion. More importantly, the U.S. GENIUS Act and Hong Kong’s Stablecoin Ordinance were both enacted, bringing regulatory clarity and opening institutional access at scale.

Zhang may have been vocal in his skepticism, but his actions told another story.

Early in 2026, Airwallex quietly began forming a stablecoin team under its core foreign exchange and liquidity division. Job postings were explicit: integrate stablecoins into existing FX and payment systems so they function like any fiat currency on the platform.

Also early in 2026, through a mutual acquaintance, Zhang met Loong Wang—a technical prodigy who graduated from the Australian National University. In 2017, Wang founded Republic Protocol (later renamed Ren Protocol), a DeFi project enabling Bitcoin encapsulation. In 2021, Alameda Research acquired Ren; Wang left before FTX collapsed and subsequently pivoted to quantum chemistry-driven drug discovery.

The two instantly connected. Zhang had already been contemplating launching a blockchain venture and needed a lead technologist. In a later interview, Wang recalled that when Zhang was introduced, he was actively exploring the stablecoin space—within days, they became close friends and decided to build something together.

That “something” was Metal, later rebranded as Alta.

What Exactly Is Alta Doing?

Alta is not another general-purpose blockchain—it’s a Layer 1 specifically designed for licensed financial institutions.

In a post on X, Zhang explained his motivation: "Most discussions around stablecoins focus on settlement speed and remittance. But viewed through the lens of financial market evolution and infrastructure development, a more intriguing opportunity emerges."

Zhang’s core argument: purchasing a USD stablecoin with your local currency is, fundamentally, a foreign exchange transaction. As adoption grows, stablecoins are creating entirely new USD liquidity markets—with their own bid-ask spreads, pricing mechanisms, and correlations with traditional forex markets. Stablecoins are not merely “cheaper SWIFT”—they’re evolving into a standalone financial architecture.

Then came the true “killer argument”: programmability. He stated: "Stablecoins turn money into a native software component, unlocking new paradigms in capital management, automated settlement, multi-party coordination—and ultimately enabling AI agents to execute autonomous trades."

What does this require? Zhang laid out his checklist: reliable liquidity, institutional-grade privacy, compliance, and seamless integration with domestic financial systems. No existing public blockchain satisfies all four simultaneously.

CEO Loong Wang put it more bluntly: "We wouldn’t build a Layer 1 unless forced to." In other words, Ethereum, Solana, or any L2 cannot meet banks and payment firms’ non-negotiable standards for privacy and compliance.

Thus, Alta made a decidedly un-crypto-native technical choice: it uses recursive zero-knowledge cryptography as its foundational layer. This enables on-chain transactions to verify regulatory compliance while preserving privacy—proving adherence to jurisdictional rules without revealing identities or amounts involved.

In product design, Alta did several things traditional blockchains avoid: built-in programmable compliance layer allowing “plug-and-play” support for different regulatory regimes; identity and authorization systems embedded directly into the protocol, not reliant on external oracles; and even a built-in anti-airdrop feature, preventing unauthorized addresses from sending funds to you. For banks, that last feature might matter more than any technological innovation.

The other co-founder, Catherine Porter, previously led Libra (later Diem) partnership initiatives within Meta, and later served as advisor to Mysten Labs and Aptos. Her appointment alone signals Alta’s strategy: encouraging financial systems to voluntarily adopt blockchain, rather than disrupting them.

Airwallex’s Role

Airwallex’s role in Alta goes far beyond being just a seed-round lead investor.

According to a Fortune report, Airwallex is acting as Alta’s primary distribution engine, persuading its global client network to use the Alta platform for crypto transactions. Alta’s chain will be directly integrated into Airwallex’s payment network, supporting stablecoin transfers and connecting to local fiat rails—covering 200 countries and 90 currencies.

This means a newly funded $80 million blockchain, from day one, has a design partner and go-to-market engine with a $287 billion annual transaction volume and $1.3 billion in annual revenue—an unprecedented first-mover advantage in the L1 race.

Zhang himself offered a new narrative in a statement: "As AI agent banks and programmable payments rise, stablecoins are becoming critical settlement vehicles."

An anonymous insider at Airwallex told Forbes Australia: "Zhang hasn’t turned into a crypto believer. But demand is rising, regulation is clarifying, and he’s willing to integrate this technology into the platform."

This is likely the most accurate assessment: Zhang’s beliefs haven’t changed. It’s business rationality that won.

Stripe Has Already Pioneered the Space

When viewing the competitive landscape, it becomes clear why Zhang felt compelled to act.

In October 2024, Stripe acquired Bridge, a stablecoin infrastructure firm, for $1.1 billion. By end-2025, it acquired wallet developer Privy, gaining access to 75 million embedded wallets. Early in 2026, it co-incubated Tempo, a payment-specific blockchain with Paradigm—raising $500 million at a $5 billion valuation. Tempo launched on mainnet in March 2026 and now powers Stripe Treasury’s stablecoin functionality.

Stripe’s crypto lead said publicly: "Our goal is to become the AWS of money."

They are indeed building a full-stack stablecoin infrastructure: Bridge handles issuance and on/off ramps; Privy manages wallets; Tempo powers settlement. With three layers stacked, Stripe can now operate independently of third parties—from stablecoin minting to merchant payments.

Tempo’s design partners include OpenAI, Shopify, Visa, and Deutsche Bank. By November 2026, over 100 services had integrated with Tempo’s mainnet.

For Airwallex, Stripe is no longer just a competitor in cross-border payments—it’s now a direct rival in blockchain infrastructure. If ignored, as stablecoin settlement becomes standard for enterprise payments, Airwallex risks being downgraded from “infrastructure provider” to “application layer,” reducing its payment network to just another interface running on someone else’s chain.

Alta is Airwallex’s response to this threat—though Stripe chose self-built full-stack, Airwallex opted for incubation + investment + strategic alignment.

A Battle Over Who Controls the Settlement Layer

Stablecoin market data no longer needs defense. By mid-2026, total market cap exceeded $320 billion: USDT held 59% (~$187 billion), USDC 24% (~$750 billion). Annual on-chain transaction volume surpassed $33 trillion in 2025, with USDC overtaking USDT ($18.3T vs. $13.3T).

But market cap and transaction volume are surface-level metrics. The real battleground lies in the settlement layer—those who control the entire lifecycle from stablecoin issuance to settlement and withdrawal hold pricing power over next-generation financial infrastructure.

This explains why payment firms are now building their own chains:

Stripe built Tempo with Paradigm, valued at $5 billion. Circle launched Arc, providing native infrastructure for USDC cross-chain settlement. Fireblocks introduced a global stablecoin network linking on/off ramps, liquidity, and compliance providers. Canton Network—backed by Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, and BNP Paribas—also targets regulated financial institutions for on-chain settlement.

Airwallex + Alta is the latest hand in this game.

The consensus among these players is clear: stablecoins aren’t a “crypto product”—they’re a new payment rail.

The competition for payment rails isn’t about technical elegance—it’s about network effects, regulatory coverage, and speed of bridging on-chain assets back to real-world bank accounts. Technical sophistication ranks last.

Some say Zhang “got burned.” But if you examine his statements across both phases, a subtle consistency emerges: he never believed in “crypto” per se—he now believes in “tokenized fiat settlement infrastructure.”

In his framework, stablecoins aren’t crypto—they’re the on-chain form of fiat.

This distinction may sound like semantics, but it reflects a profound paradigm shift: payment companies no longer see blockchain as a rival or scam—they view it as their next-generation infrastructure. Stripe did it. Airwallex is doing it. Visa and Mastercard are following suit.

By: Xiao Bing, DeepFlow TechFlow