Punia Stellar Foundation business development lead, discusses how DeFi is the foundation for modern payments infrastructure. The roadmap: secure major lending protocol partnerships launching Q3-Q4, scale vault programs with institutions and fintechs, and use DeFi to unlock yield-bearing financial services on top of payments rails. The thesis is that payments are just the beginning; the real moat is enabling money movement plus credit, fraud protection, and other value-added services.
Stellar Foundation's Punia reveals the DeFi playbook reshaping payments and finance on Stellar. With primitive parity achieved across Ethereum and Solana ecosystems, the focus shifts to execution: launching top 10 lending protocols in Q3 and Q4, scaling vault programs with institutional partners and fintechs. The core insight is that DeFi is not separate from payments; it's the financial layer enabling payments platforms to offer credit, yield, and other services that create a defensible moat. The DTCC partnership on digital securities custody marks the beginning of institutional adoption at scale. Fintechs and institutions are increasingly viewing vaults as both balance sheet tools and a way to monetize float through yield strategies managed by asset managers in a DeFi context.
