Mercuryo's CBO on Why DeFi Will Live Inside Revolut, Not Replace It

About this episode

Arthur Firstov discusses the integration of DeFi within traditional banking systems at Paris Blockchain Week 2026.

Arthur Firstov, Chief Business Officer at Mercuryo, joined Alex Richardson at Paris Blockchain Week 2026 to challenge the dominant DeFi narrative. The future isn't DeFi platforms beating banks — it's DeFi primitives living as backend infrastructure inside Revolut, neobanks, and traditional banks with polished UX and millions of users. Plus crypto cards as the consumer gateway, the 2026 fintech-pivot M&A wave, and Mercuryo's Mastercard crypto credentials product. We cover: - DeFi's actual adoption path: white-label inside banks - Crypto cards as the mainstream stablecoin gateway - The fintech-pivot driving crypto M&A in 2026 - Mercuryo + Mastercard's crypto credentials product - What MiCA actually changed for an early-stage compliant firm👇 Chapters: 00:11 - Welcome and Introduction of Arthur Firstov 01:01 - Overview of Mercurio 01:29 - The Role of Stablecoins 03:06 - Stablecoin Payments in Consumer Platforms 05:12 - The Future of Crypto Cards 06:25 - Peer-to-Peer Payments and Agents 09:26 - Changes in DeFi and UX 11:41 - Impact of Micah Regulation 15:34 - Expansion to the US and Regulatory Challenges 18:05 - Trends in Payments and FinTech 23:21 - Future Trends in FinTech…

People in this episode

Host: Alex Richardson

Guest: Arthur Firstov

Topics covered

• DeFi
• fintech
• crypto cards
• banking
• M&A
• infrastructure

Keywords

• DeFi
• Revolut
• Mercuryo
• Mastercard
• crypto cards
• fintech M&A
• MiCA
• banking infrastructure

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Mercuryo, Revolut, Mastercard, MiCA

Places: Paris

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