Fintech Recap: Kontig-uh-oh. Are Stablecoins Speed Running BaaS?

Fintech Recap: Kontig-uh-oh. Are Stablecoins Speed Running BaaS?

From Fintech Business Podcast by Jason Mikula

January 16, 2026 · 1h 5m

About this episode

The episode discusses the story of Kontigo and its implications for stablecoins and banking-as-a-service.

Alex Johnson of Fintech Takes and I had the chance to discuss the WILD story of Y Combinator- and Coinbase-backed Kontigo : * Some context setting and clarifications on the difference between AML vs. sanctions and the impact of sanctions on the everyday people of the countries they’re enforced against * Explaining Kontigo’s retail user service and its value proposition * Talking through what also was happening behind the scenes to make Kontigo’s service possible * The responsibility of “infrastructure” providers, like Rain, Checkbook, Bridge, and Stripe, as well as underlying bank partners, which include JPMorgan Chase and Lead Bank * The parallels between “stablecoin infrastructure” and banking-as-a-service, including third-party risk management (TPRM) * What lessons industry should learn from the Kontigo situation * And, as always, what Alex and I just can’t let go of (about this story) This episode is brought to you by Spade. Leading banks and fintechs use Spade’s transaction enrichment API to improve authorization, personalize rewards, and build smarter AI models on clean transaction data. Learn more at spade.com . Get full access to Fintech Business Weekly at…

People in this episode

Host: Jason Mikula

Guest: Alex Johnson

Topics covered

  • stablecoins
  • banking-as-a-service
  • AML vs sanctions
  • third-party risk management
  • Kontigo
  • infrastructure providers

Keywords

  • Kontigo
  • stablecoins
  • banking-as-a-service
  • AML
  • sanctions
  • third-party risk management
  • infrastructure providers
  • Y Combinator
  • Coinbase
  • Spade

Sponsors

Spade

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Y Combinator, Coinbase, Kontigo, Rain, Checkbook, Bridge, Stripe, JPMorgan Chase, Lead Bank

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