00:00Last year, in 2025, stablecoin transactions reached new heights, coming in at $33 trillion, with a T, trillion dollars.
00:08Now, in a move to capitalize on the wider mainstream usage, Circle is partnering with Grammy Award-winning artist Wyclef Jean, making him their new global culture advisor.
00:19We had a chance to catch up with Wyclef, of course, a founding member of the Fugees, along with Circle's chief business officer, Cash Razaghi, to discuss the partnership.
00:28Here's what they had to say.
00:30The idea of, like, how money moves, I understand it from the side of the village and also understand it from the side of the states.
00:38And a matter of sometimes when you're in the village, just the idea of, like, health care, somebody got to get to the hospital, the idea of, like, your kids got to get to school.
00:47This is sometimes it's a matter of life and death.
00:49So I overstand that.
00:51And so, Cash, I'd love to hear your perspective as well as, you know, bringing in a figure such as Wyclef.
00:57If you think about celebrity endorsements and partnerships in crypto, we've seen this before.
01:02But what does Wyclef bring to Circle?
01:06Working with Wyclef, it's really centered around two important ideas.
01:09Number one, Wyclef has felt this himself growing up in Haiti, but also in his travels around the world.
01:14He understands intimately the challenges that people face in accessing financial tools.
01:19So it's native to him.
01:21He understands that this isn't just a marketing ploy.
01:24And number two, he has a global audience that respect him, that trust him, that believe him.
01:30And so this is about storytelling, initiating conversations with a global community around what digital tools, digital asset tools and blockchain technology and stable coins like USDC can actually bring to them.
01:42So it made a whole lot of sense, and there's no better person to partner with to really go after this mission.
01:48Well, Wyclef, to that point, I mean, Romain brought up that you're no stranger when it comes to fintech and digital banking.
01:53But you think about crypto overall, it is such a broad church at this point.
01:58What is the appeal?
02:00What attracted you to stable coins in particular?
02:02Again, I think we talked about Haiti, but also talked about my influences in America and talk about my influences in the world.
02:11As someone who has constantly fought for the idea of a world that's borderless, right, the idea of, you know, people can get to economic freedom.
02:21For me, I just feel that that language, it just breaks that barrier.
02:26The same thing that I do with music.
02:27Think about it.
02:28Like, you could take a song like Hips Don't Lie, that it's borderless, right?
02:32And so what if we could get that same message through stable coin?
02:37Does the Clarity Act that's working its way through the U.S. Congress right now, assuming that does actually make it through Congress and onto the president's desk and is signed, does that help circle or does that hinder it?
02:49We believe that regulation helps circle largely because we have been acting as though we have been regulated from the day we were founded.
02:57So we absolutely are a fan of more regulation.
03:01The right kind of regulation, and our team is working with local government officials and federal officials all the time.
03:06And so we're quite optimistic about the Clarity Act.
03:08I do just want to briefly, though, on that issue, and this is more towards Wyclef, the idea of celebrity endorsements.
03:14As you know, a couple of years ago, there was a lot of concern about some of the celebrity endorsements of more straightforward crypto like Bitcoin and other coins as well.
03:23Was that a concern at all with regards to entering into this partnership?
03:26No, I think that the word that you refer in an endorsement, I don't look at this as an endorsement.
03:32I look at it as a real partnership.
03:34And the idea is you have to, the same way that you know the music side of me, I guess this is introducing you onto the business side.
03:42So I'm not coming from this from the point of view of not understanding or it's another celebrity endorsement.
03:48I'm coming from this as someone who's a past candidate of trying to be president of my country.
03:56I'm coming from this as someone who was from a place where 80 percent is living on less than a dollar a day.
04:03Right. So I'm someone who's coming from not just the music side, but from the side of working on trying to change policies and making the world a better place.
04:12Well, Wycliffe, I really like this distinction that you made that this isn't an endorsement.
04:17Rather, you're joining as global cultural advisor.
04:20And I was taking a look at the press release.
04:21You talk about co-creating storytelling and also new community activations as part of this role.
04:28Can you give us a sense of what you have planned?
04:30Well, I mean, what I have planned is similar to my music, right?
04:34So, you know, I always like to refer to records that people know.
04:38Let's go to Maria, Maria.
04:40She reminds me of a West Side Story, you know.
04:42A very simple story.
04:44What's that story?
04:45It's a story of a family that's about to get evicted.
04:48And, you know, how do they keep their home?
04:51Right.
04:51Again, I think that through the culture and through the art and through small films, through music,
04:58we'll be able to bring storytelling from the aspect of the human level.
05:04Right.
05:04The idea of like you could touch, feel.
05:07And it's going to be like different stories.
05:09Happy, sad.
05:10But think about it.
05:10You're mirroring yourself.
05:11Sometimes things happen and we'll be like, oh, it's too far to get to us.
05:15So what we're going to do is bring you these human stories and it's going to connect with you.
05:20And I'm also excited, not just of the stories, of the music putting it together that connects with these stories.
05:27And, Cash, I want to talk a little bit about geographic ambition here, not just as it relates to this partnership, but you mentioned that, you know, you're in conversations with governments around the world.
05:36And you think about Circle, do you have any geographics or geographies in particular that you're targeting and you have an eye on next?
05:44Emerging markets are the markets that need access to U.S. dollar, need access to financial tools.
05:52And so when you think about that, you get quite excited about the opportunity in Latin America.
05:56You get quite excited about the opportunity in the Middle East and in parts of Asia, where these are these are countries where citizens might be going through unrest because of currency volatility.
06:06And again, lack of access to financial tools.
06:09So we are really focusing on emerging markets that really are taking note of the power of blockchain technology.
06:17Again, the continent of Africa is an incredible opportunity.
06:20And so Circle is very global in its ambitions to tell our story.
06:25And that's why this makes a whole lot of sense.
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