Welcome back to another EUVC Podcast, where we gather Europe’s venture family to share the stories, insights, and lessons that drive our ecosystem forward.

Today we dive into the mainstreaming of stablecoin yield with David Sutter, CEO & Co-founder of OpenTrade, and Itxaso del Palacio, GP at Notion Capital. With $11M raised in just six months, transaction volumes already topping $200M, and growth at 20% month-on-month, OpenTrade is one of the fastest-scaling fintech infrastructure plays in Europe. But this is about much more than another fintech: it’s about embedding yield into the financial internet, bridging stablecoins with real-world assets, and building institutional-grade trust for millions of users across Latin America and Europe.

🎧 Here’s what’s covered:

01:01 Why stablecoin yield matters: the “every dollar wants a return” insight + Stripe analogy
02:51 Why issuers can’t pay yield: e-money rules, narrow-bank logic, and the regulatory backdrop
07:36 Stablecoin scale: ~$20T annualized volume, now surpassing Visa/Mastercard (it’s dollar volume, not tx count)
08:28 What’s driving usage: from crypto markets to mainstream adoption in LATAM/emerging economies
10:45 The AI kicker: why stablecoins are the only “money tech” fit for autonomous agents
13:41 “Institutional-grade” explained: bankruptcy remoteness, cybersecurity, and white-glove support
16:25 Why B2B2C: serving fintechs/wallets (à la USDC) beats going direct for distribution and cost base
22:06 Stripe’s $1.1B Bridge deal: market validation for stablecoin infrastructure, not a direct threat
25:54 Real-world assets behind yield: treasuries, MMFs, CP, trade finance, private credit, ETFs
32:01 Expected returns: from ~4% “risk-free” products up to ~12–15% for higher-risk strategies

E602 | David Sutter, OpenTrade & Itxaso del Palacio, Notion: Stablecoin Yield, Real-World Assets & the Future of Embedded Finance

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