03-17-2026Price:

The Frontier

Your signal. Your price.

BITCOIN

Bitcoin builders launch stablecoins to challenge traditional banking

Tuesday, March 17, 2026 · from 2 podcasts
Presidio Bitcoin JamBTC Sessions
  • Bitcoin-native stablecoins like those from Utxo and Ark are emerging to serve global demand for stable banking utility, not volatile speculation.
  • Builders are expanding grassroots development into financial hubs like New York, aiming to create seamless systems that make onboarding obsolete.

Global demand for cryptocurrency is not for Bitcoin’s volatility, but for stable banking utility.

According to Francis Pouliot on BTC Sessions, North Americans misunderstand this. In economies like Argentina, people lack financial cushions and cannot withstand price swings. They seek the freedom of stablecoins like Tether for daily life. This reality shapes a pragmatic vision for Bitcoin’s evolution, where the ideal end state is a world where the technology is so integrated that educational and onboarding services, like Pouliot’s own Bull Bitcoin, become obsolete.

The development work to bridge that gap is accelerating in places where it matters most. On Presidio Bitcoin Jam, the discussion highlighted a new Builder event launched by Spiral’s team in New York at PubKey. The event, drawing fifty people, signals the grassroots Bitcoin development movement expanding beyond its Austin origins into a global financial nerve center long dominated by legacy finance.

That builder ethos is now producing the tools to meet the global demand described by Pouliot. Projects like Utxo and Ark are debuting Bitcoin-native stablecoins that leverage Layer 2s without leaving Bitcoin’s security model. Unlike Ethereum-style alternatives, these aim to settle on Bitcoin, sidestepping custodial risks while providing dollar-pegged utility. The goal is alignment - building financial primitives with the same autonomy, transparency, and permissionless innovation that drives the broader Bitcoin movement.

The mission isn't to explain Bitcoin, but to build a system so seamless it doesn't need explaining.

Francis Pouliot, BTC Sessions:

- This is what North Americans don't understand.

- Outside of North America, people don't have money and they can't withstand volatility.

StablecoinsBTC MarketsAdoption

Entities Mentioned

AardvarkProduct
Bull BitcoinCompany
SpiralCompany
TetherCompany

Source Intelligence

What each podcast actually said

Presidio Bitcoin Jam
Presidio Bitcoin Jam

Strategy's STRC Buying Spree, Open-Source AI Blind Spots, Bitcoin Stablecoins from Utexo & Ark • Mar 13

  • Utxo and Ark introduced Bitcoin-native stablecoins that operate on Layer 2 solutions while maintaining settlement finality and censorship resistance on Bitcoin’s base layer.
  • Bitcoin-native stablecoins from Utxo and Ark aim to enable dollar-pegged utility without custodial intermediaries, offering a censorship-resistant alternative to Ethereum-style stablecoins.

Also from this episode:

Lightning (1)
  • Spiral’s team hosted the first Builder event in New York at PubKey, signaling the expansion of grassroots Bitcoin development beyond Austin and into major financial centers.
Other (1)
  • The New York Builder event drew 50 attendees, reinforcing the growing momentum of in-person Bitcoin development meetups focused on open building, fast iteration, and stacking sats.
Nostr (1)
  • Steve from Presidio Bitcoin Jam credits Haley with the idea to launch the New York Builder event, noting the team has run monthly events for nine consecutive months in San Francisco.
Models (2)
  • Open-source AI models face centralization risks despite their decentralized appearance, as control over training data, compute resources, and distribution remains concentrated among a few well-funded entities.
  • Centralized bottlenecks in AI—data, compute, and distribution—undermine the promise of open-source decentralization, making true autonomy in AI development difficult to achieve.
Philosophy (1)
  • The ethos of Bitcoin builders—autonomy, transparency, and permissionless innovation—is now influencing adjacent domains like AI and financial infrastructure, challenging centralized defaults.
AdoptionAI & TechStablecoinsOpen Source
BTC Sessions
BTC Sessions

Silent Payments, Pay Join & the Bitcoin Tech Making You Invisible | NVK & Francis Pouliot • Mar 10

  • Francis Pouliot argues that North Americans fundamentally misunderstand global cryptocurrency demand, where people in economies like Argentina lack the financial cushion to withstand Bitcoin's volatility.
  • Pouliot states that real demand outside wealthy nations is for stable banking utility and a stable medium of exchange, not exposure to a speculative, volatile asset.
  • For most of the world, financial freedom currently means access to stablecoins like Tether, not holding Bitcoin, because stability is paramount when people have little money.
  • Pouliot outlines a pragmatic view of Bitcoin's evolution, where its ultimate success would render educational and onboarding services like his company, Bull Bitcoin, obsolete.
  • The ideal end state for Bitcoin is a world without fiat, where the technology is so seamless and integrated into daily life that it disappears into the background, requiring no explanation.
  • For now, the transition gap is filled by stablecoins serving daily utility and companies like Bull Bitcoin facilitating the on-ramp, but the mission is to build a system that doesn't need intermediaries.
AdoptionStablecoinsPayments

Related Stories