Zebec Network On Stage at XRP Las Vegas 2026 | Simon Babakhani on Real-Time Payroll & Payments

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:00]I'm excited. Great to be here. Our first XRP Las Vegas. So, I I want to not maybe jump straight into the weeds and we're talking about staying in the same building that I've been for 5 years now.

[00:00:11]So, you're going to be in it for the long haul. Tell me a little bit about the origin story and how you guys got into this space. Absolutely. Well, at Zebec, I say we're building the rails for the real-time finance economy. We always asked ourselves, why do payments take so long? Why is payroll done every 2 weeks or every month, right? And it comes down to the friction of payments.

[00:00:30]So, by building technology on the blockchain, you're able to make real-time payments a reality. So, we've been working on this for 5 years. We've made enormous strides in the past couple of years. We've now expanded out of our home of Solana onto other chains and we're making a really big announcement here today as well. Yeah, we started out with payments, now you're going into payroll. Why was that such an interesting use case for you guys? Well, when you think about it, payroll has not changed materially for the last 70 years. Settlement times can still be in in days and employees don't get their funds for 2 weeks later, right? Why is that the case? So, with blockchain technology, you're able to pay people theoretically in any increment of time at a very low marginal cost. So, through the smart contract engines that we've built at Zebec, that's our core technology and it's the perfect fit with the payroll use case. Now, payroll's been our home, but we can see this technology going into any aspects of the economy where you're making payments in real time. Payroll on chain is is kind of a really interesting use case. You're going to be doing these real-world flows. Where where do you go from here?

[00:01:29]What's next for you? You mentioned an announcement, I don't know if you want to hop into that. Well, as I'm sure many of our community members know, that Zebec has been in talks with Ripple now for a long, long time and we're making it official. Zebec is officially partnering with Ripple to build enterprise-grade payroll on the XRPL, settled in RLUSD.

[00:01:52]Congratulations, yeah.

[00:01:53]A huge milestone and I think we're incredibly excited to be working with Ripple. We see so many synergies with their network, with their enterprises, with their community, and I think this is really the perfect marriage with ZUBR Tech. And so, tell me more about You mentioned XRP USD. Talk to me a bit more about like what that partnership looks like. What are the advantages of of migrating to a Ripple partner with Ripple that you guys have? Well, the XRPL is really a purpose-built blockchain for payments, right? It's been around longer than any other blockchain. It is one of the fastest in processing speeds, low cost. It has enormous trust amongst institutions and enterprises, which is really important for ZUBR Tech because we work with some of the largest corporates and enterprises in the world. They need an institutional-grade chain. They need someone with the track record of Ripple.

[00:02:36]And then Ripple, of course, has the infrastructure components that we can plug into, things like Ripple payments for on and off-ramp, RippleNet, which already works with over 300 financial institutions. And of course, Ripple is life has 75 licenses globally. So, without that infrastructure and backbone, we wouldn't be able to work together. Yeah, you mentioned the licensing. Obviously, a huge milestone at the beginning of this year was the passage of the GENIE Act, any regulation around stablecoins in the United States.

[00:03:02]What did that do for global payments working with enterprises the way that ZUBR Tech does? I would say that the GENIE Act was a watershed moment for ZUBR Tech and the stablecoin industry.

[00:03:11]Then we were talking to enterprise CEOs trying to explain to them what a stablecoin is. Now we're helping them select the right stablecoin and how to integrate it. I'd say after the summer when the GENIE Act passed, we saw a huge change in the number of [clears throat] companies that are calling ZUBR Tech trying to get on-boarded with ZUBR Tech.

[00:03:27]So, it's been incredible for our business and we're excited to see what's next with the Clarity Act as well.

[00:03:32]Yeah, that's a very exciting, I guess, prospect. So, how are you guys dealing with these enterprise consumers who maybe were migrating from like a traditional fintech platform, and now they want that real-time settlement on chain as you mentioned? What are those conversations like?

[00:03:47]We try to make it as easy as possible for the corporate treasury teams, and that's one of the beauties of working with Ripple is that Ripple payments is so advanced in how it can connect fiat bank accounts and I think upwards of 50 currencies and in seconds they're minting RLYSD. And from there, that's when Zebec's tech picks up the delivery.

[00:04:05]So, through our smart contracts, we can pay RLYSD out in any increment of time to any company or employee around the world. And then on the back end, we have the Zebec card suites, which is a Mastercard product that fully supports the XRP and RLYSD. So, when you get paid on Friday, you have the money on your card immediately to go pay your expenses or your bills. Yeah, yeah, super super exciting.

[00:04:29]What about the Ripple ecosystem? We've talked about some of the licensing and some of the enterprise partners. You know, you're saying like when we walked on the stage and Zebec's been known as kind of like a baby XRP. What was so complimentary about this ecosystem to you? I think it really comes down to the culture, right?

[00:04:45]Of of Zebec and of Ripple. I mean, Ripple has this great connection between traditional finance and Wall Street, which is actually my background from before Zebec, but also blockchain technology and, you know, leading edge change. So, we're super excited about that. Also, compliance is part of their DNA. I mean, going through an SEC battle for all these years really toughens one.

[00:05:04]And at Zebec, you know, we had to also get our compliance up over the past few years. Last year, we bought a compliance company called Gate Nox. We built out our compliance team. We hit our SOC 2.

[00:05:13]We hit our ISO by the end of the year.

[00:05:14]We got Mica. And until we had that, we weren't really ready to work like Ripple, but now we're kind of at that level where we're comfortable to do so.

[00:05:21]How much easier does that make it for you to work with these clients that you're going after? I know there's a lot of opportunities for things like remittances and you know, cross-border payments in this space as well. I think global adoption. Compliance is a moat for us, right? I mean, if you're working with a large enterprise, the first question is going to be what are your compliance standards, right? What is your AML? What is your KYC? We've checked all those boxes now. Now it comes down to which stablecoins are you working with, right? Not all stablecoins are created the same. I'd say ARUSD is probably the premier, most respected, institutional-grade stable coin out there. So, it's going to be an incredible addition to our portfolio and make sales to these enterprises so much easier. And we saw just a flood of enterprises and large institutions look at stable coins. You know, we talked a bit about how more regulatory clarity, both from the agencies and at the legislative level, continue to unlock use cases and allow you guys to build new things.

[00:06:13]Where do you see that headed? And how do you think the over under on the day What do you think would be unlocked for you guys if you continue to see this focus on regulation and compliance continue to develop?

[00:06:24]It builds more trust in the system. And I think really the next leg of growth is going to see corporate balance sheets and treasuries coming on chain.

[00:06:31]Obviously, that's been a big focus of Ripple's through its own acquisitions.

[00:06:35]It's something that we're closely monitoring at Zebec because if corporate balance sheets are now held in stable coins, payroll becomes even that much easier to do at a click of a button.

[00:06:44]There's no on and off-ramping, there's no dealing with banks. And when we were getting ready to start this discussion today, we talked a little bit about the role that stable coins and that that dollar-denominated treasury plays like in the global economy.

[00:06:59]How do you look at projection of sort of the US, what do you want to call it, soft power or monetary influence? Stable coins, without a doubt, are one of the biggest drivers of maintaining dollar dominance, right? When you think about it, a stable coin issuer is naturally a buyer of US Treasuries and an exporter of the US dollar. And I think that payroll really unlocks the next leg of that because if you're someone that's working abroad, outside of the US, let's say you're a developer in Lagos, right, in Nigeria, and you're getting paid in US dollar stable coins, you are now a customer of the US system, even if the US banking system wasn't able to reach you. And that's what's so exciting about it because you can technically serve anyone in the world, no matter where they're located. Yeah, we were just we're about, you know, I guess the volatility of the economy doesn't matter that much until all of a sudden you're dealing with a crisis and then you'd much rather be holding dollars, right?

[00:07:48]Exactly, yep. So, where do we go from here, you know, what what kind of other products you mentioned the card a little bit. Tell me more about the the next few months for Right. So, I mean, right now we're building out what I would call our own little financial ecosystem, right? We have our payroll on stablecoin, we have a super app that brings the payroll together with our card suite, token trading and and staking all in one place. So, we're trying to essentially replace the banking system, let you run your entire life on crypto, and then let enterprises unlock the power of stablecoins because we know that, you know, in the next 5 years, 10 years, we're going to see stablecoin flows in the trillions and trillions of dollars and stablecoin payroll will become the default, right?

[00:08:28]It's just a matter of time and we're very well positioned for that growth.

[00:08:32]Yeah, our RLUSD specifically because I I think one of the interesting things that's been happening is is everybody's becoming an issuer, right? So, like, what are some of the things that you're hoping to see over the next few years for the the Ripple community more broadly just in in terms of projecting out, expanding to these institutional use cases and this projection of the dollar? Well, I mean, RLUSD is issued by a New York banking charter, you know, backed by Ripple, which is of course supervised by the New York Department of Financial Services, backed one-to-one by cash and treasuries. It doesn't get more transparent than that. But, I think what's most exciting for us is what I would call the treasury flywheel associated with RLUSD. If you look back a year ago, it was about a $200 million market cap stablecoin. Now, it's eclipsed 1.5 billion. And as more of these treasuries come on chain and start participating in treasury management, custody, and eventually payroll through Zebec, there's a multiplier effect throughout the ecosystem and that's how you're going to see RLUSD really take off and scale.

[00:09:32]On that note, what's the the biggest win that you're hoping for as as you're going into this next chapter as a company. As I've always said, Zebec really is a white-label provider amongst anything else, right? We build the rails for different ecosystems and blockchains to move value. So, as we work with more blockchains out there, it expands our reach. We're also working with more fintechs and banking apps to be their card providers, to be their payroll rails. So, that's the distribution side.

[00:09:59]So, as long as those ecosystems continue to grow and have a successful go-to-market, Zebec's transaction volume will also grow with it.

[00:10:06]>> Talk a little bit about the regulatory clarity being able to move some institutions, the compliance framework you guys have built, being able to give more of these institutions comfort. But, what are some of the conversations like that you're having?

[00:10:18]Who are some of the maybe competitors or who do you see people moving off of and then moving into an an ecosystem like this?

[00:10:24]Well, we're actually very diversified globally. I mean, we worked recently with Deutsche Bank and their stablecoin in Europe, Euro eU, which has now helped us unlock European enterprises that want to pay people in Euro denominated stablecoins. In the US, you know, the conversations are often about pilot programs with these larger enterprises.

[00:10:40]They're not going to go full in on stablecoin payroll, but it's something that they see themselves offering alongside traditional payroll. And we are very fortunate at Zebec to have members of ADP on our board of directors, and they've been there from the beginning. And we never sought really to take over ADP or disrupt ADP, but rather we're working alongside the ADPs of the world, the Assures and the Paychex, right? As we all know that building these things in-house take years and take a lot of expertise. So, Zebec is ready and able to partner with these large enterprises.

[00:11:10]That's great. I think what what would be the the one big takeaway that you want to leave the audience with? What would you want this audience to know about working with you guys or where you're going next? Well, look, I think we all know that stablecoins are inevitable, right? They are going to take over the economy. Get ahead of the curve, reach out to us at Zebec. We have a booth here today. We're reachable, of course, on Twitter and Telegram, and we're happy to get your business onboarded either to our payroll solution. We can issue business cards for you backed by stablecoins, or we can get you onto our super app. So, we're open for business.

[00:11:42]We have these beautiful XRP Las Vegas branded wallets, so >> [applause] >> Thank you.