How to view Velo integrating BlackRock's tokenized U.S. Treasury fund BUIDL into its stablecoin?
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How to view Velo integrating BlackRock's tokenized U.S. Treasury fund BUIDL into its stablecoin?
PayFi is not a narrative-driven concept; rather, it represents a long-term challenge that integrates Web2 traditional finance with Web3 on-chain infrastructure and liquidity.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsBy Haotian
Recently, the PayFi concept introduced by the Solana Foundation has gained significant market attention, spawning popular projects such as Huma and Credix.
Just yesterday, payment veteran @veloprotocol announced it would tokenize BlackRock’s short-term U.S. Treasury fund (BUIDL) and integrate it into the stablecoin ecosystem, further bridging traditional financial products with the web3 on-chain world. How should we interpret this? Here are my observations.
In traditional web2 consumer scenarios, persistent issues like long receivables cycles and high friction in cross-border SWIFT correspondent settlements stem from complex factors—government regulatory frameworks, banking system procedures, cross-border payment infrastructure, currency exchange rates, and time zone differences.
Objectively speaking, while web3's on-chain payment infrastructure addresses only a small part of the inefficiencies in global payment systems, the more critical challenge lies in whether a balance can be achieved within intricate networks involving regulators, bank interoperability, and the利益 chains of payment service providers.
In reality, many technically strong web3 projects remain disconnected from the complex political and commercial relationships of web2, while well-connected web2 players often lack true web3 native design. Velo Finance, however, strikes a notable balance between both worlds:
1) On the corporate front, Velo Finance belongs to CP Group—the largest business conglomerate in Thailand. Since its inception, it has supported multiple core business lines of CP Group including finance, retail, supply chain, telecom, real estate, and media, operating across over 12,000 7-Eleven stores and other high-frequency payment touchpoints.
It’s clear that in Southeast Asia and the Asia-Pacific region, Velo carries a strong "aristocratic" presence in terms of web2 political and commercial relationships. Recently, Velo partnered with PTL Holding Co. Ltd. to expand into Laos’ financial markets, advancing its vision for a global payment settlement network. PTLH is a representative industrial player in Laos, with extensive operations in commodities, banking, and trade logistics.
Moreover, Velo has formed a global strategic partnership with Visa, collaborated with Thai bank SCB (Siam Commercial Bank), and worked with Asian Digital Bank to develop cross-border solutions. These moves demonstrate Velo’s serious commitment to tackling the “hard bones” of traditional web2 institutional relationships.
Consider that the global cross-border payments market exceeds $1 trillion, with Southeast Asia alone representing over $150 billion in potential. Most people in the region still lack bank accounts. In this context, attempting to use blockchain-based technology for cross-border payments in Southeast Asia would be extremely difficult without a project backed by strong industry presence, abundant real-world payment use cases, and solid regulatory-compliant relationships.
2) After establishing a robust foundation in web2 institutional networks, Velo has also made substantial efforts in building web3 cross-border payment infrastructure:
a) Velo’s blockchain framework is built on the Stellar network—a veteran payment-focused blockchain known for ultra-low transaction fees, alongside Ripple. Velo directly acquired Interstellar, a company founded by core developers of the Stellar network, making Velo a solution effectively incubated by the Stellar team;
b) It adopted EVM-compatible Nova Chain as its unified execution layer; launched the Orbit mobile app offering simple “scan-to-pay” functionality to lower the barrier for traditional users entering web3; and developed Universe, a super DEX allowing users to connect third-party self-custodial wallets to manage assets—laying the groundwork for frictionless integration into native web3 environments;
Beyond these, Velo deployed Warp Network—a multi-chain bridge supporting Stellar, BNB Chain, Ethereum, and other major public blockchains. While Velo doesn’t rely on cutting-edge concepts like “modular architecture” or “chain abstraction,” its practical, user-focused features are comprehensive and grounded.
c) Velo established a Federated Credit Exchange (FCX)—a structure resembling a distributed DAO. Daily operations are enabled through a system where participants stake Velo tokens to receive 1:1 pegged digital credit. Given that its network members include traditional institutions like SEBA Bank and Lightnet Group, this credit network, though DeFi-structured, is strictly a CeDeFi (Centralized-DeFi hybrid) system designed to serve partners across both CeFi and DeFi ecosystems.
3) Looking at Velo’s product roadmap and its dual focus on web2 institutional expansion and web3 innovation, it’s evident that its approach to building a global cross-border settlement network is unique—neither fully web3-native nor rigidly traditional web2. It can best be described as a CeDeFi bimodal project.
Notably, Velo recently signed a strategic partnership with the Solana Foundation, under which Solana will act as the blockchain settlement layer, while Velo serves as the fintech “bridge” connecting fragmented on-chain and off-chain systems. Together, they will provide designated clearing services for digital gold trading in Laos.
Clearly, PayFi is not just a narrative—it represents a long-term challenge of integrating traditional finance with web3 infrastructure and liquidity.
How can web3’s technical convenience better serve traditional financial payment frameworks? And how can blockchain liquidity be introduced without disrupting existing financial利益 structures? Every step is fraught with obstacles.
Especially in today’s purely on-chain environment—where infrastructure layers are heavily stacked—solutions focused on real-world applications such as “using lending platform yields to fund consumption or creator monetization, enabling real-time cross-border payments” are particularly valuable and rare.
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Haotian | CryptoInsight
