Interview with CEO and Co-Founder of WeFi.co, Maksym SakharovÂ
What will the next five years of digital payments actually look like?
A: The next five years of payments will be shaped less by the wallet icon and more by the rails underneath it. Faster settlement, fiat access, stablecoin utility, interoperability, and risk controls will define which products become useful beyond one market.
For users, the strongest payment experiences will feel simple. They will not need to understand which network moves the value, which liquidity route is used, or how settlement is completed. The products that matter will make modern infrastructure feel familiar while improving what happens below the surface.
What are the biggest regulatory and compliance challenges across the UK, EU, US, and APAC?
A: The biggest challenge is fragmentation. The UK, EU, US, and APAC are not building one shared rulebook for digital wallets, stablecoins, custody, payments, consumer protection, and AML controls. That means payment products cannot scale only by copying the same interface across markets.
Compliance has to be part of the product design from the beginning. A wallet or payment product that touches digital assets, stablecoins, or cross-border value movement needs to understand market-specific licensing, custody expectations, user protection, transaction monitoring, and settlement responsibilities. The companies that treat regulation as an afterthought will struggle to operate across regions.
What will it take for stablecoins to become mainstream payment infrastructure?
A: Stablecoins need to prove they can support payment activity under real operating conditions. That means credible reserves, reliable redemption, deep liquidity, clear compliance controls, secure custody, support, and access to fiat when users or businesses need to enter or exit the system.
The technical rail is only one part. Stablecoins also need to connect with merchant acceptance, off-ramps, local payout options, accounting systems, and user-facing products. Mainstream adoption begins when stablecoins disappear into the payment flow: the merchant, platform, or user sees reliable value movement, not a technical asset they have to manage.
How will the role of traditional banks change as digital payment infrastructure evolves?
A: Traditional banks will not disappear, but they will no longer be the only regulated access point for financial activity. That is the important change. Regulated crypto platforms, custodians, stablecoin issuers, fintechs, and infrastructure providers are becoming part of the payment stack, which means banks will have to operate in a more modular environment.
The issue is not that banks are regulated and everyone else is not. The issue is that traditional banking rails can still be slow, fragmented, expensive, and difficult to use across markets. Newer infrastructure can improve settlement, interoperability, digital asset access, and user-facing payment experiences while still operating through responsible and compliant structures.
How can digital assets improve cross-border payments and global commerce?
A: Digital assets can improve cross-border payments by addressing some of the operational problems that businesses and individuals already face: delayed settlement, unclear payment status, high FX costs, fragmented intermediaries, and difficult reconciliation. The value is not just that a transfer can move faster. It is that the movement of value can become easier to track, settle, and integrate into business workflows.
For global commerce, this matters in practical situations: suppliers waiting for payment, platforms sending payouts across markets, freelancers receiving income from overseas, and merchants managing receivables in different currencies.
For example, a platform paying contractors in multiple countries may need faster settlement, clearer records, and more predictable access to dollar-denominated value, while still needing local conversion and compliance handled properly. Digital assets will not remove every cost or every intermediary, but they can make value movement more efficient when connected to liquidity, compliance, local access, and reliable user experiences.
What role will stablecoins play in the broader financial system?
A: Stablecoins will play an important role because they expose one of the main weaknesses in traditional financial infrastructure: value does not move as easily as information. A business can communicate globally in seconds, but moving money across markets can still depend on banking hours, correspondent chains, settlement delays, opaque fees, and limited local access. Stablecoins create a different settlement layer, where digital value can move with clearer speed, programmability, and visibility.
That does not mean stablecoins replace every part of the financial system. They still need reserves, redemption, liquidity, compliance, custody, and trusted access points. But their role is bigger than being another payment option. Stablecoins can become the connective layer between onchain infrastructure, payment products, treasury systems, merchant environments, and fiat access. The value is that they can make money movement less dependent on legacy rails, while still operating inside responsible and regulated structures.
Who will control the payments infrastructure of the future?
A: Control will shift away from institutions that only own legacy rails and toward companies that can coordinate access, settlement, liquidity, compliance, and user experience across modern financial infrastructure. The future will not be controlled by one type of player, but it also will not protect every incumbent.
Banks, payment networks, fintechs, stablecoin issuers, custodians, and infrastructure providers may all have roles, but only if they solve a real part of the payment problem. If a player only adds cost, delay, or dependency, its position becomes harder to defend. The market will reward infrastructure that makes value move more directly, more transparently, and with stronger usability.
The old model gave users access through fragmented rails they did not control. The next model should give users better access to value movement while still meeting the compliance, liquidity, and operational standards financial systems require. Control will move toward the platforms that can connect those pieces without making users carry the complexity.
What will separate the winners from the rest in the next generation of digital payments?
A: The winners will be separated by execution, not by terminology. Many companies can talk about stablecoins, wallets, digital assets, and faster payments. Fewer can deliver reliable liquidity, regulatory fit, local access, strong security, clear pricing, partner coverage, and settlement quality across real markets.
The next generation of payments will reward products that make modern rails usable without exposing unnecessary complexity. Users should see a payment that works. Businesses should see clearer settlement, better reconciliation, and dependable access to value. The companies that can deliver that consistently will define the market.
