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Jeremy Allaire fireside

Jeremy Allaire (Circle) · @ycombinator · May 14, 2026
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Founder story / InterviewStablecoins / crypto infrastructure

Jeremy Allaire (@jerallaire) is the Chairman, CEO, and co-founder of @circle, the issuer of USDC — a stablecoin with nearly $80 billion in circulation and a core piece of the broader stablecoin market, which has grown from zero to more than $300 billion over the past decade. In this fireside, YC Visiting Partner @nemild sat down with Jeremy to talk about Circle's founding vision of building an internet protocol for dollars, the wave of institutional and regulatory adoption now reshaping the financial system, and why agentic economic activity, not just consumer payments, might represent the most transformative frontier for stablecoin builders in the years ahead. 00:00 - Why Stablecoins Matter 01:45 - Circle's Origin 07:10 - Top Use Cases for Builders Today 11:22 - Consumer vs. Business Adoption 13:20 - Banks & Institutions Enter the Space 17:54 - Global Regulation Landscape 22:40 - AI Agents & the Agentic Economy 26:15 - Missing Infrastructure for Builders 27:38 - Three Big Predictions for Stablecoins

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