ABOUT THIS EPISODE
In this episode of Money Code, hosts Chuk Okpalugo and Raj Parekh sit down with Ryan Bozarth, co-founder and CEO of Dakota, to unpack how Dakota went from building its own neobank to selling the regulated infrastructure layer behind the next generation of stablecoin-native fintechs.
They dig into why building a neobank has shifted from a 12-18 month, multimillion-dollar project to something teams can test in weeks, and why the next bottleneck is domain expertise, distribution, and knowing which underserved market is worth building for.
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https://lnk.to/MoneyCodeSN
Chapters
00:00 Dakota's path from neobank to infrastructure
01:18 What "neobank" means on stablecoin rails
03:39 The new build math: weeks, not years
05:48 Community banking comes back through niches
08:28 Global rails, niche markets, and real experiments
10:47 Dakota's earned pain: onboarding and compliance as code
13:45 AI-native builders and marketplace distribution
17:48 When the neobank becomes a feature
21:57 Distribution is still the hard part
27:42 GENIUS, PACE, and the payment-institution lane
31:29 Why non-bank payments companies could win
34:49 Banks have to choose their game
37:15 Who benefits from the regulatory shift
41:33 Money becomes code
44:45 The offline niches nobody on crypto Twitter sees
46:00 Where to find Ryan and Dakota
Connect with the Hosts & Guest
Chuk Okpalugo: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuk-okpalugo/ | https://x.com/chukxyz/ | https://stablecoinblueprint.com
Raj Parekh: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajparekh7/ | https://x.com/rajparekh | http://monad.xyz
Ryan Bozarth: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanbozarth | https://x.com/ryanbozarth
Dakota: https://dakota.xyz | https://x.com/dakotaxyz
About Stablecon
Stablecon (https://stablecon.com/) is the premier gathering for those at the intersection of DeFi, economic policy, financial infrastructure, and institutional integration, and those reinventing global commerce. By convening the brightest minds in fintech and crypto, Stablecon provides attendees with world class thought leadership and fosters unparalleled networking and strategic collaboration across the digital payments industry. Whether you're building, advising, or navigating this new frontier, this is the room where it happens.
About BVNK
BVNK is the leading provider of stablecoin payments infrastructure, helping businesses move money faster, settle globally, and even launch their own stablecoin products. Head to https://bvnk.com/ to learn more.
