After almost two decades working on blockchain-based remittances, Luis Buenaventura says 2026 may finally be the moment the model works at scale.

For years, the premise has been about how cross-border payments could be made faster and cheaper using digital assets. But despite early experimentation, adoption remained largely confined to retail users, while the institutions moving most of the money stayed on the sidelines.

“The businesses that are powering the payments corridor… couldn’t take that risk,” Buenaventura said, citing the lack of clear regulatory frameworks around crypto and stablecoins.

At Talino Fintech Foundry, where he serves as chief strategy officer, Buenaventura is approaching the problem from a different angle, which he says is only viable now because of changes in the regulatory environment.

Recent policy developments in the United States, including the GENIUS Act and ongoing work on the Clarity Act, have begun to define how stablecoins and digital assets can be used in financial systems.

“With things like the GENIUS Act and the upcoming Clarity Act, we finally have clearer pathways for mainstream adoption,” Buenaventura said.

The shift reduces the uncertainty that previously limited institutional participation in large scale blockchain-based payments.

Targeting the Largest Flow

Instead of focusing on consumer remittance products, Buenaventura’s new venture is targeting the broader U.S.–Philippines payments corridor at the institutional level.

“The business payments flow… is substantially larger than the remittances flow,” he said. “That’s about $12 billion a year… Business payments are about three or four times that. So it’s more like $40 to $44 billion a year.”

While personal remittances remain a key part of the corridor, the infrastructure supporting these flows has seen less optimization. Buenaventura said the strategy is not to build a new remittance platform, but to work with existing participants in the payments ecosystem.

“We’re not going to attack it directly by starting our own remittance business,” he said. “We want to work with the existing businesses and show them how to optimize their cross-border transfers.” The approach focuses on integrating stablecoins and blockchain-based settlement into current payment processes.

Upgrading the Underlying Rails

The approach does not shift focus away from OFW remittances, but instead addresses the larger financial rails behind them. By optimizing how institutions move money across borders, Talino aims to enhance the same systems that retail users depend on.

“If we do our jobs right… the retail segment will also get carried along by the improvements that we make,” Buenaventura said.

Buenaventura has worked on cross-border payments since the mid-2010s, including through his earlier venture BloomX and his book Reinventing Remittances with Bitcoin.

He said previous attempts to scale blockchain-based remittances were limited by market conditions at the time.

“I think we’re finally at an inflection point where the crypto industry is ready to grow into the mainstream,” he said. That shift is moving the focus from experimentation toward infrastructure.

The impact of these changes may not be immediately visible to end users. But improvements in settlement speed, cost efficiency, and reliability at the institutional level can shape the broader payments ecosystem over time. For Buenaventura, the opportunity lies in addressing those underlying systems—particularly as regulatory clarity begins to align with long-standing technical capabilities.

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