Starting with stablecoins and remittances, Ramp Network attempts to reimagine how money moves across borders. While traditional remittance systems tend to be slow, expensive, and fragmented, stablecoins offer an alternative – a global rail where value can move securely, quickly, and at a fraction of the cost.
But technology isn’t always enough, because success also depends on accessibility, compliance, and, of course – user trust.
In today’s interview, we explore how Ramp is designing a global payment app that makes sending money abroad as simple as sending a message. Tune in to this conversation with Max Sandy, head of Product at Ramp Network.
Ramp Network is building a global payment app for stablecoins and remittances. How do you see stablecoins transforming cross-border payments compared to today’s remittance infrastructure?
Today’s remittance infrastructure feels like changing trains three times just to complete a short journey: one line for money rails, one for FX, one for settlement. Each hand-off adds cost, delay, and risk of something breaking down. For too many people, sending $100 means losing $10 in fees and waiting days. Stablecoins collapse all that onto a single high speed rail, where money moves instantly and globally at near-zero cost. That’s not just efficiency, it’s a step change in how value travels. At Ramp Network, we want to make sending money abroad as simple as sending a message, starting with remittances in regions like LATAM where the pain is sharpest, but ultimately building a global network from day one.
When designing the next generation of stablecoin products, how do you balance speed and cost efficiency with the compliance demands of global regulators?
It’s easy to obsess over speed and cost, but without compliance, the whole thing is a non-starter. For us, the design principle is: compliance should be baked into the rails, not bolted on afterwards. That means anticipating MiCAR in Europe, working with US state regulators, and tailoring flows for markets like LATAM. If you do it right, you don’t sacrifice UX. The user just sees a fast, affordable transfer that happens to be fully compliant in the background. Compliance is not a tax on speed, it’s how you earn the right to scale globally.
You’ve highlighted the role of crypto-to-crypto swaps in unlocking liquidity. Can you explain why swaps are so critical for accessibility, particularly in emerging markets?
In many emerging markets, people don’t want to immediately convert their earnings into local currency. With high inflation, they prefer to store value on-chain in something stable, like USDC or USDT, and only cash out when it’s time to spend. Imagine a worker paid in BTC who saves in USDC to protect against inflation, then swaps into pesos when rent is due. That’s why swaps are critical. They give people the flexibility to move seamlessly between assets — from BTC into stablecoins, and then into local currency when required. Without them, users are either stuck holding assets they don’t want or face unnecessary friction when trying to spend. With swaps, crypto stops being just a speculative tool and becomes a practical way to store and move everyday value. They act as the bridge that empowers people to manage money on their own terms — saving in stablecoins to preserve value, and converting into local currency only when needed. In short: seamless swaps are the backbone of a stablecoin payments ecosystem, turning digital assets into real, usable money.
Remittances often involve first-time crypto users who may be hesitant or skeptical. What are the biggest UX challenges you face in building trust for this audience?
The biggest UX challenge is making crypto’s complexity feel invisible while still giving first-time users the confidence to engage. Remittance users don’t want to think about chains, gas fees, or private keys — they just want their money to arrive safely, instantly, and predictably. We tackle this by focusing on the first mile of the journey: making onboarding, KYC, and the very first transaction as simple and familiar as shopping online. Biometrics, one-click flows, and clear confirmation screens all help reduce friction and build trust. We’ve also removed crypto-specific jargon like “gas” and introduced simple payment links and one-click sends, creating a Revolut-like experience — but on borderless blockchain rails. By abstracting away the complexity and surfacing only what matters, we make the product feel safe, familiar, and trustworthy for first-time users.
Many people still see crypto as speculative. What will it take for stablecoins to evolve into a true daily-use financial tool for mainstream users?
Stablecoins are already proving their utility where the need is most urgent — for example, in Argentina, where people use them to preserve dollar value in unstable markets. What’s been missing until now is the front-end experience catching up with the back-end technology. The real unlock comes from two things: deep integration into existing payment infrastructure and true UX parity with traditional finance. Both have advanced dramatically in the past year. We’re now seeing a new wave of wallets that make top-ups and withdrawals to fiat seamless, and that connect directly to POS cards and bill-pay systems for everyday utility. The gap has already shrunk, and the focus now is doubling down on UX — making these flows effortless and intuitive. The first Revolut-like app built on blockchain rails is not far away — give it a year. In short: stablecoins will go mainstream when they stop feeling like crypto and start feeling like cash — only better.
What do you think the stablecoin-powered payments landscape will look like in five years, and what role do you see Ramp playing in making that vision a reality?
In five years, I think stablecoins will power the backbone of global payments. The experience won’t feel like crypto, it will just feel like money moving instantly across borders. For someone in Mexico or Nigeria, getting paid from abroad will be as simple as receiving a text message. The real shift is that remittances and everyday payments will happen on the same rails – affordable, instant, and trusted. Ramp Network’s role is to make sure those rails are open, compliant, and designed for mainstream users, so stablecoins evolve from niche instruments into everyday financial tools. Our app launch is just the first step. The goal is to make stablecoin payments feel as universal as card payments are today.