HSC Conference In Ho Chi Minh City: Why Vertical Strategy And Local Payment Rails Are The Keys To Unlocking On-Chain Finance

by
Alisa Davidson

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by Anastasiia O

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August 21, 2026 at 10:20 am

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On August 15, HSC Convention held its newest version in Ho Chi Minh Metropolis, bringing collectively senior voices from throughout monetary establishments, know-how firms, and the enterprise capital world to debate blockchain infrastructure, digital belongings, and the way forward for on-chain monetary markets.

One of many standout classes was “Recipe for Launching a Profitable Borderless Neobank” delivered by Harsha MV, World Head of Advertising and marketing and Progress at OrbitX. 

Drawing on in depth fieldwork with builders of exchanges, wallets, and neo-banks throughout Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Africa, Harsha challenged the idea that stablecoin adoption is primarily a software program drawback. As an alternative, he recognized the central paradox of digital finance in the present day: billions maintain stablecoins, but solely a slim sliver of that worth truly circulates via real-world cost rails. 

The keynote mapped the strategic, regulatory, and technical substances required to shut that hole—introducing a framework constructed on custody infrastructure and geography-specific “plugs,” from Vietnam’s QR-first economic system to Europe’s contactless card networks, that flip static digital balances into useful, borderless cash.

The Core Problem: Possession With out Utility

Harsha described a recurring frustration amongst entrepreneurs constructing exchanges, wallets, and neo-banks. “They’ve customers, they’ve wallets, they’ve secure cash, however they don’t know the right way to make it helpful,” he defined. The elemental questions stay unanswered for thousands and thousands: How can individuals obtain salaries? How can migrant employees remit cash residence? How does one purchase lunch? Addressing these sensible gaps, he proposed, is the important first step towards developing a viable neo-bank.

The Structure of a Neo-Financial institution: Custody and Plugs

The speaker outlined a two-part framework for constructing such establishments. The primary part is custody—the infrastructure for receiving, holding, and transferring stablecoins throughout varied blockchains. The second, extra advanced aspect consists of what he termed “plugs”: the connective tissue that converts digital balances into spendable worth. He recognized 4 customary plugs important for any useful ecosystem. *Payouts* allow customers to switch stablecoin balances into third-party financial institution accounts. *Pay-ins* permit funds to circulation again into wallets through crypto, fiat, or QR codes. *Playing cards* leverage present international card networks to bridge digital belongings with service provider infrastructure. Lastly, *QR funds* facilitate immediate settlement, an more and more essential functionality for retailers unwilling to attend days for conventional card clearing.

Geography as Technique: Why One Measurement Suits None

Maybe essentially the most essential perception of the session was the emphasis on geographic specificity. Harsha warned that constructing plugs is continuously misunderstood as a software program drawback, when in actuality it’s a query of rails, compliance, and licensing—a false impression that may price groups 4 to 6 months in each new market. He illustrated this with vivid regional contrasts. Vietnam, he famous, is a “QR-first” economic system the place even road distributors favor immediate QR transactions; launching a card product there would seemingly fail. Conversely, within the UAE and far of Europe, shoppers are deeply accustomed to contactless funds, making QR options largely irrelevant. He additional highlighted vertical alternatives: in Nigeria, a stablecoin neo-bank serving importers may get rid of the seven to 12 % premium they at the moment pay to entry {dollars}. In Brazil, a focused service permitting mother and father to fund native BRL accounts for youngsters finding out overseas may dramatically simplify cross-border training funds.

A Vertical Recipe for Market Entry

Towards the temptation to construct common platforms, Harsha supplied a disciplined recipe: choose a market, determine a particular viewers inside it, decide one or two inward and outward plugs that match native habits, and launch narrowly. “Should you don’t go vertical, in the event you don’t attempt to dominate one specific class in a single market, one use case, you’ll actually fail on the finish of it,” he cautioned, stressing that stablecoin-based neo-banks can not afford to be the whole lot to everybody.

The Infrastructure Layer

Concluding the session, Harsha positioned Obopay because the infrastructural response to those challenges. After twenty-four months of improvement, the agency provides a single API designed to activate market-specific plugs—starting from named digital IBANs and white-labeled bank cards to QR funds and multi-chain help—throughout greater than eighty nations. To exhibit the know-how’s maturity, his workforce launched a stay software that includes QR funds for attendees in Vietnam, inviting the viewers to expertise firsthand the pace of stablecoin-powered transactions. For builders looking for to remodel digital belongings into useful monetary instruments, the session supplied each a strategic roadmap and a prepared infrastructure associate.

Alisa, a devoted journalist on the MPost, makes a speciality of crypto, AI, investments, and the expansive realm of Web3. With a eager eye for rising traits and applied sciences, she delivers complete protection to tell and have interaction readers within the ever-evolving panorama of digital finance.

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