Visa partner Reap plans Mexican peso stablecoin for 24-hour FX settlement

Reap, a Hong Kong-based fintech platform and Visa Principal Issuer Member in Hong Kong and Mexico, is preparing to add a Mexican peso stablecoin to its card, cross-border payments and treasury products, its founder, Daren Guo, told CoinDesk. The company is pursuing the expansion through a global stablecoin partnership with Visa, which provides its card programs with around-the-clock settlement. Reap is also exploring tokens pegged to the Hong Kong dollar, euro, won and yen, Guo said in an email. Reap is owned by Payward, Kraken's parent company. It can issue cards using its own bank identification numbers, or BINs, and says it can support partners in more than 100 markets while handling regulated card issuance, compliance and bank relationships. Guo said Visa makes stablecoins settle and Reap makes them spendable. He said Payward's recent acquisition of Reap opens up additional capabilities, including possible access to yield, tokenized equities and trading. Guo said public blockchains operate continuously, while global foreign exchange still relies on banking hours, correspondent banks and settlement that can take days. He also said moving money between currency corridors in emerging and cross-border markets can incur fees of 5% to 7%. Stablecoin payments are nearly 99% dollar-denominated, even when the underlying commercial activity occurs in local currencies worldwide.