KAST hires Connor Fitzgerald as U.S. general manager

KAST announced from New York on Aug. 11, 2026 that Connor Fitzgerald has joined the company as U.S. general manager. He will lead KAST’s U.S. operations, scale the core platform, launch a business product called KAST Business and build a local team to bring consumer and business products to the American market.

The company described itself as a stablecoin-powered financial platform. KAST has grown to about 250 full-time employees across engineering, product and compliance, serves more than one million users and processes roughly $5 billion in annualized transaction volume. The firm closed an $80 million Series A round and is expanding across North America, Latin America and the Middle East while advancing licensing, compliance and product development.

Before joining KAST, Fitzgerald led Partnerships and Cards at Bridge, which is now part of Stripe. At Bridge he helped create a global stablecoin card program, built bank, network and developer partnerships across more than 100 markets, and operationalized the company’s first U.S. stablecoin settlement flow, scaling payment volume from zero to tens of millions of dollars annually.

Earlier roles include launching off-kiosk fintech products at Coinstar, where he helped introduce a crypto wallet for cash-to-crypto conversion and a prepaid card. He began his career at social payments platform Tilt and later joined Dave as employee number 15, building its partnerships function during the company’s growth to a 2022 public listing. Fitzgerald has more than a decade of experience in fintech, payments and digital assets and lives in San Diego.

Raagulan Pathy, KAST’s founder and chief executive, welcomed Fitzgerald’s hire and said the company will use his experience to scale in the U.S. market: “We’re excited to have Connor as part of our exceptional KAST team to scale in the world’s biggest financial market. He brings deep experience from a variety of fintechs and knows how to dig in and drive growth.”

Fitzgerald pointed to KAST’s investment in licensing, compliance and infrastructure as a reason for joining: “Stablecoins force you to rebuild finance from first principles. That’s why KAST caught my attention. What stood out was the company’s willingness to invest early in the hard things such as licensing, compliance, real infrastructure, and greater ownership of the underlying rails. The company’s momentum speaks for itself.”

KAST was founded in July 2024 by former Circle executive Raagulan Pathy. The platform offers U.S. dollar accounts, global pay-ins and payouts to more than 170 countries and uses stablecoin rails rather than legacy settlement networks. Industry activity around stablecoins increased sharply in 2025, with total stablecoin volume reaching a record level. With Fitzgerald in place, KAST plans to advance its U.S. product roadmap, increase local hiring and continue work on the compliance and licensing needed to operate at scale in U.S. markets.