Paul Faecks takes Plasma’s stablecoin cards to Stripe

Paul Faecks founded Plasma after working as a professional poker player, researching crypto derivatives and co-founding an institutional DeFi company. Plasma, a London-based blockchain focused on stablecoin payments, launched the Plasma One neobank in 2026.

On Oct. 15, 2026, Stripe named Plasma a design partner for its multi-currency stablecoin card infrastructure. The system supports spending in U.S. dollars, euros, Brazilian reais, Mexican pesos and Colombian pesos. Stripe says the infrastructure is available in more than 30 countries, with plans to expand to more than 100 countries in 2027.

Plasma has not announced when its cards will move to Stripe, or disclosed fees and exchange-rate terms. The company’s website currently lists Rain, a Visa principal member, as its card issuer and Bridge as its account-services provider. Plasma says it is not a regulated financial institution and that balances in Plasma One are not bank deposits. The Stripe agreement therefore concerns a planned change in card infrastructure, not a completed migration.

Faecks founded Plasma in 2024 after co-founding Alloy, which provided institutional access to DeFi staking, trading and lending. Plasma operates a Layer 1 blockchain with an EVM execution layer and a consensus system called PlasmaBFT. Its main feature is zero-fee transfers for USDT. The company has described lending and trading services as potential sources of revenue for the network.

“We’re moving to Stripe’s stablecoin card infrastructure,” Faecks said in connection with the partnership. Stripe’s system supports OUSD and other stablecoins that meet requirements under the U.S. GENIUS Act. The announcement did not identify USDT as a supported stablecoin for Plasma’s new card program.

Plasma raised $24 million in seed and Series A funding in February 2025. Framework and Bitfinex’s USDT0 initiative led the rounds. DRW/Cumberland, Bybit, Flow Traders, IMC and Nomura also participated. Angel investors included Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino and Peter Thiel.

A public XPL token sale later drew $373 million in commitments against a $50 million cap. The sale covered 10% of the token supply. Before the sale, Plasma reported that more than $1 billion in stablecoins had been committed to its vaults in just over 30 minutes. Faecks later described the initial rush as lasting about 90 seconds.

Plasma’s mainnet beta and XPL token launched on Sept. 25, 2025. The company reported $2 billion in stablecoins and more than 100 DeFi partners on the first day. Deposits on Aave reached $5.9 billion within 48 hours and peaked at $6.6 billion in mid-October, according to Plasma.

The network’s liquidity later fell. Stablecoins on Plasma reached about $6.35 billion in October 2025 and stood at about $1.31 billion on Oct. 16, 2026, based on blockchain data. XPL traded at about 8.45 cents on that date, about 95% below its all-time high of $1.68 in September 2025.

Faecks announced Plasma One in September 2025 as a consumer account linked to a card. The company promoted yields of up to 6%, cash back of up to 3% and card acceptance in more than 180 countries. Plasma One became publicly available on June 17, 2026, with membership tiers initially available to XPL holders.

Before joining the crypto industry full time, Faecks worked in business development in Berlin and London and was a researcher and analyst at Deribit Insights from July 2020 to October 2021. He studied technology and management at the Technical University of Munich and philosophy at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. He has described poker as teaching him to make decisions based on probabilities despite uncertain outcomes.