Jai Massari on Libra's legacy, stablecoins, tokenized deposits, regulation and what it will take to make digital money and stablecoins mainstream

Stablecoins can move money around the world. But when is a payment legally complete, what happens if an issuer fails, and can the same token be used across jurisdictions?

In this new episode of Bitcoin, Fiat & Rock’n’Roll, Jonas Gross and guest host Jonathan Knoll of etonec speak with Jai Massari, a Lightspark co-founder, former Davis Polk partner and now of counsel at Arktouros. Having helped design Libra’s legal architecture, she brings a perspective on what makes digital money work.

Massari revisits Libra’s ambitions and the weight of its Facebook origins. The project’s reserve design and redemption mechanics remain relevant, she argues, even though its technology could not overcome the policy obstacles. Its consortium model also leaves an open question: can shared distribution and scale outweigh the difficulty of making decisions among competitors?

The discussion then examines stablecoins and tokenized deposits. A bank deposit remains a claim on a bank; a regulated, reserve-backed stablecoin has a different economic structure. Their usefulness depends on the payment: speed, funding costs and existing banking connections all matter.

On stablecoin regulation, Massari discusses the US GENIUS Act, Europe’s MiCA and the distinction between stablecoin issuance and the broader market-structure debate around CLARITY. She also questions whether comprehensive crypto legislation could constrain innovation before the industry has developed its most useful applications.

For cross-border payments, the missing pieces include recognition of foreign issuers, certainty over payment and collateral use, and comparable rules for reserves, redemption and insolvency. Without coordination, blockchain payments risk inheriting familiar financial frictions.

The episode closes with agentic payments: how AI agents can prove their authority, who is responsible when they exceed it, and why existing agency and contract law may provide a starting point for the next generation of payments.

Jai Massari LinkedIn

Jai Massari Article on stablecoin myth busting](https://openbanker.beehiiv.com/p/stablecoinmythbusting))

Jai Massari Article on singleness of stablecoins](https://openbanker.beehiiv.com/p/stablecoinsingleness))

Jai Massari Atlantic Council article on global stablecoin regulation

Jonathan Knoll LinkedIn

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