Table of Contents
Paul Faecks built Plasma as a blockchain for one job: moving USDT for free. On 15 October 2026 he signed up Plasma as Stripe's design partner for multi-currency stablecoin cards that spend in USD, EUR, BRL, MXN and COP (Stripe and Plasma release).
That is a long way from where he started. Before crypto paid the bills, Faecks played poker professionally, by the When Shift Happens account, then analyzed derivatives at Deribit and co-founded an institutional DeFi startup that was eventually sold (When Shift Happens summary; IQ.wiki).
This founder profile maps Paul Faecks Plasma from the poker table to a $373 million token sale, a stablecoin chain that lost most of its launch liquidity, and a neobank now moving its cards onto Stripe. It closes with Stablecoin Insider's take on whether a chain founder should become a consumer bank.
Key Takeaways
- Paul Faecks is the founder and CEO of Plasma, a stablecoin-first Layer 1 he founded in 2024 after co-founding Alloy (IQ.wiki; Building Blocks).
- Plasma raised $24 million across its seed and Series A, led by Framework and Bitfinex/USDT0, with Paolo Ardoino and Peter Thiel as angels (Plasma).
- Its 2025 public sale drew $373 million in commitments against a $50 million cap, more than seven times oversubscribed (Plasma).
- Stablecoins on Plasma fell from a peak of about $6.35 billion in October 2025 to about $1.31 billion in October 2026 (DefiLlama).
- On 15 October 2026 Plasma became Stripe's design partner for multi-currency stablecoin cards, live in 30+ countries (release).
Who Paul Faecks is
Faecks studied in Munich. His IQ.wiki profile lists a Bachelor of Science in Technology and Management at the Technical University of Munich and a philosophy degree track at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, both running from 2018 or 2019 to 2022 (IQ.wiki). Plasma itself is headquartered in London (Plasma).
His early jobs were small and varied: business development at code & co. in Berlin from 2017 to 2018, a crypto and business development role at sync. in London from 2018 to 2019, and a project student stint at Earlybird Venture Capital in 2020 (IQ.wiki).
The more telling line is Deribit. From July 2020 to October 2021, Faecks worked as a researcher and analyst at Deribit Insights, the research arm of the crypto derivatives exchange (IQ.wiki).
Then there's the poker. On the When Shift Happens podcast he described learning to think in probabilities at the table: "Poker teaches you to make the right decision even when randomness means you sometimes lose" (When Shift Happens summary).
That's the lens for everything below. Plasma's history is a string of big, fast bets with very uneven outcomes.
Alloy: the institutional detour
Faecks was a heavy DeFi user before he was a founder. In a December 2022 interview he said he had been through Compound liquidity mining, Yearn farming and algorithmic stablecoins, and that he and his co-founders first built portfolio tools to manage their own onchain money (DezentralizedFinance).
Friends kept asking him what to do with large ETH positions. That question became Alloy, which offered funds, family offices and asset managers regulated, custodial access to DeFi staking, trading and lending. He co-founded it with Adrian Pirija and Tim Wagner (DezentralizedFinance), and served as CEO from August 2021 (Building Blocks speaker profile).
Alloy was eventually acquired, an outcome Faecks called "fine, but not incredible." He has said the compliance procedures and procurement delays of selling to traditional finance pushed him back toward faster-moving crypto (When Shift Happens summary). The buyer has not been named in the sources Stablecoin Insider reviewed.
Paul Faecks career timeline
The table below pulls every dated step from Faecks's public profiles and Plasma's own posts. Company figures are Plasma's own unless another source is named.
| Date | Milestone | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 to 2018 | Business development at code & co., Berlin | IQ.wiki |
| 2018 to 2019 | Crypto and business development at sync., London | IQ.wiki |
| 2018 to 2022 | Studies technology and management (TUM) and philosophy (LMU) in Munich | IQ.wiki |
| Jul 2020 to Oct 2021 | Researcher and analyst at Deribit Insights | IQ.wiki |
| Aug 2021 | Co-founds Alloy (institutional DeFi access) and becomes CEO | Building Blocks; DezentralizedFinance |
| 2024 | Founds Plasma | IQ.wiki |
| 13 Feb 2025 | $24 million seed and Series A led by Framework and Bitfinex/USDT0 | Plasma; Fortune |
| 28 Jul 2025 | Public token sale on Echo closes with $373 million in commitments | CoinDesk |
| 20 Aug 2025 | Binance Earn onchain USDT yield product, 100,000,000 XPL in incentives | Plasma |
| 22 Sep 2025 | Announces Plasma One, a stablecoin-native neobank and card | Plasma |
| 25 Sep 2025 | Mainnet beta and XPL launch with $2 billion in stablecoins on day one | Plasma |
| 22 Oct 2025 | Acquires an Italian VASP-licensed entity; plans MiCA CASP and EMI applications | Plasma |
| 17 Jun 2026 | Plasma One goes live publicly with XPL-based membership tiers | Bankless |
| 28 Jul 2026 | XPL distribution date for US public sale participants | Plasma |
| 1 Oct 2026 | Publishes Torch, its design for safe validator committee handoffs | Plasma |
| 15 Oct 2026 | Becomes Stripe's design partner for multi-currency stablecoin cards | release; CoinMarketCap |
Building Plasma: a chain for one asset
Plasma's pitch in February 2025 was narrow on purpose. Faecks told Fortune that stripping out NFTs, memecoins and governance votes let the chain make "very different trade-offs if all you care about is, how can we be the best product for stablecoins" (Fortune).
The funding round said who the product was for. Plasma raised $24 million across its seed and Series A, led by Framework and Bitfinex/USDT0, with DRW/Cumberland, Bybit, Flow Traders, IMC and Nomura in the round and angels including Paolo Ardoino and Peter Thiel (Plasma). Ardoino's own path is in Stablecoin Insider's Paolo Ardoino profile.
The design pairs PlasmaBFT, a consensus layer derived from Fast HotStuff, with a Reth-based EVM execution layer, and uses Bitcoin as a security anchor (Plasma). The headline feature was zero-fee USDT transfers, which Plasma said would target the stablecoin with nearly 70% market share at the time.
Faecks was blunt about the economics. Free transfers would be paid for by fee-bearing services built on top, such as Curve, Ethena and Aave: "This is very much a scale business" (Fortune).
He also rejects the idea that Plasma is simply the Tether chain, while admitting the USDT focus is deliberate: "If you have to choose one stablecoin to focus on, USDT is the obvious choice. It actually has real usage" (When Shift Happens summary).
The $1 billion deposit rush and the $373 million sale
Plasma's launch is the part competitor pages love most. Before the token sale, Plasma ran a deposit campaign in which, by its own account, more than $1 billion in stablecoins was committed to its vaults in just over 30 minutes (Plasma).
Faecks tells a faster version. On When Shift Happens, the episode is billed as raising $1 billion in 90 seconds, and he called the moment the cap filled the most stressed he had been in his life (When Shift Happens summary). Stablecoin Insider uses Plasma's written figure of just over 30 minutes; the 90-second framing appears to describe the initial rush.
The public sale itself ran on Echo and drew $373 million in commitments against a $50 million cap (Plasma). CoinDesk reported that Founders Fund was among Plasma's backers and that US buyers faced a 12-month lock on their tokens (CoinDesk). The sale covered 10% of XPL supply (Plasma).
Mainnet beta went live on 25 September 2025 with $2 billion in stablecoins active from day one and more than 100 DeFi partners (Plasma). Within 48 hours, deposits into Aave on Plasma hit $5.9 billion, peaking at $6.6 billion by mid-October (Plasma). Ethena's USDe was among the launch assets, a link to Stablecoin Insider's Guy Young profile.
After the launch: what the numbers did next
The hangover came fast. By 30 October 2025, CoinDesk reported XPL had lost more than 80% from its September high of $1.67, and the chain was processing about 14.9 transactions per second (CoinDesk).
Faecks pushed back on claims that insiders were selling. "No team members have sold any XPL. All investor and team XPL is locked for 3 years with a 1 year cliff," he wrote, as quoted by CoinDesk (CoinDesk).
Stablecoin Insider compared the launch peaks with the latest readings. Every figure in the table is linked to its source.
| Metric | Launch peak | Latest reading | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stablecoins on Plasma | About $6.35 billion (9 Oct 2025) | About $1.31 billion, 11th by chain (16 Oct 2026) | DefiLlama |
| Aave on Plasma TVL | $6.6 billion (mid-Oct 2025) | $1.7 billion at the low point Plasma cited (Nov 2025) | Plasma |
| XPL price | $1.68 all-time high (27 Sep 2025) | About $0.0845, roughly 95% below the high (16 Oct 2026) | CoinGecko |
| Public sale price | $0.05 per XPL for 1 billion tokens | About 1.69x the sale price today (Stablecoin Insider calculation) | CoinDesk; CoinGecko |
Here's what that means. Stablecoin supply on Plasma is down about 79% from the peak, and its roughly $1.31 billion is about 0.43% of the $301.9 billion stablecoin market DefiLlama tracks across chains (DefiLlama; Stablecoin Insider calculation). Plasma still lent well: it says Aave USDT0 borrow rates held in a 5-6% range even as TVL swung (Plasma).
For the wider market backdrop, see Stablecoin Insider's Q3 2026 stablecoin report and the best blockchain for stablecoins in 2026 comparison.
From chain to neobank: Plasma One
Faecks announced Plasma One on 22 September 2025, three days before mainnet. The pitch: spend from a stablecoin balance while earning up to 6%, up to 3% cash back, card use in more than 180 countries at over 175 million merchants, and zero-fee USDT transfers (Plasma).
The reason was distribution. Plasma wrote that end users "still need a product they can open, trust with their savings, and use in daily life," naming Istanbul, Buenos Aires and Dubai as target cities (Plasma). Faecks's line at launch was sharper: "Stablecoins will not become part of everyday banking through another app sitting on top of someone else's rails" (Crypto Briefing).
Plasma One went live publicly on 17 June 2026 with three tiers, Lite, Core and Platinum, with access at first reserved for XPL holders (Bankless). Crypto Briefing reported a private beta of 5,000 weekly active users (Crypto Briefing). See where it sits among peers in top neobanks using stablecoins in 2026.
Under the hood, Plasma One leans on partners. Its own site says the card is issued by Rain, a Visa Principal Member, account services are powered by Bridge, and Plasma is not a regulated financial institution (Plasma). That's the same Rain profiled in Stablecoin Insider's Farooq Malik founder profile.
Faecks is trying to own more of that stack. In October 2025 Plasma bought a VASP-licensed entity in Italy, opened a Netherlands office and said it would apply for MiCA CASP authorization and prepare an EMI application (Plasma).
The Stripe deal: what Faecks signed up for
The 15 October 2026 release names Plasma as design partner for Stripe's expanded stablecoin card infrastructure. It supports five fiat currencies (USD, BRL, EUR, MXN and COP), OUSD and "eligible GENIUS-ready stablecoins," and is available in 30+ countries, with plans for 100+ countries in 2027 (release).
The practical promise is simple. A cardholder holding euros spends in euros without converting through dollars first, and the longer-term goal is automatic currency selection at checkout (release). Stripe's Henri Stern, head of Stripe Crypto and CEO of Privy, framed it as infrastructure businesses can use "without having to build it themselves."
The bigger signal sits in Stripe's own version of Faecks's quote: "We're moving to Stripe's stablecoin card infrastructure" (CoinMarketCap). Plasma's site still names Rain as the current card issuer (Plasma), so this reads as a planned migration rather than a finished one.
Stripe also owns Bridge, which powers Plasma One accounts, and the wallet company Privy (CoinMarketCap). For the card mechanics, Stablecoin Insider's Stripe stablecoin-backed card how-to walks through the Bridge issuing flow.
| Layer | Plasma One before the deal | After the Stripe card move |
|---|---|---|
| Blockchain | Plasma (PlasmaBFT + EVM), zero-fee USDT0 on Plasma routes (Plasma) | Unchanged; Stripe backs its own chain, Tempo (CoinDesk) |
| Card issuing | Rain, a Visa Principal Member (Plasma) | Moving to Stripe's stablecoin card infrastructure (CoinMarketCap) |
| Accounts | Bridge (Plasma) | Bridge, Stripe-owned (CoinMarketCap) |
| Card currencies | Dollar balance and card | USD, BRL, EUR, MXN, COP (release) |
| Named stablecoins | USDT focus (When Shift Happens) | OUSD and eligible GENIUS-ready stablecoins (release) |
| Licensing | Italian VASP entity; CASP and EMI planned (Plasma) | No change announced |
Read the last two rows together. Plasma was built around USDT, but the Stripe card release names OUSD, the Open Standard dollar led by Zach Abrams, and does not name USDT. OUSD launched on Ethereum, Solana, Base and Stripe-backed Tempo, not on Plasma (CoinDesk; Stablecoin Insider on Open USD).
The downside: what the Stripe deal does not fix
No launch date or pricing yet. Neither company has given a launch date, fees, exchange-rate terms or the first countries for Plasma's multi-currency cards; the 30+ countries describe Stripe's infrastructure (TSN Media).
Token supply keeps arriving. On 25 October 2026, 227.8 million XPL unlock, about 5% of circulating supply, and the same tranche repeats monthly until 25 September 2028 (CryptoTicker). At the 16 October price of about $0.0845, each tranche is worth about $19 million (CoinGecko; Stablecoin Insider calculation).
Dependence on a competitor. Stripe backs Tempo, its own payments chain and one of the four networks OUSD launched on (CoinDesk; Stablecoin Insider on Tempo). Faecks discussed competition with Tempo on the Medici Level Up podcast (Medici Level Up). Handing the card layer to Stripe trades build cost for leverage.
The licenses are still pending. Plasma says it is not a regulated financial institution, and its CASP and EMI plans were stated as next steps in October 2025 (Plasma; Plasma). Stablecoin Insider found no announcement of either authorization in the sources reviewed.
Who should follow Plasma closely (and who can skip it)
Follow Plasma if you're building consumer stablecoin products for markets like Turkey, the Middle East or South America, which Faecks named as key jurisdictions on Medici Level Up (Medici Level Up). The Stripe card program is the clearest live test of whether a chain-owned neobank can win spend.
Watch it if you hold XPL or lend on Aave on Plasma, because the monthly unlocks and the card migration will shape demand (CryptoTicker). Skip it if you need a regulated, deposit-protected account: Plasma states that stablecoin balances in Plasma One are not bank deposits (Plasma).
Stablecoin Insider's take for Monday: if you're evaluating Plasma One as a partner or a user, ask three questions. Who issues the card after the Stripe move, which stablecoins back the balance, and what happens to zero-fee USDT routes if the card side prefers OUSD.
FAQ
Who is Paul Faecks?
Paul Faecks is the founder and CEO of Plasma, a stablecoin-focused Layer 1 blockchain and the company behind the Plasma One neobank. Before Plasma he co-founded Alloy, an institutional DeFi access platform, and worked as a researcher at Deribit Insights.
What is Plasma?
Plasma is a London-headquartered company that runs a blockchain built for stablecoin payments and a consumer app, Plasma One. The chain launched its mainnet beta and XPL token on 25 September 2025.
What did Plasma announce with Stripe?
On 15 October 2026 Stripe named Plasma as design partner for multi-currency stablecoin cards that support USD, BRL, EUR, MXN and COP. Stripe says the infrastructure is live in 30+ countries, with plans for 100+ in 2027.
Is Plasma One a bank?
No. Plasma says it is a financial technology company, not a regulated financial institution or bank, and stablecoin balances in Plasma One are not bank deposits. Its card is currently issued by Rain and its accounts are powered by Bridge.
How much has Plasma raised?
Plasma raised $24 million across its seed and Series A in February 2025, led by Framework and Bitfinex/USDT0. Its 2025 public token sale drew $373 million in commitments against a $50 million cap.
Did Plasma really raise $1 billion in 90 seconds?
Not as equity. The $1 billion figure refers to stablecoin deposits committed to Plasma's vaults before the token sale, which Plasma's own blog says took just over 30 minutes. Podcasts describe it as about 90 seconds.
Why is Plasma moving its card to Stripe?
Faecks said Plasma is moving to Stripe's stablecoin card infrastructure to build multi-currency cards that let people spend like a local anywhere. Stripe's infrastructure adds non-dollar currencies such as EUR, BRL, MXN and COP.
What is Paul Faecks's background before crypto?
He studied technology and management and philosophy in Munich, held business development roles in Berlin and London, and has described playing poker seriously before founding companies.
Plasma One's current card issuer has its own founder story. Read Stablecoin Insider's Farooq Malik / Rain profile.
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