WalletConnect quietly became the pipes that make regulated stablecoins flow everywhere. Now $USDG from @global_dollar can tap into that infrastructure to reach 50 million users instantly. @dr3wrogers sat down with @jesshoulgrave, CEO of @reown_ (building @walletconnect), to understand how one protocol became the connectivity layer for programmable dollars across 70,000 applications and 700 wallets. Jess quit investment banking in 2015 when everyone thought she was crazy. She watched stablecoins evolve from a trader's tool to actual money. At checkout(.)com, she built the first merchant settlement rails in USDC. Now at WalletConnect, she's seeing something nobody expected a few years ago: their biggest growth isn't from DeFi protocols or NFT marketplaces. It's payments companies. "Web2 companies went from doing PR stunts with NFTs to moving their entire payment rails onto crypto. This is core to their business now." - Jess Houlgrave They need every wallet to work with their systems, not just MetaMask. That standardization requirement is exactly what enables USDG to reach users everywhere, through infrastructure that was built before regulated stablecoins even existed. The future starts with USDG proving regulated stablecoins can work everywhere. Next comes identity—medical records, education credentials, land titles—all living in wallets that can verify you without exposing you. WalletConnect built the roads. USDG is just the beginning of what travels on them. Key Timestamps: 02:59 - Jess's journey from quitting investment banking to Bitcoin obsession 05:20 - Building first stablecoin merchant settlement rails at checkout(.)com 14:01 - Evolution: stablecoins shifting from crypto subset to money subset 18:37 - WalletConnect's organic growth to 70,000+ applications 23:00 - Why payments companies, not DeFi, drive their biggest growth 32:00 - WalletPay standard: making USDG payments one-click simple 43:22 - Web2 companies shift from NFT PR stunts to core stablecoin business 46:54 - KYC identity pools enabling compliant DeFi without exposing data 52:57 - Vision: wallets as universal containers for identity and assets