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Stablecoins make a lot of sense in countries like Argentina where the national currency is a shitcoin. But YC doesn't fund startups in Argentina. Stablecoins can also be used to pay remote employees but that should probably go through an employer of record so that people aren't paid under the table. This sounds like more crypto for the sake of crypto.

This is intersting.

Occasionally in YC founder circles a new founder will raise a bunch of money and then ask something like "What's the best way to invest all the money our company just raised?"

The responses are always along the lines of "Your startup is already risky. Don't innovate in areas of your business where the status quo is known to work. Innovate your product + technology, don't be innovative with your company's finances, HR, etc"

That advice always stuck with me. It just makes a lot of sense to do things in the most boring way possible, except where it matters (your competitive advantage <-- that's where you innovate, that's where you set yourself apart)

Running a startup is distracting enough. Doing things non-standard just adds to the list of distractions that you don't need as a founder.

Feels like step 1 to providing liqudity further down the toad. Also opening investment to “unqualified” investors. It never made sense that you could buy crypto, buy multiple homes, but sinking 10k into a friends startup was somehow regulated.

“Stablecoins is one of the key pillars for us,” Dalal said, referring to one of the areas where Y Combinator would like to see more startup ideas. “So we just want to live and breathe that as well.”

I asked ChatGPT for an honest translation:

“We’re actively trying to manufacture demand and legitimacy for stablecoins by forcing them into the startup supply chain.”

I hope we aren't too close to "territorial currencies" where each feudal lord was authorized (or not forbidden) to mint his own currency, which couldn't be carried over the next feud. Think awarded "miles" by your credit card, or tickets in a games center.

https://ndl.ethernet.edu.et/bitstream/123456789/41452/1/112....

Indisputable evidence that YC loves smelling its own farts. Pure absurdity. America truly is reaping what it’s sowing.

I guess this can make sense if the startup is doing crypto, otherwise it seems like financial friction. That said, I believe the entire crypto ecosystem is just a giant scam.

Sounds like a camouflaged IQ test for the founders...

Or perhaps Y Combinator is great at funding startups, but incredibly bad with financial decision making.

In which case it is an IQ test for Y Combinator, which they have failed.

If they aren’t a crypto startup where it’s normal to pay others in stable coins, what is the benefit?

Might help them win crypto deals. Or expand into shady geographies. Otherwise, I guess having a signal that your founders will donate the interest they’re owed is…something.

I think people are maybe missing a key development with stable coins recently. They can be used by AI agents to pay for access to protected API endpoints or websites. The http 402 status endpoint is finally being utilised, years after it's creation. Ycombinator has a lot of AI based startups and they are given unlimited tokens.

All crypto/browser automation/bot detection companies are jumping on the bandwagon:

https://docs.cdp.coinbase.com/x402/core-concepts/http-402

https://docs.browserbase.com/integrations/x402/introduction

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Reference/...

https://docs.datadome.co/docs/monetize-policy

In a world without search engines, LLM chat bots will need to be held to account for the server resources they're using. Seems like a lot of companies are betting on them paying for access or acting as AI shopping agents.

Relevant question: How many YCombinator portfolio companies issue stable coins. Stablecoin-adjacent YC companies:

• Bridge (acquired by Stripe for $1.1B) — stablecoin infrastructure, now offers "Open Issuance" platform for others to launch stablecoins

• PrimeVault (S2022) — helps enterprises issue & manage digital assets/stablecoins

• BlindPay (W2025) — stablecoin API for payments

• Coinbase (S2012) — issues USDC (with Circle)

I hope that's not the defacto standard because if you're Australian, cashing out crypto is a taxable item seen as investment payout.

Founders can choose how to get paid, so this mostly feels like optics and support for YCs stablecoin bets. Most startups will just need to dump this into a bank to pay salaries and vendors.

Exploring the simplest version of this - I wonder if stablecoins are cheaper / easier to financially to transfer that much money.

Indirectly it might provide some more public visibility initally anyways.

This seems like a distraction for founders / new companies.

How many cool innovations does a given start-up really have? Wouldn't they be better off focusing on working on that innovation rather than what I'll call "creative funding" and worrying about crypto?

YC may not expecting USD to be stable on it's own.

Between this and Canada being dropped as an investable country shortly after the recent US/Canada fracas, I'm starting to wonder about YC's current political affiliations. Also, if you want to put your tinfoil hat on, Michael Seibel and Dalton Caldwell were publicly anti-Trump, and they both left months after the Trump admin took over, a very paranoid take is that the big shot VCs tied to YC made a push to "clean house" or "toe the line" and they were either gently pushed out or decided to leave because they didn't like the new vibes.

So I get that stablecoins are less volatile than normal crypto, which makes them more acceptable as a currency for funding. But what is it about them that takes them from “acceptable” to “appealing”? Aren’t they basically just “USD but with extra steps”?

Remember when YC funded (and boosted reach of) ~50 crypto scamlike co's during the heyday of the craze? Like the Stablegains scam fiasco:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31686140

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31431224

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31461634

Why not in gold while we're at it?

Both are equally stupid, and you have to exchange them to buy most of the things you might need.

YC's previous recommendation was to use Silicon Valley Bank. That ended well.

The headline writes itself. Y Combinator putting the crypto in the grift just like the famous combinator.

Where are some of the Corporate Treasury with stablecoins challenges, opportunities, solutions?

Despite still not really showing any utility these tech companies want so so so much for cryptocurrency to catch on.

It feels like the entirety of cryptocurrency, outside of being a thing people used to buy drugs, has been an example of Chesterton's Fence, with half of Silicon Valley in denial of this fact.

This makes so much sense, especially with the rise of crypto Payment Cards, although I like the idea of keeping things crypto-native (eventually!)

Next step will be to allow founders to capital raise on the blockchain but do it in a way where they don't dilute control even if they do dilute ownership. That could be achieved by having a large number of token buyers to prevent third-party ownership concentration. But could they merge into a voting block?

Surely this has been done before? Is there any way to make newly issued tokens equivalent to conventional equity so no rug-pulls? Are Decentralized Autonomous Organizations currently being used to this effect?

Imagine distributing a firm's revenues directly to shareholders in real-time. Everything stays on the blockchain. That's crazy!

I would do this and make sure to convert to a privacy coin like Monero the first chance I get. I get audited by the IRS every year, even when I was making minimum wage in college. I hate the regulators and making it as difficult as possible for them would feel like justice.

That being said, there are slim chances I would ever be selected as a YC founder. My ideas are more like ChatGPT, nobody would dare invest in them until after it's already released, then all of a sudden chatbot startups get trillions of dollars.

I look forward to them letting you collect your funds in the Metaverse in a few years

VC market in America must be spiraling if YC feels necessary to tap into money exfil and laundering circles.

How about receiving funds in coffee-shop vouchers and ramen?

Average Ycombinator reader is now having a melt down.

Crime ring.

Scams all the way up. Scams all the way down.