In this episode of Stableminded, This Week in Fintech's stablecoin-focused series, Drew Rogers sits down with Luca Prosperi and Greg Di Prisco, co-founders of M0, a protocol building infrastructure that connects stablecoin issuers with the applications that use them.

Both founders bring deep expertise in stablecoins and decentralized finance. Greg previously led business development at MakerDAO (now Sky), where he was responsible for "spreading Dai around the world," while Luca worked on MakerDAO's real-world asset initiative before the two joined forces to reimagine stablecoin infrastructure from first principles.

Founded in 2022, M0 has focused on creating what they describe as the "wholesale layer" of money—positioning themselves between upstream reserve holders and downstream applications. Unlike centralized stablecoin issuers, M0 uses a protocol-driven approach backed exclusively by US Treasury bills, with daily validation and transparency at its core.

During the conversation, the founders reveal a critical insight about traditional banking: what they call "Stockholm syndrome" has normalized inefficiencies in the current system, where banks leverage customer deposits while providing minimal returns. In contrast, M0's approach enables continuous on-chain yield streaming directly to applications and end users, eliminating the manual dividend-like payouts common with other stablecoin providers.

M0's technical innovations include protocol-enforced reserve standards, cross-chain interoperability across Solana, SUI, and various EVM networks, and programmable yield distribution that allows downstream applications to control how returns flow to their users. Their recently announced partnership with Brale will enable US-compliant stablecoin issuance under the new GENIUS Act framework.

Most compelling is M0's vision for empowering the next generation of fintech builders rather than established players. As Luca explains, "We don't want to onboard JP Morgan. We want to help the next Robinhood grow." Their philosophy mirrors how Stripe grew by serving early-stage startups like DoorDash and Airbnb rather than pursuing established financial institutions.

Looking ahead, the team is focused on maximizing liquidity and interoperability while continuing to expand their ecosystem of builders. With partners like Noble, Kast, Usual, and Playtron using their infrastructure, M0 is positioned to provide a foundation for stablecoins that deliver on crypto's original promise: creating a more efficient and equitable financial system.

Thank you to M0 for powering this season of Stableminded, Building Stablecoins.

Watch the full episode on YouTube below, or Spotify!