An interview with Nick Denisenko reveals the hidden plumbing powering the 2025 fintech revolution
While headlines celebrate new crypto cards and neobank launches, the real transformation is happening where most users never look: in the infrastructure layer that moves money across borders.
Nick Denisenko, CTO and Co-Founder at Brighty, spent his early career as employee #20 at Revolut, building the backend systems for Revolut Business. In a recent interview with CoinCodex, he shared insights on a fundamental shift in how money moves globally—one that most people won't even notice is happening.
The Transport Layer Revolution
"It's overwhelmingly a transport layer," Nick explains when asked about how people actually use crypto for remittances. "People rarely hold the crypto asset after the transfer is complete; they convert it immediately to local fiat currency."
This is the infrastructure insight that matters: crypto isn't replacing money—it's replacing the rails that move it.
The pattern is remarkably consistent across geographies:
- EU passport holders take out cash locally, send it as crypto to family abroad
- MENA recipients receive crypto payments, immediately convert to local currency
- Digital nomads use stablecoins as a frictionless bridge between banking systems
For users, it feels like magic. For infrastructure companies like Brighty, it's a massive engineering challenge: building systems that make blockchain rails as invisible and reliable as Visa—but with near-zero fees and no geographic limitations.
Why Stablecoins Became the New Payroll Standard
The most unexpected trend Nick identifies isn't institutional adoption or DeFi innovation. It's far more practical: crypto payroll has already become routine for freelancers and contractors.
"For freelancers and contractors, I'd argue we've already reached that point," Nick says. "Platforms have made stablecoin payouts a standard, seamless option."
The driver isn't ideological—it's economic necessity. In markets with high inflation, workers explicitly request payment in USDC or USDT. "In countries with high inflation, workers often ask for stablecoin pay," Nick notes. "This lets them hold the value of the US dollar without their local currency losing value."
But Brazil reveals the limits: with a sophisticated instant payment system (Pix), crypto payroll only makes sense for cross-border income, not domestic payments.
The infrastructure takeaway: Crypto wins where traditional finance is expensive or unavailable. Where legacy systems work well, crypto stays in the background.
The Real Economics: 30-60%, Not 70-90%
Marketing materials love to claim 70-90% savings on cross-border payments. Nick provides the honest numbers.
"Once you factor in spreads, compliance checks, and the essential operational overhead, we're observing genuine savings closer to the 30% to 60% range," he explains.
The hidden costs aren't in the transfer—they're in the setup:
- Integration with existing ERP systems
- KYC/AML compliance infrastructure
- Multi-jurisdiction tax reporting
- Digital wallet management
"The savings are absolutely real and significant," Nick emphasizes, "but it requires a dedicated effort—it is not a free ride."
For infrastructure companies, this is the actual product: abstracting away this complexity so users only see the 30-60% savings, not the engineering underneath.
Three Regulatory Catalysts
Nick identifies three regulatory developments that will determine whether crypto infrastructure goes mainstream or stays niche:
1. Europe's MiCA Framework
"This is very important because it gives companies one of the first clear, full sets of rules in the world. This clarity is exactly what big companies need to feel safe."
2. U.S. Stablecoin Regime
"Any real effort by the U.S. to create a national framework for stablecoins will be a turning point... essential for large, more careful American companies."
3. Emerging Market Policy Volatility
"Rules can change very quickly, sometimes overnight. Even with this uncertainty, these markets are often where the most people are using and adopting crypto quickly."
For infrastructure companies, regulatory clarity isn't a nice-to-have—it's the difference between serving freelancers and serving Fortune 500 payroll departments.
The Three Pillars for Mainstream Adoption
When will crypto payroll feel as normal as direct deposit for full-time employees at traditional companies?
Nick predicts later this decade, contingent on three simultaneous developments:
Regulatory Certainty: Clear frameworks like MiCA and U.S. stablecoin legislation
Seamless Fiat Off-Ramps: Easy, cheap conversion to local currency anywhere
Native Software Support: Payroll platforms treating crypto as just another payment option
"A company's financial officer can use crypto payroll as simply as checking a box," Nick envisions.
The infrastructure is already here. What's missing is the connective tissue between blockchain rails and legacy financial software.
The Invisible Plumbing
The parallel to the Rain example is striking: while 100+ crypto card brands compete for consumer attention, 75% of all stablecoin deposits flow through a single infrastructure provider.
Brighty operates in this same invisible layer—not building flashy consumer apps, but ensuring that when a Pakistani freelancer receives USDT payment from a German client, it arrives instantly, converts seamlessly, and costs almost nothing.
"The biggest surprise is how regular people are using crypto remittances," Nick reflects. "It's a small, human-scale adoption that is really taking off."
Small-scale. Human. Invisible.
That's exactly how infrastructure should work.
About Brighty: A European digital finance platform specializing in crypto payments, remittances, and cross-border transactions. Co-founded by Nick Denisenko, former Lead Backend Engineer at Revolut.
Source: CoinCodex