From the Block

By manipulating the cross-chain messaging layer that links together DeFi blockchain ecosystems, attackers highlighted how the trust assumptions embedded in crypto’s interoperability protocols can become liabilities, throwing into stark relief the landscape’s potential for not just isolated failures but systemic risk.

As well-backed startups and global institutions alike converge on a common goal of moving money instantly, safely and invisibly across borders, PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster and Citi’s Ryan Rugg chat with Rain CEO and Co-Founder Farooq Malik about why the question may no longer be whether digital assets will matter but who can make them actually work for everyday payments around the world, seven days a week. And how. 

In the latest “From the Block” episode, PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster sits with Citi’s Ryan Rugg and Stable Sea’s Tanner Taddeo to unpack why, driven by risk-averse CFOs and the need for predictable, efficient money movement, enterprises are taking a surgical approach when deploying stablecoins to fix their payment pain points. 

Kraken got its own’s Fed account last week. It was a big news story but may be less of a crypto milestone than a payments and banking infrastructure shift. It was also the topic of the latest ‘From the Block’ podcast episode, in which PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster discussed the development with Citi’s Ryan Rugg. Together they unpacked what could be the first test of whether digital asset institutions can plug directly into the U.S. financial system.

Newly launched “Zero” network, backed by major market infrastructure players, targets institutional adoption by solving interoperability, security and scalability, the three hurdles keeping digital assets from mainstream financial rails.

Stablecoins were supposed to disintermediate the card networks. So why is Mastercard the one doing the building? In the latest “From the Block,” PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster and Citi’s Ryan Rugg puts the question straight to Mastercard’s Raj Dhamodharan—and get an answer that challenges almost everything the crypto faithful assumed.

On the latest From the Block podcast, Holland and Knight attorney Andrew Balthazor tells PYMNTS’ Karen Webster and Citi’s Ryan Rugg that until crypto solves for scams, user errors and consumer remedies, more adoption just means more losses. Here’s what he says has to change.

As blockchain heads into 2026, the conversation is shifting from big promises to hard realities. In the latest episode of “From the Block,” PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster chats with Citi Treasury and Trade Solutions Global Head of Digital Assets Ryan Rugg about why the year ahead will be defined by whether digital assets can integrate into the operational, regulatory and risk frameworks of mainstream finance.

In the debut episode of “From The Block,” PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster chats with Ryan Rugg, global head of digital assets for Citi Treasury and Trade Solutions, to separate digital-asset reality from market narrative. For banks and corporates, the shift is less about crypto and more about building always-on money movement that works inside the rules.

It’s a new must-listen show. Karen Webster and Ryan Rugg, global head of digital assets at Citi, are co-hosting ‘From the Block,’ a weekly podcast series that cuts through the noise and gives CFOs and treasurers the practical playbooks they need to evaluate stablecoins, tokenized assets and the infrastructure behind them.