Agora's Stablecoin Strategy: New Opportunities in Corporate Payments and EBITDA Calculation

A new milestone is emerging in the field of digital payments. Agora, founded by Nick van Eck, is moving beyond the decentralized finance (DeFi) market to position itself at the intersection of corporate governance and financial optimization. Especially when considering EBITDA calculation, the potential offered by stablecoin-based payments appears much more exciting than traditional financial instruments.

Cross-Border Payments: The Importance of Cost Structure and EBITDA Calculation

In today’s business world, the costs of international payment systems significantly erode company profit margins. The core issue Van Eck aims to address is precisely here: pre-financing and transaction fees pose a serious burden, especially for multinational companies with global supply chains.

From an EBITDA calculation perspective, the impact of this cost structure is quite dramatic. As Van Eck points out, even a one percent savings in cross-border payments revenue can lead to up to a five percent increase in EBITDA figures. When viewed from this angle, the influence of stablecoin solutions like AUSD on financial performance indicators becomes very clear.

Infrastructure and Education Challenges in Corporate Adoption

Of course, the path to reaching this potential is not smooth. While the adoption of stablecoin technology by traditional businesses is inevitable, it is expected to be a slow process. Van Eck highlights three main reasons for this sluggishness: unfamiliar infrastructure, lack of internal payment policies, and fundamental training gaps among employees.

His observation that “if stablecoin knowledge in the crypto world reaches 100%, outside the corporate world, this rate is only around 5%,” reveals a real obstacle faced by the industry. Despite the fact that this technology addresses real issues in payroll, inter-company payment systems, and especially cross-border transfers, acceptance still requires a long way to go.

Competition Among Fintech Players: The Pressure from Arc, Base, and Tempo

Agora is not the only player seeing this market opportunity. Looking ahead, blockchain solutions under corporate control such as Circle’s Arc, Coinbase’s Base platform, and Stripe’s Tempo are positioning themselves to gradually attract activity from open-source structures.

Van Eck’s analysis clearly describes this consolidation process: concentration will be seen around a few dominant chains; large financial firms will dominate this market due to “money, power, and distribution” networks. In this competitive environment, differentiation for ventures like Agora is vital.

Agora’s Market Positioning: Better Than a Bank Account

Agora offers a USD-backed stablecoin through AUSD and also provides stablecoin services for other crypto projects to issue their own tokens. However, Van Eck explicitly states that this service has a limited use case: “If you’re working within a closed ecosystem, your own stablecoins make sense. Otherwise, use a widely adopted stablecoin that’s already prevalent.”

The real target is a broader market. Agora’s vision is to become one of the top five stablecoin issuers in the world — and to achieve this by developing tools designed for “corporate clients who don’t want crypto but feel like they have a bank account, yet are looking for something much better.”

EBITDA Calculation: A Key Metric for Corporate Decision Makers

The underlying logic of this strategy is centered on EBITDA calculation, the main indicator in corporate finance language. The optimization of cross-border payments, and its role in corporate financial reporting and investor evaluations, directly links solutions like Agora to financial performance metrics.

In this context, Van Eck’s proposals to be presented at the Consensus Hong Kong conference offer a transformative perspective not only for the crypto sector but also for traditional corporate finance. Agora’s goal is to reshape the fundamental structure of business cash management by combining technological innovation with financial efficiency.