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Raj Gokal on Solana's stablecoin transfer volume. "Last year was a trillion. Last month was almost a trillion."

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“Success is never guaranteed” << sharing below an internal note I sent everyone at @KASTxyz>> When I worked at Meta, at the HQ at 1 Hacker Way in Menlo Park was a billboard of the famous Facebook “like” button. But on the back of the billboard was Sun Microsystems, one of the most famous tech companies of the 90s. They kept the Sun logo there to remind people, that as hot as you can be today, you could be gone tomorrow. Similarly, yesterday, I got a notice the Stables App was shutting down. A tough day, @stablesbernie really gave his all. I’m sure he’ll forge another path and find success in B2B2C. He is a persistent entrepreneur I respect. But there is more to the story. Almost two years ago, struggling to raise money or build an app, we looked up to them as a shining example. @stables_money was the first to show a beautiful user experience, it was honestly better than ours till maybe mid-last year. They had more crypto integrations, they had more on/off rails, the design was even more beautiful. They even had direct issuance for Mastercard. If you ask me, they should have won. But how did we manage to overcome them? A few things we did early. 1/ Open to 150+ countries They were focussed on direct issuance, and only Australia and Europe to start. We went for the world, with credit card rails not debit card, with high acceptance and high limits. 2/ Concierge experience Whatever the problem, customers believed we would fix it for them. This created an incredible NPS, which meant very strong word of mouth and referral based growth. 3/ Brand & Marketing By sheer force of will, we put the KAST name in the mind and consciousness of people everywhere. We threw the crazy parties (evolving now to be more serious). Yes we shipped product, but objectively their app was better till recently. Even their signup was pretty fast. The lesson in this? We have to be putting a spotlight on ourselves all the time, so we can improve things. Hard questions will get asked. The organisation won't stand still, teams will be moved around. Some people won't grow at our pace, and will leave. But there are only two choices… a) we do the pushing, accepting the discomfort Or b) we get pushed The latter path is easier short term, but with much more eventual pain. And often comes too late.   Success is far from a certainty, and there is only one person who ultimately judges it - that is not us, that's not investors, that's not even our perceived popularity. The success is determined by our customers. Whether they choose us. Or they choose someone else. And what they tell their friends. And what their friends tell their friends. The customer chooses our destiny. So please, always treat them that way. Let us never be the ones shutting down. Onwards, upwards, 🚀