2025 Stablecoin Event
On November 9, 2025, NYLIB hosted a panel discussion on stablecoins at Pryor Cashman’s offices in Times Square. The panel discussion was sponsored by Acceleron, a modern correspondent banking technology platform that empowers community banks and credit unions to automate international wire transfers, capture non-interest income, and compete more effectively with larger institutions.
A distinguished panel of practitioners discussed what payment stablecoins are, the current and future use cases for stablecoins, the changing regulatory landscape due to the recently-enacted GENIUS Act, the potential risks to the banking community of stablecoin adoption, and the opportunities related to stablecoins for community and foreign banks.
Moderator
The panel discussion was moderated by CJ Burke, a Manager within Deloitte's Blockchain and Digital Assets practice, which has made 75+ presentations on stablecoins to financial institutions in recent months. CJ has extensive experience assisting clients with a range of initiatives, including stablecoin product offerings, enhancing risk management capabilities for digital assets, and regulatory licensing for digital asset product launches. He has authored several white papers on topics such as digital asset risk management requirements, digital asset custody, and the use of blockchain technology in capital markets.
Panelists
From left to right: AJ Macey (Managing Director, Anchorage Digital); Keith Vander Leest (BVNK); Sunil Sachdev (SVP, Head of EmFI & Digital Assets, Fiserv); Chris Lalan (Chief Legal Officer & Corporate Secretary, 1Money Co.)
The panel included former bankers building payments infrastructure for stablecoins (from BVNK and 1Money) as well as representatives of the first federally chartered stablecoin issuer (Anchorage Digital) and a leading core provider (Fiserv).
AJ Macey is a Managing Director within the Financial Institutions Group at Anchorage Digital, focused on growing the firm’s cross-functional businesses, which serve the largest global institutions. AJ initially joined Anchorage in May of 2022 as a Relationship Manager, covering both traditional and crypto-native institutions for custody and trading services. Prior to joining Anchorage, AJ spent over a decade in traditional banking at Citigroup, with the majority of his time focused on institutional currency sales and electronic currency markets. AJ holds a BBA in Finance from James Madison University.
Keith Vander Leest leads strategy, sales, and customer success for BVNK’s Americas business. Prior to BVNK, Keith led the Payments Team at Cross River Bank, where he was responsible for the second-largest business unit, covering acquiring, ACH, RTP/FedNow, and push-to-card. During his five-year tenure at Cross River, he grew Payment Revenue to $51M, with a CAGR of 70%. He also launched RTP and FedNow, growing Cross River to the number 2 US FI sender with over 3M RTP transactions, and launched acquiring and issuing programs, growing acquiring to $110B annually, placing Cross River in the top 10 acquiring sponsor banks and top 20 issuing sponsor banks. Before joining Cross River, Keith spent seven years at American Express in a variety of roles, including strategy, product, and business development, across both the acquiring and issuing businesses. Before American Express, he was at both First Data and Western Union. Mr. Vander Leest has an MBA and a BS in Engineering.
Sunil Sachdev leads the Embedded Finance and Digital Assets business, with true horizontal accountability across Fiserv's banking, merchant acquiring, and issuing businesses. His focus is on leveraging Fiserv’s capabilities to serve a wide range of clients, including financial institutions, brands, software platforms, and fintechs. With a team dedicated to innovation, Sunil aims to deliver integrated financial solutions that meet the evolving needs of clients and their customers globally.
Chris Lalan is a senior legal executive with over 20 years of experience in both traditional financial services and the digital assets space. He currently serves as the Chief Legal Officer & Corporate Secretary for 1Money Co., a stablecoin infrastructure firm. He previously served as Deputy General Counsel for OKX, where he advised on global expansion and related licensing, corporate, policy, and regulatory matters. Prior to that, Chris was Associate General Counsel at Circle, where he headed the company's global Products & Regulatory legal team and served on Circle’s Senior Leadership Team. Before entering the digital assets space, Chris served in executive leadership roles in traditional financial services.
The Audience
Eduardo Diaz, General Counsel & CCO, Servicio UniTeller, Inc., poses a question
Event Sponsor
Thank you to our event sponsor! Acceleron is a modern correspondent banking technology platform that empowers community banks and credit unions to automate international wire transfers, capture non-interest income, and compete more effectively with larger institutions. Learn more here.
Future Events
As NYLIB continues to plan events and meetings, we are open to suggestions on topics or issues that interest banks in the tri-state area. Subscribe to our mailing list below to stay informed on news and upcoming events. If you’re interested in sponsoring future NYLIB events, please fill out this contact form, and a member of our team will reach out to you.
Pinchus Raice (Partner, Pryor Cashman LLP) and Rotimi Morohunfola (Head of Business Development & Deputy CEO Designate, United Bank for Africa America)
Memorable Moments
Please enjoy more memorable moments from our evening here. We encourage you to download your favorite moments and share them on LinkedIn. Don’t forget to tag the New York League of Independent Bankers (NYLIB)!
