Exclusive interview with Liu Jialiang, founder and CEO of KUN: Blockchain started with payment and will also explode with payment

With the issuance of stablecoins in the entire crypto industry exceeding $170 billion, payment and capital flow have become the biggest use cases for cryptocurrencies. In 2024, the net profit of Tether, the issuer of the stablecoin USDT, has exceeded that of financial giant BlackRock, while traditional payment giants such as Paypal and Visa are also vigorously deploying in the crypto field. It can be said that payment is the most noteworthy track in the current cryptocurrency field.

As a trusted global digital payment service provider, Kun KUN has been committed to using Web3 technology to empower the real industry and solve the pain points of traditional cross-border payments since its inception. Whether it is a payment solution for underdeveloped countries or a one-stop service for enterprises and individuals, Kun KUN has demonstrated strong innovation capabilities and market insight.

How does Kun KUN view the current industry trends and challenges? Faced with the inevitable requirement of compliance, how will they lay out their future development strategy? With these questions, BlockBeats interviewed Mr. Liu Jialiang, founder and CEO of Kun KUN. Let's listen to his profound insights into the Web3 payment industry, as well as KUN's mission and vision in leading the development of the industry.

About KUN

BlockBeats: Can you briefly introduce the background of the KUN team, as well as the original intention, project positioning and development vision of the KUN project?

Liu Jialiang:

As a trusted global digital payment service provider, KUN has established Web2+Web3 licenses and compliance systems in Hong Kong and Singapore, and its business scope covers emerging markets such as Asia, Africa, and Latin America. It provides one-stop digital payment solutions with security, convenience and efficiency as the core for cross-border trade, overseas services and Web3 industry corporate customers, and is committed to building a new generation of global digital payment network for the future.

Since last year, we have been exploring the future development direction. Because most members of the KUN team have a deep background in cross-border payments and have successful entrepreneurial experience in the fields of NFT and Metaverse, we finally chose the direction of Web3+ overseas markets.

Traditional cross-border payments rely on the Swift system, but in underdeveloped countries or emerging markets, the efficiency of the Swift system is not ideal. Web3 technology can perfectly solve the problem of capital and transaction circulation in these areas with underdeveloped banking infrastructure. In this process, we found that Web3 payments are still in their infancy, and traditional trade still relies heavily on the Web2 model. Therefore, we finally positioned the project to carry out Web2+Web3 payment services in emerging markets. Our goal is to become an effective supplement to the Swift system and provide efficient, compliant and convenient funds transmission services, which is also our mission.

BlockBeats: As a one-stop Web2+Web3 payment solution, can you give us a detailed introduction to the current products and functions of KUN?

Liu Jialiang:

KUN has three major product lines, namely:

1.KUN | Exchange: 7*24 global intelligent trading system. Responsible for the acceptance and withdrawal services of digital currency and legal currency, and provides enterprise-level solutions for traditional B2B industries, overseas digital entertainment, advertising services, and Web3 projects.

2.PayX: Provides digital currency and legal currency collection and payment services worldwide, and an integrated digital currency and legal currency payment gateway.

3.K-Card: Supports physical card and virtual card solutions for cryptocurrencies. Including enterprise-level VCC, corporate co-branded cards (CaaS), and consumer cards.

Looking at the entire Web3 payment track, it can be divided into several parts. The first part is peer-to-peer payment, such as using a Web3 wallet for transfers. The second part is the acceptance business, connecting on-chain assets with real assets. The third part is similar to the payment card business, that is, the user's on-chain assets are directly consumed in real life. As a one-stop digital payment solution, KUN's three major product lines correspond to these three parts.

First of all, at KUN | Exchange, we have a dedicated APP called KUN | Space to help corporate customers handle the deposit and withdrawal needs of the business process in compliance. At present, there are already hundreds of corporate customers using this platform at a high frequency, and the customer experience is very smooth. Our deposit and withdrawal products for high-net-worth individuals are expected to be launched in December this year.

Currently, there is no particularly good solution for compliant On-Ramp and Off-Ramp in emerging markets around the world. PayX aims to solve this pain point. Through PayX's integrated digital currency and legal currency payment gateway, you can realize the collection, payment, exchange and settlement of digital currencies and small currencies.

In the process of developing PayX, we found that the market demand for payment cards is particularly large. So we developed the payment card K-Card business. We will obtain the master membership of the card organization in the near future. We can not only launch virtual credit cards (VCC) that support legal currency, but also carry out digital currency business to support consumption from on-chain to off-chain.

In addition, relying on the team's cross-border payment background, we found that more and more overseas companies have the need to convert legal currency into digital currency. We focus on providing Web2+Web3 integrated solutions for more incremental markets in some small currency countries or emerging markets.

So in summary, the entire KUN currently has three major product lines: 7*24 global intelligent trading system KUN | Exchange, integrated Web2+Web3 payment solution PayX, and physical card and virtual card solution K-Card that supports cryptocurrency.

BlockBeats: Can you list some more specific usage scenarios of KUN for our readers?

Liu Jialiang:

At present, we are mainly focusing on several key areas, aiming to empower the real industry. Specifically, we focus on the following four business scenarios:

First, B2B trade, especially physical trade with emerging markets.

Second, overseas-related service businesses, especially in advertising.

Third, the pan-entertainment industry.

Fourth, Web3 projects.

These are some of our current specific application scenarios, and we also have many customers using our services in these three to four scenarios.

BlockBeats: Now that many functions of KUN have been launched, can you share with us some more specific data from the product level?

Liu Jialiang:

Overall, the transaction flow of KUN is expected to reach tens of billions of US dollars next year.

Since the launch of KUN | Exchange in March, the data has doubled almost every month. At present, our monthly transaction volume is about 100 million US dollars. With the launch of personal acceptance business, this number will increase significantly, and it is expected to achieve a 3-5 times increase in transaction volume in 2025.

For PayX business, we mainly focus on physical business and have completed the first transaction in the third quarter. It is expected that our acquiring and collection products will be launched in October. By next year, the scale of this business may reach 3 billion to 5 billion US dollars.

K-Card will become one of KUN's core businesses next year. K-Card is currently in the signing stage and is expected to go online in the first quarter of next year, with the goal of issuing about 100,000 cards. This year, we are conducting trial operations through cooperation with another card issuer. We are the fourth company in the world with a crypto background that works closely with card organizations. K-Card will be able to support enterprise-level VCC transactions that integrate digital currency + legal currency at the same time.

About the payment track

BlockBeats: What specific measures has the KUN team taken to ensure the safety of user funds?

Liu Jialiang:

Fund security is the top priority of Kun KUN. Kun KUN has invested the most in ensuring the security of user assets and funds. We can summarize Kun KUN's advantages in protecting user funds from three aspects: experience, compliance and risk control.

First of all, the Kun KUN team has accumulated decades of experience in Web2 payments and has processed trillions of transactions. Our team not only has a very strong sense of risk control and security, but also has accumulated a lot of professional knowledge and experience in system and transaction security, which can be well transferred to Kun KUN.

Secondly, in the process of establishing Kun KUN, licenses and compliance have always been the basis. We have the MSO and TCSP licenses in Hong Kong, and recently applied for the Singapore DPT license. We also have support from card organizations. We also work closely with regulators in many countries and regions to ensure that our payment systems and services comply with local laws and regulations.

Finally, in terms of risk control, KUN has accumulated its own KYT data capabilities and cooperated with a number of industry-leading data service providers. So far, our interception success rate is 100%. All three of our product lines will use KYT functions, and we are simultaneously realizing the productization of KYT services. Our customers can use KUN's service interface to detect the security of their counterparty wallets.

BlockBeats: Compared with other Web3 payment projects, what are the characteristics of KUN?

Liu Jialiang:

Our characteristics are mainly reflected in security, compliance and one-stop payment services.

In terms of compliance, KUN holds multiple Web2 and Web3 payment licenses worldwide, and has sufficient guarantees for transaction security and compliance, which is the value that corporate customers value most. Since payment involves fund security, KYC, KYT and anti-money laundering (AML) mechanisms are very important.

Secondly, we have truly realized a one-stop Web2+Web3 payment service. Through the three core product lines of KUN | Exchange, K-Card and PayX, we can realize the integrated service of digital currency and legal currency. Submit KYC once, and everything from account opening to collection, exchange, payment and card opening can be realized in one stop in the KUN | Space application. Currently, KUN | Space has been launched on iOS and Android platforms. Whether the user is a Web2 or Web3 user, he can complete related business on the platform.

Not only Web3 projects, this year in the Token 2049 event, we can find that more and more Web2 payment companies are entering the Web3 industry. Our layout is earlier, and we have a competitive advantage of about 6 to 12 months.

BlockBeats: Kun KUN has announced that it has completed the first enterprise-level Web3 payment transaction with HashKey Exchange. In March of this year, Kun KUN also reached a strategic cooperation with the digital payment company WSPN. What is the opportunity for you to cooperate with these two heavyweight companies, and will there be deeper cooperation in the future?

Liu Jialiang:

HashKey and OSL are both Hong Kong compliant trading platforms with which we cooperate very closely. We have established a strategic cooperation with HashKey Exchange, which enables us to provide customers with more compliant and convenient value-added services.

WSPN has issued its own stablecoin and has established partnerships with many payment companies, so they are also our strategic partners. We have a very close partnership with stablecoin issuers WSPN and RD Technology, which constitutes part of the entire Web2 and Web3 ecosystem.

In fact, we not only cooperate with compliant trading platforms such as HashKey and OSL, but also actively cooperate with some digital banks. At the same time, our cooperation with stablecoin issuers is also very in-depth.

The future of Web3 payments

BlockBeats: Now the entire crypto industry is emphasizing PMF. In your opinion, in which specific tracks and scenarios will KUN be quickly implemented?

Liu Jialiang:

Currently, KUN | Exchange products have been successfully verified in B2B transactions, overseas digital entertainment, advertising industry and Web3 projects, and are rapidly scaling up; PayX integrates the functions of acquiring and issuing digital currencies and small currencies in one stop, which can better serve enterprises in the entire chain; coupled with K-Card, it can better serve Web3 customers' community operations, salary and other scenarios.

For startups, the most difficult thing is to obtain seed users and achieve PMF in the early stages. Because the team has a good accumulation in the field of cross-border payments, we have some seed customers from traditional cross-border e-commerce and B2B trade.

Second, China's recent pan-entertainment industry, such as short dramas, games, and social products, are all global businesses. These businesses involve acquiring and collecting payments, and some products also accept digital currency payments, so global funds need to be collected and settled.

Third, most Web3 projects need support in salary solutions, such as paying salaries to digital nomads around the world. We also assist some mining companies, who need to pay electricity bills through acceptances, and need to connect with wallets and trading platforms for reliable large-scale acceptances. Therefore, we are also working with more and more Web3 companies to provide them with one-stop Web2+Web3 solutions.

BlockBeats: At present, all industry giants are seeking compliance. As a payment platform that focuses on compliance, what do you think of this trend?

Liu Jialiang:

I think compliance has become the only way for the crypto industry to achieve large-scale development. If you want to develop in a large scale and steadily, compliance becomes an indispensable path.

Therefore, we first actively apply for relevant licenses, because licenses mean supervision and need to be subject to centralized supervision.

Secondly, we are also working hard on internal skills, such as strengthening anti-money laundering, KYT, KYC and transaction security capabilities. Trading platforms involve bad capital flows, which will have a very bad impact. This is why we invested a lot of money in the initial stage and connected to multiple data services such as Elliptic, Lian'an, Dow Jones, Ant Digital, etc. to ensure that the sources of funds we collect are safe and compliant.

In the future development, the compliance of Web2+Web3 is a path that all companies that want to grow bigger and stronger cannot avoid. In this regard, we have taken conscious actions. The first employee I hired in Hong Kong was a compliance officer and an anti-money laundering officer.

BlockBeats: This year, the Payfi track has received a lot of attention and can be regarded as a type of mass adoption. At the same time, many domestic Web2 developers are doing overseas business and are also looking for suitable payment channels. This is also an opportunity for Web3 payment. Do you think Web3 payment will be the mainstream mass adoption method of cryptocurrency in the future? What scale can the entire market reach?

Liu Jialiang:

As the regulatory thinking of various countries gradually becomes clear, Web3 payment is currently the largest mass adoption opportunity in the crypto industry.Last year, the payment scale of stablecoins in real transaction scenarios has reached 3 trillion US dollars, and this year it should double. The smooth application in the physical industry will bring unexpected blowout growth opportunities. The cross-border trade industry alone can bring tens of trillions of dollars in market space.

PayFi is a track that I personally am very optimistic about. It is a combination of Payment, DeFi and RWA, and it is also an extension of Web3 payment. If similar payment-based ecological applications are added, it can also leverage the connection between traditional supply chain finance, personal credit and other scenarios with Web3 payment technology, and there is unlimited room for imagination.

This is why I positioned the slogan of Kun KUN as Bridge to Infinity. Blockchain started with payment and will also explode in payment. We must build a bridge between entities and Web3, help the encryption industry, and also help our customers, bringing the possibility of breaking through bottlenecks and unlimited development.

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