Cobre took part in Meridian 2026, Stellar’s annual conference, held October 28 and 29 at the Convento do Beato in Lisbon. On Thursday, October 29, Jose V. Gedeon, CEO and co-founder of Cobre, took the stage with Amílcar Erazo, CEO of Meru, for “No Middle Step: Direct Stablecoin Ramps To Latam’s Instant Rails.”
The title sums up the idea: a direct connection between stablecoins and Latin America’s instant payment rails, with no middle step. This recap covers Cobre’s participation and uses Mexico as the concrete case, where that rail is SPEI. It also gives context on the event and a question that matters for any company working with stablecoins and local instant rails in the region: what does the network solve, and what does the local rail solve?
Meridian 2026 took place on October 28 and 29, 2026 at the Convento do Beato, a 16th-century convent in Lisbon. Stellar Development Foundation organized it, and the program focused on how the Stellar network is used in practice: payments, stablecoins and tokenized assets.
The program mixed keynotes, fireside chats, lightning talks, workshops and Stellar Community Fund pitches across two stages. It included Anthony Scaramucci (SkyBridge Capital), Jamie Walker (U.S. Bank), Nadine Chakar (DTCC), Michael Shaulov (Fireblocks) and Ginger Baker (Meta). The full schedule is still available on the official Meridian site.
Cobre spoke on Thursday, October 29, the second day of Meridian, in a lightning talk on the Tejo Stage at 12:00 p.m. Lisbon time, according to the official schedule. Two speakers shared the stage: Jose V. Gedeon of Cobre and Amílcar Erazo of Meru.
The idea is in the title: a direct connection between stablecoins and Latin America’s instant payment rails, with no middle step. For companies operating in Mexico, that rail is SPEI, and at Cobre the full path between MXN and stablecoins can be done in both directions.
Connecting stablecoins with an instant payment rail means that a movement between stablecoins and a local currency starts or ends in a bank account in that country, through its real-time system. Three definitions frame the idea:
The stablecoin leg is global and standardized. The local leg is national and regulated: every country has its own account formats, tax identifiers and clearing rules. A network that moves value at any hour does not settle how that value reaches a bank account in a given country.
A concrete case in Mexico: a company needs to make a movement between stablecoins and MXN in a bank account, through SPEI. Without a direct connection to that rail, the local leg needs a second provider, which adds a contract, an integration and a reconciliation.
Run stablecoin movements and local payments from the same platform. Cobre is business payments infrastructure for Latin America: a company connects once, through API or Portal, and runs Local Payments, Cross-Border Payments and reconciliation. In Mexico, the full path between MXN and stablecoins such as USDC and USDT is available in both directions, inside the same platform as SPEI payments, with one record and the same reports.
In Mexico, Cobre runs SPEI payouts and collections with virtual CLABEs, and reconciles both with reports. Three facts back the operation:
The guide to SPEI for business explains how the rail works inside a company, and what a CLABE is covers how accounts are identified.
Four questions frame the decision before moving between stablecoins and a local rail. They are an editorial criterion, not a rule.
The stablecoin leg is already standardized on the network. What changes from one country to the next is the local rail. If your company works with stablecoins and local instant rails, the practical decision is how each movement starts or ends in a bank account, at any hour, and with how many providers, integrations and reconciliations. In Mexico, that rail is SPEI and the CLABE.
If you want to talk about your operation, you can set up a meeting with the Cobre team. The page on immediate interbank payments for business explains how to run SPEI payments from the same infrastructure.
Cobre took part in Meridian 2026, Stellar’s annual conference, held October 28 and 29 at the Convento do Beato in Lisbon. On Thursday, October 29, Jose V. Gedeon, CEO and co-founder of Cobre, took the stage with Amílcar Erazo, CEO of Meru, for “No Middle Step: Direct Stablecoin Ramps To Latam’s Instant Rails.”
The title sums up the idea: a direct connection between stablecoins and Latin America’s instant payment rails, with no middle step. This recap covers Cobre’s participation and uses Mexico as the concrete case, where that rail is SPEI. It also gives context on the event and a question that matters for any company working with stablecoins and local instant rails in the region: what does the network solve, and what does the local rail solve?
Meridian 2026 took place on October 28 and 29, 2026 at the Convento do Beato, a 16th-century convent in Lisbon. Stellar Development Foundation organized it, and the program focused on how the Stellar network is used in practice: payments, stablecoins and tokenized assets.
The program mixed keynotes, fireside chats, lightning talks, workshops and Stellar Community Fund pitches across two stages. It included Anthony Scaramucci (SkyBridge Capital), Jamie Walker (U.S. Bank), Nadine Chakar (DTCC), Michael Shaulov (Fireblocks) and Ginger Baker (Meta). The full schedule is still available on the official Meridian site.
Cobre spoke on Thursday, October 29, the second day of Meridian, in a lightning talk on the Tejo Stage at 12:00 p.m. Lisbon time, according to the official schedule. Two speakers shared the stage: Jose V. Gedeon of Cobre and Amílcar Erazo of Meru.
The idea is in the title: a direct connection between stablecoins and Latin America’s instant payment rails, with no middle step. For companies operating in Mexico, that rail is SPEI, and at Cobre the full path between MXN and stablecoins can be done in both directions.
Connecting stablecoins with an instant payment rail means that a movement between stablecoins and a local currency starts or ends in a bank account in that country, through its real-time system. Three definitions frame the idea:
The stablecoin leg is global and standardized. The local leg is national and regulated: every country has its own account formats, tax identifiers and clearing rules. A network that moves value at any hour does not settle how that value reaches a bank account in a given country.
A concrete case in Mexico: a company needs to make a movement between stablecoins and MXN in a bank account, through SPEI. Without a direct connection to that rail, the local leg needs a second provider, which adds a contract, an integration and a reconciliation.
Run stablecoin movements and local payments from the same platform. Cobre is business payments infrastructure for Latin America: a company connects once, through API or Portal, and runs Local Payments, Cross-Border Payments and reconciliation. In Mexico, the full path between MXN and stablecoins such as USDC and USDT is available in both directions, inside the same platform as SPEI payments, with one record and the same reports.
In Mexico, Cobre runs SPEI payouts and collections with virtual CLABEs, and reconciles both with reports. Three facts back the operation:
The guide to SPEI for business explains how the rail works inside a company, and what a CLABE is covers how accounts are identified.
Four questions frame the decision before moving between stablecoins and a local rail. They are an editorial criterion, not a rule.
The stablecoin leg is already standardized on the network. What changes from one country to the next is the local rail. If your company works with stablecoins and local instant rails, the practical decision is how each movement starts or ends in a bank account, at any hour, and with how many providers, integrations and reconciliations. In Mexico, that rail is SPEI and the CLABE.
If you want to talk about your operation, you can set up a meeting with the Cobre team. The page on immediate interbank payments for business explains how to run SPEI payments from the same infrastructure.
Meridian 2026 took place on October 28 and 29 at the Convento do Beato in Lisbon. Stellar Development Foundation organized it, bringing together developers, companies, financial institutions and policymakers around payments, stablecoins and tokenized assets. HackMeridian, the hackathon that came before, ran on October 25 and 26.
Cobre took part on Thursday, October 29, 2026, at 12:00 p.m. Lisbon time according to the official schedule, on the Tejo Stage. Jose V. Gedeon, CEO and co-founder of Cobre, presented the lightning talk “No Middle Step: Direct Stablecoin Ramps To Latam’s Instant Rails” together with Amílcar Erazo, CEO of Meru.
Instant payment rails are national payment systems that move money between bank accounts in real time, typically at any hour. Each country has its own rail, with its own account formats and rules, so a stablecoin movement that ends in a local bank account has to connect to that specific rail. In Mexico, the rail is SPEI.
Two speakers took the stage: Jose V. Gedeon, CEO and co-founder of Cobre, and Amílcar Erazo, CEO of Meru. It was a lightning talk on the Tejo Stage, centered on a direct connection between stablecoins and Latin America’s instant payment rails.
Stellar is a network built for global payments, stablecoins and real-world assets. Stellar Development Foundation organizes Meridian every year, and the 2025 edition drew more than 1,000 attendees from 65 countries. In 2026, the program focused on how the network is used in payments, stablecoins and tokenized assets.
