Raj Kumar on cryptocurrency
From What crypto gets right: Raj Kumar, Elisabeth Carpenter, Linda Kirkpatrick | #GIGS25 · · Mastercard News
“Starting in COVID, frontline healthcare workers in Venezuela were not getting paid and needed help. We enabled to take that money, digitized it, turned it into USDC, and were able to go right over the top into their phones so they could get that aid.”
On , Raj Kumar, Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer at KIRBY CORP, spoke about cryptocurrency during What crypto gets right: Raj Kumar, Elisabeth Carpenter, Linda Kirkpatrick | #GIGS25 on Mastercard News.
About Raj Kumar
Raj Kumar, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Kirby, participated in a panel at the Global Inclusive Growth Summit on June 17, 2025, titled "What crypto gets right." During the discussion, Kumar stated that approximately two billion people worldwide are unbanked and face challenges with fees and transactions. He described the current moment as an "inflection point" where there is a willingness to combine the history and consistency of financial markets with modern technology. Kumar emphasized that trust is essential, comparing the need for regulatory oversight in crypto to the Federal Aviation Administration's role in aviation. He noted that regulation can foster innovation while ensuring safety and security. Kumar also discussed the importance of partnerships, saying that "innovation can only happen when partnerships happen" and that no single entity has all the solutions. He referenced an example from the COVID-19 pandemic where frontline healthcare workers in Venezuela were paid using USDC, a stablecoin, which he described as a demonstration of crypto "getting it right." Kumar added that money now moves "instantly, cheaply, securely, safely" in a manner similar to messages.