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Zebec Spaces: Product Roadmap & Tokenomics for 2026
Recorded: Jan. 8, 2026 Duration: 0:27:27Space Recording
Short Summary
Zabek is poised for a transformative year in 2026, with significant milestones including 10 billion ZBCN tokens staked, a focus on strategic partnerships, and the launch of a comprehensive Super App. The conversation emphasizes the importance of real-world applications and sustainable growth in the crypto ecosystem.
Full Transcription
Thank you. Thank you. Good morning or afternoon or evening, depending on where you're from.
JJ, how you doing?
I'm good, man. How are you? Happy New Year to everybody.
Happy New Year to you. Happy New Year to everybody.
Great to see you you Great to be back
Great to have so many people come in and join this space
Straight away
Do me a favour everybody
Hit that little purple pill in the bottom right hand corner of your screen
And see if you can get as many
People in here as possible
By reposting the space
That would be great
If you could do that Get as many people to come and join us.
This is going to be a really, really good one because Simon and I caught up briefly this morning.
This is Simon's opportunity to really kind of bring people up to speed and set the intention for 2026,
which by the sounds of things is set to be a really, really exciting year.
How are you, though, JJ? You well? Do you have a nice break?
I had a nice break, you know, you know, the market was helping with the break.
Right. It wasn't good. So made it easier to leave the charts a little bit.
But I think, you know, we're heading into a big year
right so uh correct uh excited to be a part of this and glad to have you on Ben hosting as well
thanks so much yes I had a lovely break and I was I was saying this morning I was pleased to get back
into it I was uh I don't know man it felt like a long one like you could take maybe three or four
days off and before you knew it you were like at the two week mark. And I was just, uh, I'm, I'm a stickler for,
for structure and routine. Right. So I was getting stir crazy by the end. I need,
I need to get back to it. So here we are really pleased to be back in. I hope everyone feels
rested and good to go. Do we have Simon with us? I know he's been fixing his audio in the background.
Yes, I am here to everyone in the audience.
Yes, absolutely. Happy New Year to you. We are now one minute past the hour, which is great, so we can get going.
Simon, I was just listening to you or watching, should I say.
You were part of an exciting interview yesterday as well with Zach Rector.
Really, really good one to
watch i might pin that if that's okay with you yeah i mean i had a great session yesterday with
zach i encourage everyone in the community to go listen to that interview we got deep into details
on tokenomics product and our strategy for 2026 which are the same topics we'll be covering today
on the spaces absolutely uh jj what just because I don't want to lose the space,
do you mind just pinning that in the background for us?
I got you. I got you.
I'll look it up right now and I'll post it on you.
Nice one. Thank you so much.
Well, look, welcome everybody to a product roadmap
and tokenomics outlook for 2026.
That's a bit of a mouthful,
but needless to say, it does exactly what it says it will do.
And Simon and I caught up briefly this morning, really, really excited.
The objective today really is to kind of, you know, explain how real product usage is driving the ZBCN utility and why supply dynamics will turn.
Well, I'm not going to I don't don't wanna I don't wanna jump in too far
I wanna let Simon go ahead and do that but ultimately what we want people to take away
here is that it's a big big year and there's a lot going on and Simon can go into detail
on that so welcome everyone over a month since we last caught up So, so much has happened. We're getting a line for 2026 and let's get into it.
Simon, first of all, how are you? Did you have a nice break?
Yes, a short break, but it still was a break and we are back here now in the office ready for a
big year. Yeah. And you've had some cool news in the last 24 hours, right? We crossed a line when it came to the amount of tokens staked I saw.
A huge milestone, hitting 10 billion ZBCN tokens staked.
I think that represents 10% of the supply, over 15,000 wallets.
So it's a great vote of confidence, and it's something that we achieved,
I think, only 14 months after launching the staking program.
Fantastic.
I think, you know, I wonder if you you want to just before we hop into it maybe just i don't know set the intention like for this
session because you know as i've said there's a lot a lot coming up um but i think you know first
first spaces back of the new year is there anything you want to kind of like just let the community
know in terms of the intention for the next 30 minutes?
Well, we dropped revised, or I should say updated tokenomics yesterday, which I encourage everyone
to read through as they're very detailed and they really set the tone for 2026 and the next
evolution of the ZBCN token. But I think what we want people to leave with today is really a clear
mental picture of how ZBEC products drive token demand and how supply dynamics change meaningfully from early 2026 throughout the rest of the year and into future years.
Okay, I love that. Before we get into all of that, I think there may be some people who, you know, over the break took a time to make a bit of research and maybe came
into the community fresh. So maybe it's a good time for you to kind of like ground us and bring
us all to the same level of understanding in terms of Zebek and how it has evolved. And maybe, I mean,
it would be great for you to give us an idea of like what Zebek is today compared to what some
people might remember from the early days. Well, we started Zebek all the way back in 2021. And Zebek started as a payroll and payments
protocol exclusively on Solana. And now, fast forward four years later, we are a multi-chain,
multi-product financial network. And we work with some very big institutional partners. So
as a result of that, we've had to upgrade and expand our tokenomics to the network model that we currently operate.
And at the end of the day, the Zabek token really comes down to two things.
Number one is governance and number two is utility.
And today we really want to focus on how the utility has been upgraded and how the utility is clearly linked to the usage of the network rather than gas fees or speculative nature like
some other tokens out there. So we want to get today deep into how the ZBEC token has evolved
from the original ZBC token and how that fits into our ambitions to grow and scale the network.
Okay, I love that. And with that context in mind, let's also kind of like strip things back regarding
ZBCN. Let's get it back to first principles. Where does the demand for ZBCN come from in
practice? And also, maybe you could just go into a little bit of detail about the primary
utility of ZBCN today, like when it comes to Zebex core products, etc.
Well, ZBCN started as a governance token for
the protocol and it's expanded now to a utility token that's really core to the entire ecosystem
and our product suite. If you start with our core product payroll, employers need to pay the payroll
and the service fees related to it in ZBCN. Previously that was done in stablecoin balances
as well and now even if they have the stablecoin balances it will be
routed through ZBCN in an auto conversion model and this ensures
consistent growing demand for ZBCN as the volume of the network grows as well
as further enterprise adoption coming into our payroll system. Outside of
payroll of course we have the cards in the Super App. ZVCN is going to be required to access features within the upcoming ZVCN Super
App, which we'll go into more detail on later. And for ZVCN cards, there'll be a major upgrade
this year where rewards will be coming to the ZVCN card suite. And these rewards will be directly
linked to your ZVCN token balances.
Okay, love that.
I'm not going to even allow you to get to that later.
I'm going to pick you up on it right now, Super App,
because this is something we were talking about a lot towards the end of 2025. I know that the team have been making huge strides to getting that
in a position where you can launch.
Can you bring us up to date?
Where are we at with the super app and your incentive structure?
And how, here's another one for you then, maybe to frame that a bit better.
How does the super app change the role of ZBCN compared to like a single product world
that we've been living in before?
Great question.
Well, we're all extremely excited.
We are super close for the release of the Super App.
As I mentioned in prior spaces,
it is going to be phased out,
sorry, phased in in different modules
as we bring them to market
in the desktop version to start,
followed by the mobile version later in Q1.
So it's going to be a very exciting time
and we encourage everyone in the community to demo it's going to be a very exciting time and we encourage everyone in the
community to demo it, also to provide us feedback as we work on upgrading the stack throughout the
year. The Super App in a nutshell brings all of our products under one roof. Of course, with card
management, with payroll streaming, remittance as well will be added in coming months. So it really
is going to live up to its name as being a super app, a one-stop shop for all your financial needs, whether it's receiving your payroll, managing
your ZBEC cards, or sending money abroad to friends and family. Now, bringing this to the ZBCN token,
ZBCN will be used as the access and incentive asset for the super app. So to unlock different
features of the super app, you will need to use ZBCN or have staked balances of ZBCN,
which can also unlock reduced fees or better pricing.
So if you want to use the super app, you're going to have to have some ZBCN in your wallet
to make it short and simple.
I love that. I love that.
And in terms of like availability around the world and all of that kind of stuff,
do people need to sort of like start to clue up in terms of like where they are and how they can use it etc or will there be more comms that
come out to kind of like explain how it works there will be um regional restrictions for some
areas depending on what part of the app you're using um so cards of course you know we don't
serve every single country in the world we serve the majority of them so you'll expect that but i
think there'll be some functionality of the app for for for people no matter where they are in the world. We serve the majority of them. So you'll expect that. But I think there'll be some functionality of the app for people no matter where they are in the world.
Absolutely brilliant. And then another question, something I'd noted down earlier that I wanted
to ask you about. Any plans for like chain expansion when it comes into that? Multi-chain,
I know you mentioned earlier that started off very much in the Solana ecosystem,
have moved out more broadly from a multi-chain
perspective. It does seem to be something that people are much more frequently discussing now,
doesn't feel quite so alien, people aren't quite so kind of tribal about their chains, and so
becoming chain agnostic and really kind of getting out there more broadly is certainly a string for
every project's bow. So I wondered if there are any plans to kind of enhance
that offering at the moment. Chain expansion is a big focus and priority for us in 26.
We do not want to be married to a single chain. Rather, we are the rails that can connect all
chains across borders. As I'm sure our community knows, we've brought Zabek cards to nearly 20
different blockchains, making us the card provider that supports the
most native chains out there. And next up is an upgrade of our streaming payroll. And this is
going to be our very first expansion outside of Solana for streaming payroll. But in our view,
it's key to growing adoption and working with chains that are already potentially selected
or adopted by major institutions. We do not want to force our clients or prospective clients
to adopt to a single blockchain,
and that's why Zbeck is going multi-chain in 2026.
Ben, are you there?
Oh, gosh, I was talking away there and I was on mute.
Sorry about that.
I was talking about how you'd mentioned cards and i didn't realize that that was 20 chains that is um that
is a great deal like a lot of blockchains to cover a lot of projects that you supported
and more to come yeah i wouldn't be surprised if we hit 30 this year. Well, bring us up to date then on kind of like cards, real world spend.
Like, why are the cards such an important part of the ZBCN story going into 2026?
Yeah, I mean, to think about it, the reason we launched Zvek cards all the way back in Q4 2023 was really to have a seamless off-ramp for payroll, right?
If you're going to get paid in stablecoins, you're going to need a way to spend it, right? That was the thinking behind it.
And the Zabek card business has really morphed into a successful entity of its own, potentially,
with demand from retail users that are not necessarily using Zabek payroll, but just for
their everyday spending as we offer three different cards for three different use cases. And then also the growth of our white label program, where we now
have nearly a hundred different white label cards out there, which has driven a lot of the demand
and volume growth in Zebek cards. So we want to continue that great momentum this year. We are
upgrading the entire card experience by bringing it within the super app
that means users of our silver and carbon card will have a much better user interface an easier
way to manage their loads and see their transactions and spending and manage all their cards in a single
app so we're really excited about that and we think that volume is going to take off and grow further this year with all these upgrades. Massive. And as a user, I can only, I can't speak highly enough of the experience. I'm
really looking forward to seeing how that upgrade kicks in. So love that. Thank you for covering
that. Right. I realize we're moving across a broad range of topics here, Simon, and I apologize. I
just want to get the most out of
this session for the community, given that it's a big year ahead. You know, we've had,
I want to, I think, jump into, so sorry for being slightly schizophrenic here, I want to,
I want to jump into staking, I think. And you mentioned at the top of the, top of the show
there that we've just passed 10 billion tokens staked that's incredible
amazing ecosystem participation let's talk about then that participation depth like beyond holding
so how does staking fit into the super app and broader ecosystem this year? Like what additional features, if any, are coming to the fore?
Well, you're right. We did hit a monumental milestone today, reaching 10 billion or 10%
of the total supply of ZBCN stake in a mere 14 months. We're excited to see this grow further.
We're excited to see more community members and ecosystem participants buy into staking. And we will be making meaningful
upgrades to staking this year. So for one, the staking website will move within the Super App
in the month of January. So look out for that change. And then we'll have further announcements
on updates and upgrades to how ZBCN tokens are staked and how staked ZBCN token can impact and unlock features of the super
app. Okay, I've got it. And okay, so, so many things to cover. Right. While we're talking then
about the token, give me some tokenomics talk, as this is where I think some people, some projects tend to kind of overcomplicate things a little bit.
But I am really, really interested to talk about mechanics.
Can you explain what changes are coming in 2026 when it comes to ZBCN supply and tokenomics and why we've chosen to implement those now?
and why we've chosen to implement those now?
Well, let's take a moment here and zoom out a little bit
and really look at where we are with the total token supply dynamics.
A lot of people may not know that ZBEC had a token before ZBCN
that was called ZBC.
This was the initial ZBEC protocol token that launched in March 2022 and then migrated to ZBCN in April with no new supply
being created or destroyed as part of that process. So now we are approaching the end of the
vesting period for ZBCN. The final unlock schedule is completed by March 2026. So in two months, there will be no new supply ever entering the market again for ZBCN.
A lot of our early investors and venture capital backers have already realized their returns.
And now the Zabek network is entering what we would call its mature phase with a fully distributed token.
And of course, a growing buyback program that is directly linked to product revenue.
Last year, we bought back nearly 200 million tokens.
If you look at the full two years we've run the buyback program since the end of 2023,
it's grown roughly at a 70% annual rate.
And as we see acceleration in the usage of our cards and our payroll,
we see the buyback program growing
significantly in 2026. So to sum it up, no new token supply ever entering the market after March
2026 and growing buyback with the growth of the business. Awesome. Can we touch upon governance
and maybe some more kind of like long-term alignment? I know everything that we've been, you know, a lot of what you've been striking against here has been kind of like instant things that have been happening.
But from a longer term perspective, how should people think about governance then now that Zebek is operating alongside, you know, really regulated financial services?
regulated financial services? So ZBCN has always been the governance token of the network,
which really means that you can vote on chain and your votes are based on your balances of ZBCN.
We've run ZBEC improvement proposals over the years when key network decisions have to be made,
such as the migration from ZBC to ZBEC Network, of course. And we see more of those
potentially coming this year. It's very important for us to make sure that the governance of the
network is also aligned with really our real world operational constraints. At the end of the day,
there is a business underneath of all of this. It just happens to be a tokenized business.
Yeah, absolutely. I want to be conscious of everyone's time and there's a lot of information for people community members would benefit from deploying because I'm
seeing ZBCN demand here being driven by like payroll usage, super app participation,
the card system and the card spend and staking and other incentives from that perspective. And then
supply dynamics are obviously going to be shifting post-March unlock and token mechanics are becoming more aligned with the business's success.
So, Simon, if someone checks back in on Zebek and ZBCN a year from now, what would you kind of position yourself this year when it comes to kind of like, you know, moving and following the narrative of what ZBC and ZBEC are trying to
achieve? Well, if you look at last year, 2025, I'd say we achieved a lot in a very short period
of time. We laid the groundwork in terms of infrastructure and compliance initiatives to
ensure that ZBEC is ready for
this wave of institutional adoption that's expected to hit crypto or already is hitting
crypto and is expected to continue through 2026.
If you look a year out and say we have the same spaces in January 2027, my view is you're
going to see more employers and institutions out there holding ZBCN, both for users of the payroll system that need ZBCN, as well as investors and corporate treasuries and potentially ETFs.
On the retail user side, we're expecting to see tens if not hundreds of thousands interacting with the Zvek Super App on a daily basis and using and requiring ZBCN to unlock and use the
features of this app. I expect to see the staking program grow further with a larger share of supply
locked and staked and removed from the market through the buyback program as well. And then
a very clear feedback loop between the growth of the product, which we're going to continue to push
on and scale this year, and the token mechanics, either through the usage of the growth of the product, which we're going to continue to push on and scale this year, and the token mechanics,
either through the usage of the token for the products
or the buyback program that we have with ZBEC cards.
Massive.
So, so much going on.
Thank you so much for going through all that with me.
I want to take a moment then before we finish
just to get your view on the market more broadly because you
obviously you know you move in the right circles i know you travel a lot with work and you meet a
lot of people interesting people um i guess i'll start by asking if there are any additional plans
for zebek when it comes to mergers and acquisitions this year And then maybe just get a feel for you in terms of what you think
is exciting about the crypto space more broadly in 2026. Well, the M&A question has been coming
up a lot lately. Been asked, of course, by investors, community members, investment bankers.
And yes, M&A has been core to our strategy at Zabex since inception. We closed two landmark acquisitions last year, one which broadened our footprint in Europe,
as well as another one which added critical compliance tech to our product stack.
Looking forward to this year, I do see potential acquisitions on the horizon for us.
We're always looking for new payroll companies to bring under our umbrella.
We're always looking for new payroll companies to bring under our umbrella.
Corporate treasury management is another vertical that really makes sense with what we're building,
given that companies are paying payroll in stablecoins, then a stablecoin based treasury management solution
or a company that already does significant treasury management would be a very good fit with our roadmap and strategy.
And lastly, in the compliance arena,
I think something potentially focused on AML and transaction monitoring
would help us broaden out what we've already built
with gate knocks on the KYC and KYB side.
Okay, love that.
So some really exciting opportunities that you guys are no doubt looking into.
I know that when you and I spoke earlier, you know, there's a real sense of pride from you in the sense that the market has been, let's call it choppy for the last six months.
And yet Zebek has been able to endure and is as strong as ever and is looking to really cement its position when it comes to kind of like financial institutions.
And a lot of other projects and protocols, et cetera, who, you know, took a lot of money,
perhaps, you know, now not so well placed and are looking for exits, et cetera.
So I think it's really, really exciting that, you know, you guys are in this position.
And I really commend you for that.
Anything else then that you think is just exciting this year, like things that you're looking out for?
I don't know if there's any elements of crypto that you just like to keep an eye on that you think are fun and interesting.
Well, I think one of the big themes this year is really going to be understanding the businesses behind the tokens, right?
There's thousands, hundreds of thousands, if not millions of behind the tokens, right? There's thousands, hundreds of
thousands, if not millions of tokens out there, right? Very few of them actually have a thriving,
vibrant ecosystem and business underneath of them. And Zbeck, in my view, is really one of the most
active companies in the US right now, bringing everyday financial transactions, payroll and
card spending onto blockchain rails. And really what we're doing is upgrading the efficiency of
the economy that we work within. So we love being at the forefront of this change, especially in a
market that's evolving so fast. And I think 2026 is going to be the most interesting year to date
in blockchain adoption. And we're finally going to see kind of a lot of these grand visions and
theories come to fruition as major companies and everyday people start using the
blockchain. Hell yes, I am here for that. Okay, well, look, thank you, Simon. I really appreciate
your time. I want to give you five minutes back because we've been able to go through those
questions really, really quickly. Thank you so much for joining me today. We're going to come
back next week, right? We've got an exciting... We do. We have another great space is coming up. I don't think it's announced yet, but we are speaking with one of
our newest partners, a major neobank based in Asia, to discuss our partnership and our growing
footprint over there. Love that. Really, really excited. I'll be back for that one to host you
guys again and looking forward to chatting with you again. Thanks so much again.
Really, really appreciate you, as I say, taking the time like you do.
And JJ, thanks to you too, man.
I appreciate that.
Oh, absolutely.
Thanks, everybody, for joining.
Obviously, you, Ben, Simon.
I know, obviously, you're a busy man.
So thanks for making the time.
And we're in for an exciting 2026.
So, yeah, excited to be here and uh to keep delivering
for you guys so appreciate the time check us out next week we'll be announcing it uh i think either
this week or beginning and next for uh for the spaces and uh and yeah stay tuned for what's up
a lot of cool things going coming on all right guys we'll see you on the next one bye-bye take
care everyone thank you
Insights
P
