Event Replay: Gateway with Blockradar
Speaker
SUMMARY
In this livestream, Sam from Circle interviews Abdulfatai Suleiman, cofounder and CEO of BlockRadar, about his journey into blockchain, building infrastructure for fintechs, and BlockRadar’s integration with Circle Gateway. Abdulfatai explains how he has spent six years building blockchain infrastructure and lowering the barrier to entry for developers and traditional finance companies. He describes how BlockRadar offers stablecoin wallet infrastructure so fintechs can use stablecoins and blockchain rails without needing deep crypto knowledge.
The conversation dives into why Circle Gateway was a “no brainer” for BlockRadar: it abstracts away multi-chain complexity, eliminates manual swapping and bridging, and provides a unified USDC balance across chains for treasury, liquidity, and payouts. Abdulfatai demos how BlockRadar uses Gateway for both manual and automatic deposits, auto-settlement rules, and how fintechs can extend the same experience to their end users through APIs. He also shares advice for founders (“just get started and learn from customer feedback”) and closes by inviting developers to explore BlockRadar’s docs, Circle Gateway docs, and join upcoming office hours in Circle’s community channels.
TRANSCRIPT
Intro: Circle Gateway and BlockRadar
Sam: Hey, everybody. Welcome to another livestream. I’m excited to have Abdul here from BlockRadar. We met in Buenos Aires, Argentina at the ARC Studio, and today we’re going to talk about Circle Gateway—one of the most popular developer tools we’re seeing teams adopt. Abdul, introduce yourself to the community.
Abdul: Hi, everyone. My name is Abdul Fatai. I’m the cofounder and CEO of BlockRadar, and I lead product engineering.
Sam: How long have you been working hands-on in blockchain?
Abdul: About six years. I started early with hands-on work—building blockchain infrastructure, working with protocols, smart contracts, and oracles.
Sam: What drew you into the space?
Abdul: Initially, opportunity. But the barrier to entry was high—there weren’t many resources. I started curating resources to help more people get into blockchain, and while doing that I learned more. I read the Ethereum whitepaper and other docs and went deep. Since then, my focus has been reducing the barrier to entry—first through dev resources, and then through payments. Over the last four years, I’ve focused on enabling traditional finance services to leverage blockchain. I did that with a previous startup, and I’m doing the same now at BlockRadar.
Sam: One piece of advice for people starting a business?
Abdul: Just get started. You won’t have everything figured out upfront. Shipping something gets you feedback, and customers will often tell you their expectations differ from what you assumed. You need that feedback loop.
Why BlockRadar Adopted Circle Gateway
Sam: Let’s talk about Circle Gateway. What first attracted you to it?
Abdul: When we launched BlockRadar, fintechs were hearing about blockchain and stablecoins but didn’t see solutions built for them. BlockRadar is stablecoin wallet infrastructure for fintechs, so we had a lot of conversations. Many of these companies don’t know anything about blockchain—gas fees, tokens, all of it. Our job is to abstract that complexity.
A big pain point is swap-and-bridge. Fintechs need to send USDC to different chains—someone wants Base, someone wants Ethereum, someone wants Solana. We can support the flow, but settlement often requires swapping, and then they see slippage and fees. Traditional payment flows don’t work like that.
When the Circle Gateway team reached out and showed the product, it was a no-brainer. Gateway removes the repeated swapping problem and gives you a unified balance—more like traditional payments.
Sam: How was onboarding?
Abdul: Straightforward for me because I’m technical, but early on some things weren’t documented—fees, and how to do multiple burns in one flow. Over time, the docs improved, and now it’s covered end-to-end.
What BlockRadar Builds
Abdul: Quick overview: BlockRadar is stablecoin wallet infrastructure for fintechs—traditional payment companies, cross-border apps, neobanks, etc. Our mission is simple: fintechs shouldn’t need blockchain expertise to leverage blockchain. We handle the complexity—key management, indexing, node operations, compliance integrations, and modular infrastructure—so teams don’t have to stitch together multiple services.
We support many chains—Ethereum, Base, Polygon, and more—and we add what fintechs need.
Why Circle Gateway Matters for Fintech Operations
Abdul: Why Gateway? Traditional payment companies are used to a unified balance. With blockchains, balances are fragmented per chain.
We have customers doing treasury management and liquidity provisioning. If they need to settle on Arbitrum but funds are on Ethereum, they typically have to swap, pay fees, eat slippage, and handle operational overhead. With Gateway, they can hold a unified USDC balance and withdraw on the destination chain when needed—without caring where the original deposit came from.
Two Ways to Use Gateway in BlockRadar
Abdul: We support two primary Gateway flows:
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Auto-settlement (automatic deposits into Gateway): You configure rules so that when funds hit a master wallet (e.g., Base or Ethereum), BlockRadar automatically deposits into Gateway. Treasury teams get a single place to manage withdrawals and settlement.
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Manual deposit/withdraw: If you want full control, you can manually deposit to Gateway and withdraw to any supported chain.
We try not to be overly opinionated—teams can choose automation or full manual control.
Example Payment Flow: With vs Without Gateway
Abdul: Example: a freelancer gets paid $100 in stablecoins on a chain the local fintech doesn’t support for payouts.
- Without Gateway: you swap/bridge manually to a supported chain, incur slippage and fees, and add complexity for non-crypto users.
- With Gateway: the origin chain doesn’t matter. The fintech can withdraw on the chain it needs for payout with a unified balance—simpler for both the fintech and the end user.
Live Demo: Circle Gateway in the BlockRadar Dashboard
Master wallets vs unified Gateway balance
Abdul: This is the BlockRadar dashboard. I have multiple master wallets—BNB, Tron, Base, Polygon, and more. Each chain has its own balance. If I want to send on BNB, I withdraw from the BNB master wallet. If I need funds on Base, I’d normally swap/bridge into Base, then withdraw.
That flow can be improved. This is what Gateway enables.
Gateway balance view
Abdul: In the Gateway section, I have a single unified balance—for example, 151 USDC. It doesn’t say “on Base” or “on Arbitrum.” In recent transactions, you can see deposits from different chains (e.g., Base, Avalanche).
Manual deposit (example)
Abdul: I can deposit from Arbitrum (or any supported chain). The deposit processes, and once finality is reached on that chain, it reflects in the unified balance.
Manual withdraw to a chain I never deposited from (example)
Abdul: Now I’ll withdraw 5 USDC to Polygon—even though I never deposited from Polygon. The withdrawal processes, and my Gateway balance decreases accordingly.
The key point: I don’t worry about where the funds originally came from. That’s the abstraction Gateway provides.
Demo: Auto-Settlement Rules (Automatic Deposits into Gateway)
Abdul: You can enable auto-settlement on a master wallet—say the Base master wallet—so that whenever funds come in, they automatically deposit into Gateway.
I create a rule (threshold, behavior), save it, and now deposits into the Base master wallet automatically settle into Gateway. This helps treasury teams keep everything consolidated without manual steps.
Extending Gateway to End-User Wallets (Child Wallets)
Abdul: Beyond master wallets for treasury, we’re extending Gateway to customer wallets (child wallets) issued via BlockRadar. Many fintechs issue non-custodial wallets to their users. Those users also face swap/bridge pain for payouts.
Here’s a “gateway demo” child wallet. I deposit 5 USDC, it reflects on the chain, and then the user can deposit into Gateway and later withdraw on any supported chain—even if they never deposited on that destination chain.
This eliminates the need for end users (and fintech ops) to manage bridging and slippage just to do payouts.
Operational Impact: Why BlockRadar Uses Gateway Internally
Abdul: Internally, our operations team used to reconcile balances across chains and manually swap to understand total treasury. With Gateway + auto-settlement, deposits can consolidate automatically, and payouts become easier—saving time and money.
How to Get Started with BlockRadar + Gateway
Sam: What’s the best way for builders to learn more and integrate?
Abdul: We’re API-first. Everything you saw is available via API and documented. Go to the BlockRadar docs and look for the Gateway section. We document deposit, withdraw, balances, fee estimation, and auto-settlement rules.
To get started, go to BlockRadar’s website, create an account for free, and use the dashboard and API.
Q&A: Finality, Unified Balance Updates, and Fees
Q: How does Gateway maintain a unified USDC balance across chains with different confirmation times?
Abdul: Different chains have different finality times. For example, Base can take around ~19 minutes for finality, so deposits may show as pending until finality is reached. Avalanche is faster. ARC is very fast (and I’m excited for mainnet—instant finality and fees paid in USDC).
Gateway updates the unified balance once finality is reached, for security reasons. Under the hood, it’s tracked via the on-chain contracts (wallet/minter) plus the Gateway system flow.
Q: Does the network maintain predictable gas fees as transaction volume increases?
Abdul: On deposit, you’re calling a smart contract method—cost is the chain’s network fee. The amount deposited doesn’t change gas much; it’s the execution cost.
On withdrawal, there’s an additional Gateway fee (for example, 0.02 USDC) tied to the off-chain component of the system. Overall, it’s predictable and generally low.
Closing
Sam: Abdul, thanks for joining and walking through this. We’ll bring you into the community for office hours so builders can ask follow-ups.
Abdul: Happy to help. Gateway is a strong abstraction for onboarding more traditional fintech workflows on-chain. Connect with me on X and LinkedIn (Abdul Fatai Sully).
Sam: Thanks everyone for joining. We’ll see you in the community soon.
