Today we're launching Iris, the financial network telecom operators plug into to earn on what they already own. Operators built the roads the digital economy runs on. Everyone else got rich building the city on top. From 2012 through 2025, traffic on operator networks grew more than 50% a year. Operator revenue grew about 1%. The companies on top took the difference. Operators own what those companies pay dearly for: distribution, the billing relationship, daily engagement. And money already runs through all of it, in subscriber payments, top-ups, advertising and settlement. Iris sits underneath all of it. Same business, new revenue, settled in dollars. Iris runs the rails. The operator keeps the economics. VIVA, a licensed carrier in Bolivia, is the first operator live on Iris. Real transactions, settled in USDi, operating reserves held in dollars. Until now, operators built everything and kept almost none of the value. Now they build almost nothing and keep almost all of it.

Operators are already fluent in dollar settlement. USDi brings that settlement onto Iris, where it happens in seconds. @withAUSD issues and reserves the asset.

A licensed mobile operator in Latin America now holds operating reserves in a dollar-backed stablecoin. We've partnered with @withAUSD to launch USDi, a stablecoin built for telecom operators on our network. Agora, the regulated issuer of AUSD, is the sole issuer of USDi, which is backed by the same reserves as AUSD. @vivabo is the first operator on USDi. It settles network activity in USDi and holds operating reserves in it alongside local currency. For an operator that works with international vendors, USDi cuts the time and cost of converting between local currency and dollars over and over. Activity on our network settles around the clock, including outside banking hours. And reserves held partly in USDi are less exposed to swings in the local currency. Telecom has experimented with blockchain for years. Many of those projects needed several carriers to agree on settlement before anything moved. We built Iris to be single-player. One operator can put its business activity onchain without waiting for the rest of the industry. VIVA is doing that with its own operating money today. Our network runs as its own @avax Layer 1, built around the settlement and compliance requirements of the operators on it. Agora issues the dollar. We run the rails. Operators keep the economics.

"Telcos effectively bring in that data, and by putting all these operations onchain, you're putting a value layer on top of that data chain." - @JohnNahas84, CRO of @avax (via @CoinDesk)

The gap Iris is built to close.

Telecom operators built the roads that everything else you use every day runs on, but they haven't been able to actually capture the value from those roads. Iris allows them to build the city on top of those roads. (Iris CEO @JulesEMiller on @stabledash)

"One in five ads goes to a bot." "In the advertising space, I think it's $84 billion of fraud each year." Iris Network is putting SIM-verified phone users onchain so advertisers can target real people. "When you have identifiable SIM-verified lives, you can be more targeted. When they're engaging with the platform, you can have more sophisticated advertising, and that type of thing really changes the economics of what advertising can be." @JulesEMiller, CEO of @BuildOnIris

Telecom operators own the network, subscriber relationship and distribution. Iris lets them earn on all three without replacing the systems they already run. Telco Magazine spoke with Iris CEO @JulesEmiller and VIVA CEO @ryanj_alvarez about the model. telcomagazine.com/news/iris-…

Iris is live with @vivabo, our first telecom partner, with a superapp module that has already reduced Alva customer churn by 33% and increased lifetime customer value by 35% in their prepaid market. (Iris CEO @JulesEMiller via @TheBlockCo)

"Telcos are building the hardware. They're building the hard part. But they're not growing in the way they need to grow." -@JulesEMiller, Iris CEO (via @TheBlockCo)

Iris is the financial network built for telecom operators. The basic idea is simple: operators already own valuable infrastructure, customer relationships, billing, identity, and distribution. Iris gives them new ways to earn from the network they built.

Live now! ⬇️

Iris is bringing real SIM-verified users onchain, not anonymous wallets. That starts with three million subscribers from @vivabo. @avax CRO @JohnNahas84 on @TheRollupCo:

Updated stream link:

Live Tuesday, September 22nd, at 12:00 PM ET / 9:00 AM PT. The lineup: - @JulesEMiller, @BuildOnIris - @Nick_van_Eck, @withAUSD - @YuvalRooz, @digitalasset / @CantonNetwork - @annabelleacta, @DinariGlobal Drop questions below for the guests and we'll ask them live on the stream. x.lingyaoai.com/i/broadcasts/1PJqrNnkb…

Telecom operators built the networks the digital economy runs on. Iris helps them capture more value from those networks. Today at 12:30 PM ET, CEO @JulesEMiller joins @stabledash to talk operator revenue and what comes next for telecom onchain. Tune in: live.stabledash.com

Telecom operators are very serious businesses. We needed a chain that was built for business, and @avax worked extremely well for us. -@JulesEMiller, Iris CEO (via @CoinDesk)

Grateful to @mike_robuck at GSMA's @mobileworldlive for the great coverage in celebration of our official launch. Dive in to learn more about how Iris helps operators get paid from the networks they built. mobileworldlive.com/network-…

"What Iris allows the telecom operators to do is take back that growth and build it themselves. They built the roads, and now they can build the cities on top that others are building." -@JulesEMiller, Iris CEO (via @TheRollUpCo)

Tune in on CEO @JulesEMiller live with @therollupco: x.lingyaoai.com/i/broadcasts/1PKqrNwoa…

Coming up soon ⬇️