John Delaney is the co-founder and CEO of Crown, a São Paulo-based company focused on creating regulated, programmable money solutions for emerging markets ^{[1] [2]}. As an American expatriate living in Brazil, he has a background in both traditional finance and decentralized finance (DeFi), having worked on early enterprise blockchain projects at Nasdaq and held leadership roles at crypto protocols Raydium and IDEX ^[3]. He is primarily known for launching BRLV, a yield-bearing stablecoin pegged to the Brazilian Real ^[4].

Education

John Delaney earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance and Economics from the University of Delaware, attending from 2004 to 2008. He later pursued postgraduate studies at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business, where he obtained a Master of Business Administration (MBA) between 2012 and 2014 ^[3]. He is also a New York-qualified lawyer ^[2].

Career

Delaney began his career as a lawyer and relocated to Brazil around 2011, where he became an early participant in the cryptocurrency sector ^[2]. He transitioned into the financial technology industry, joining Nasdaq from July 2014 to September 2017. During his time at Nasdaq, he worked as a Product Manager and was involved in the development of Linq, the company's initial enterprise blockchain offering ^[3].

Following his tenure at Nasdaq, Delaney moved more deeply into the crypto industry. He joined the decentralized exchange IDEX in September 2017, serving as the Director of Business Development for three and a half years. In February 2021, he took on the role of Head of Business Development at Raydium, an automated market maker (AMM) built on the Solana blockchain, where he worked for three years until January 2024. In January 2024, Delaney co-founded Crown to address what he identified as a significant market opportunity for stablecoins in Brazil's high-yield financial environment ^{[3] [2]}.

Crown

In January 2024, Delaney co-founded the São Paulo-based fintech company Crown, where he serves as CEO ^{[3] [1]}. He founded the company with Brazilian natives Raphael Mota and Vinicius Correa, who previously worked at the Brazilian neobank Nubank. The company's mission is to bridge traditional finance with the digital asset space by creating a regulated and transparent gateway for global capital to access Brazil's high-yield markets ^{[2] [3]}.

Crown operates as a payment institution in Brazil through a partnership with a local licensed entity, ensuring its operations comply with Brazilian Central Bank regulations ^[3]. In a 2025 interview, Delaney expressed Crown's long-term vision, stating a goal to have one trillion reais in BRLV circulation within ten years ^[2].

BRLV Stablecoin

Crown's flagship product is BRLV, a stablecoin pegged 1:1 to the Brazilian Real (BRL) that was launched in late 2025 ^[1]. The primary feature of BRLV is its yield-bearing design. Unlike traditional stablecoins with reserves held in non-interest-earning accounts, BRLV is fully backed by short-term Brazilian government bonds known as Tesouro Selic notes ^[4].

This structure allows the yield generated from the bonds, which is tied to Brazil's benchmark Selic interest rate, to be passed on to the BRLV token holders. The product was created to offer both Brazilians a stable savings alternative and a regulated product for international institutional investors, hedge funds, and fintechs to gain exposure to the yield of the Brazilian market ^{[3] [4]}. To ensure transparency, the company stated that its reserves would be attested to by a major global accounting firm ^[3].

Funding

In late 2025, Crown announced it had raised a total of 8.1 million seed round and a subsequent 13.5 million round was led by the venture capital firm Paradigm and marked the firm's first institutional investment in Brazil ^{[5] [2]}.

Other notable investors that participated in Crown's funding rounds include Founders Fund, Greenoaks, Valor Capital Group, Framework Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, and Paxos ^{[3] [4]}.

Notable Quotes

• On the structure and safety of BRLV: "We structured BRLV to be both safer and fairer." ^[1]
• On the business model for the BRLV stablecoin: "This is not a traditional stablecoin where the reserves are sitting in a bank account earning zero... The reserves are actually being put to work in the safest asset in the country, which are government bonds." ^[3]
• On the company's dual mission: “We’re providing a regulated, transparent and secure product that helps millions of Brazilians protect their wealth while also opening up new rails for global investors to access Brazil’s high-yield markets.” ^[3]

Interviews

Crown and the Brazilian Stablecoin Market #01

An interview with John Delaney was published on December 18, 2025, on the Brazil Crypto Report podcast hosted by Aaron Stanley. During the conversation, Delaney discussed the development of Crown, the design of its Brazilian real–denominated stablecoin BRLV, and the broader context of stablecoins within Brazil’s financial system.

Delaney described BRLV as a stablecoin denominated in Brazilian reais and issued by Crown. According to his explanation, the project was developed in response to structural characteristics of Brazil’s financial system, including the size of the country’s money supply, the limited use of foreign currencies in domestic financial activity, and the presence of relatively high domestic interest rates.

In the interview, Delaney stated that BRLV reserves are composed of Brazilian government debt instruments. These reserves are held through a legal structure designed to separate the reserve assets from the issuing company. According to Delaney, the arrangement was intended to allow holders to maintain a legal claim on the underlying collateral if the issuer were to become insolvent.

Delaney also described the stablecoin’s reserve model as incorporating a mechanism through which interest generated by the reserve assets may be distributed to token holders. He explained that the design reflects the structure of Brazil’s interest-rate environment, where government debt instruments generate interest tied to benchmark rates.

The discussion also addressed Crown’s initial focus on institutional users. Delaney indicated that potential participants include asset managers, family offices, and international investors seeking exposure to Brazilian interest-rate instruments. He stated that the project’s early strategy concentrates on institutional financial flows rather than retail adoption.

In addition, Delaney discussed the possible role of stablecoins in financial infrastructure associated with tokenized assets. According to his description, stablecoins could function as a settlement asset in systems involving tokenized financial instruments and digital payment infrastructure.

During the interview, Delaney also presented an estimate regarding the potential scale of stablecoins within Brazil’s monetary system. He stated that, if financial infrastructure continues to migrate to blockchain-based systems, stablecoins could represent a portion of Brazil’s M2 money supply over time. As part of this scenario, he referenced an estimate of approximately one trillion Brazilian reais in stablecoins circulating within a ten-year period. ^[6]