Lightspark Launches Grid Global Accounts, Targeting Fragmented Global Payment System
David Marcus, CEO of Lightspark, used a Tuesday morning session at the Bitcoin 2026 Conference to announce Grid Global Accounts, a product he described as a dollar account that works everywhere, backed by a new partnership with Visa that extends spending access across many countries worldwide. Marcus opened by framing the problem at scale. Roughly 400 billion emails travel across the internet each day, and consumers rely on a handful of platforms like Gmail to manage that volume. The global payments system moves 10 billion transactions a day, yet lacks an equivalent universal layer, Marcus said. Marcus said there is no form of payment that works everywhere without friction, and that every dollar a business sends across a border runs into delays, foreign exchange costs, and fees, leaving recipients waiting for money they already earned. He identified a couple of structural shifts that make the moment different. Marcus pointed to how regulation has changed, with governments across major markets moving from vague guidance to concrete frameworks for digital assets, stablecoins, and cross-border payments. He also cited how wallets have changed, with consumers now holding digital identities and payment credentials in software that can connect to any compliant network. Lightspark built Spark on top of