Introducing Universal’s Senior Executive Officer: Juha Viitala

Universal is pleased to welcome Juha Viitala as Senior Executive Officer (SEO).

Juha is a globally recognised leader in regulated digital money, with rare, hands-on experience building and scaling stablecoin infrastructure within the world’s most demanding regulatory environments. His appointment marks a defining moment for Universal as we scale USDU, our ADGM-regulated Fiat-Referenced Token, and advance institutional adoption of regulated digital value.

With over two decades at the intersection of fintech, digital infrastructure, and emerging technology, Juha has consistently delivered compliant innovation under regulatory scrutiny.

Most recently, Juha served as Head of EU at Paxos, where he led European expansion, regulatory engagement, and MiCA-aligned strategy driving institutional adoption of compliant stablecoins. Prior to that, he was Founder & CEO of Membrane Finance, a Finnish Electronic Money Institution focused on regulated European stablecoins - a business later acquired by Paxos, further institutionalising his work in compliant digital money infrastructure.

His career also spans the development of national-scale digital infrastructure, public-private blockchain initiatives, and advisory roles to governments and global enterprises - always focused on translating regulation into real-world, trusted financial systems.

Juha joins Universal at a pivotal time. As the UAE continues to set a global benchmark for regulatory clarity in digital assets, his leadership strengthens Universal’s mission: to deliver stablecoin infrastructure built for institutions, grounded in regulation, and designed for global interoperability.

This marks the beginning of a new chapter for Universal - and for regulated digital value at scale.

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