The Inflection Point for Real-World Assets
As real-world assets go on-chain, a new financial infrastructure is quietly taking shape — and Money20/20 offered the clearest signal yet.
At this year’s Money20/20 USA conference in Las Vegas, a quiet but unmistakable shift took place — one that marks a turning point for the blockchain ecosystem. Back in 2021, crypto remained on the periphery of a broader fintech conversation dominated by themes KYX (Know Your Everything), embedded finance, financial inclusion, and digital identity — even as global central banks injected over $9 trillion of liquidity into markets and $210B+ flowed across 5,600+ fintech deals (KPMG), signaling the peak of a risk-on cycle fueled by 0% rates and unprecedented stimulus. In 2025, that dynamic changed. AI and automation topped the agenda, but this time, stablecoins, tokenization, interoperability, real-world assets (RWAs), and regulatory frameworks in support of them — which had previously been relegated to fringe panels — moved to the main stage discussions, signaling their arrival at the center of institutional finance.
To clarify: Money20/20 has never been a conference strictly dedicated to cryptocurrency or emerging tech; since 2012, it has served as a broader confluence for the global financial services, fintech, and payments industries— a place where industry leaders in banking, founders, regulators, and infrastructure providers convene to network, share ideas, and ultimately shape the landscape of what comes next. The event’s evolving content provides a lens into what institutions value and what customers are demanding. As a payments firm, Dwolla, put it:
“Money 20/20 consistently serves as a bellwether for the financial services industry, reinforcing emerging trends while highlighting new opportunities.”
That’s why the conference’s 2025 emphasis on stablecoins, tokenization, and regulatory frameworks for institutional adoption marks a milestone.
In 2021, blockchain was exploratory at best — interest centered on early narratives, such as the emergence of CBDCs and NFTs, which were often tucked into side panels or framed as speculative glimpses into the future of digital assets. A Money20/20 recap from the firm, Nelson Mullins, noted that topics such as crypto custody and regulated stablecoins were gaining traction, but remained positioned as edge innovation.
That year was also defined by the risk-on exuberance of the “degen” era — fueled by pandemic-era quantitative easing and record levels of liquidity. Investors chased speculative assets, from soaring tokens and profile-pic NFTs to virtual land grabs. Then came the crash (remember FTX), exposing the legal and regulatory vacuum that had enabled it all.
But that collapse didn’t kill blockchain. It clarified what needed to change.
As Amy Fisher, Head of Partnerships at Taxbit, discussed with Fintech.TV’s Remy Blaire, during a Money 20/20 segment:
“Regulation really legitimizes and solidifies digital assets’ place within the economy.”
She emphasized the crypto industry is advocating for clearer tax regulations — something that TaxBit is working closely with major firms like KPMG and Deloitte on to ensure clients receive the best guidance possible. She goes on to speak about 2025, real-world assets, and programmable money, noting that they have taken center stage — a shift from hype narratives to infrastructure and regulatory developments in the making.
Is the Stablecoin Surge Affording Blockchain a Mainstream Moment?
The transformation discussed at Money20/20 isn’t aspirational — it’s already underway.
According to Citibank’s September 2025 Stablecoins 2030 report, “Stablecoins are a catalyst for blockchain’s ChatGPT moment in institutional adoption.” This is substantiated by the acknowledgment that stablecoin issuance volumes have surged - enabling them to reach approximately $280 billion this year, with revised projections pushing their 2030 base case to $1.9 trillion and bull case to $4.0 trillion. With expected transaction velocity, this could support $100–$200 trillion in payment flows — rivaling today’s fiat rails in scale.
Crucially, this growth isn’t limited to crypto-native players. Citi projects that tokenized bank deposits and deposit tokens — favored by corporates for their trust, compliance, and ease of integration — could outpace stablecoins in volume by 2030. Already, enterprise treasuries are exploring programmable money for real-time settlement, embedded compliance, and improved capital efficiency.
This signals a critical inflection point: financial institutions are moving beyond pilots into real integration. The final hurdle? Clear and enforceable regulation.
For traditional finance, this isn’t about reinventing capital markets — it’s about re-platforming them. Bonds, treasuries, real estate, and private credit remain the same underlying instruments — but now their ownership, proof, and transfer can be encoded as data and transmitted across trusted networks in real-time. Manual reconciliation gives way to automated, on-chain verification. Settlement and compliance happen at the speed of code.
The key takeaway? Speculative assets will not drive the next wave of value creation, but rather infrastructure that connects existing value across interoperable systems. Ownership, proof, and settlement now converge within the same digital fabric — reducing friction, minimizing intermediaries, and opening once-inaccessible markets.
That’s where themes from this year’s Money20/20 begin to converge. As Checkout.com’s Meron Colbeci explained,
“The multi-trillion-dollar opportunity in agentic commerce will only be unlocked if users trust agents to act on their behalf.”
This isn’t just about trust in users — it’s about trust in systems. In the words of Colbeci and Altimetrik’s Ignacio Segovia:
“In the agentic era, it’s no longer enough to have KYC (Know Your Customer); we need KYA — Know Your Agent.”
This matters for the future of blockchain because verifiable infrastructure, such as stablecoins, tokenized deposits, and on-chain identity working together, is crucial for a world where agent-enabled payments are a reality — it’s building the framework of trust in agent-driven economies. Regulation and data provenance become the rails for AI-native commerce, just as programmable money becomes the payload.
As new legislation, such as the GENIUS Act, emerges, so do the necessary legal compliance and regulatory frameworks to support future applications that enable enterprise use and adoption of emerging technologies, including stablecoins. Enterprises seek programmable settlement and compliance, and we are seeing the early formation of a trust network — one where the speed of execution doesn’t outpace the assurances of verification.
And that’s why real-world assets, programmable money, and verifiable identity are becoming foundational to the evolution of tomorrow’s on-chain economy.
The Infrastructure Is Here — Now Policy Must Move the Needle
If the first decade of blockchain was about proving digital ownership, the next is about proving everything else — identity, rights, collateral, and cash flows — in ways that are composable, compliant, and instantly verifiable. This is the rewiring now underway, where data doesn’t just record value — it enables it.
As highlighted at Money20/20 USA 2025, this isn’t just a technological shift — it’s a systems shift. The elevation of real-world assets (RWAs), programmable money, and tokenized settlement to main-stage topics reflects a maturing narrative: value today is no longer just issued, it’s composed, proven, and interoperable by design.
In traditional finance, trust has historically been intermediated — anchored and enforced by custodians, transfer agents, clearinghouses, and compliance teams. These institutions verify that assets are genuine, values are matched, and risk is managed. But this legacy infrastructure is slow, redundant, and expensive. The average bond trade still settles on a T+2 basis, and cross-border payments can involve as many as 10 intermediaries before funds reach their destination.
Tokenization fundamentally transforms existing hierarchies. Instead of managing isolated documents and approvals across separate systems, static records become programmable, verifiable data primitives — self-executing digital representations of financial rights. A bond coupon, royalty payment, or property dividend no longer needs reconciliation. It settles the moment the conditions are cryptographically validated on-chain.
This paradigm explains why global institutions are revisiting their operating models. CEO Larry Fink recently stated the financial industry is at “the beginning of the tokenization of all assets,” describing the approach as “repotting” assets like ETFs into digital formats, pointing to the firm’s tokenized money market fund and expanding digital asset platform as examples.
— enabling instantaneous settlement and auditability. Similarly, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has emphasized that “tokenisation can enhance efficiency and open new possibilities in cross-border payments, securities markets and beyond, while maintaining the key principles of sound money: singleness, elasticity and integrity.”
Trust isn’t eliminated — it’s reshaped. Instead of depending on fragmented ledgers and retrospective audits, parties now operate from a shared, verifiable source of truth. This source incorporates settlement finality, risk parameters, compliance traceability, and action enablement directly into the code, allowing for more seamless integration. As a result, systems can coordinate in real time rather than only reconciling their data afterwards.
This next-gen operating model — where verifiable identity, programmable value, and policy enforcement converge — was a core theme at this year’s Money20/20. But trust isn’t just an infrastructure challenge; it’s a product strategy. As Casap CEO Shanthi Shanmugam put it, “Trust isn’t a marketing metric — it’s fintech’s operating system.” When systems scale without reliability, or automate without accountability, the result isn’t efficiency — it’s erosion. In this context, trust must be as programmable as the value it carries.
AI is quickly advancing this logic. Machine learning models can now detect anomalies, evaluate counterparty risk, and verify transaction patterns in milliseconds. However, even the most advanced AI systems rely on trustworthy data. This is where blockchain’s verifiable provenance becomes essential—building a reliable foundation for autonomous decision-making and programmable enforcement.
By integrating AI’s predictive abilities with on-chain provenance, institutions move from reactive compliance to continuous, real-time assurance. This is what Money20/20 has dubbed the architecture of trust: a next-gen operating model where verifiable identity, programmable value, and policy enforcement converge.
Policy is catching up. The GENIUS Act, passed in mid-2025, represents the first comprehensive U.S. regulatory framework for stablecoins and sets a precedent for governing blockchain-native financial infrastructure. Speaking at the event, Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould made the case for integrating digital assets inside the banking system:
“From my perspective as a regulator, I’d rather see these activities done within the banking system, where we can manage the risks associated with them,” Gould stated, signalling the OCC’s preference for bringing digital asset operations under federal oversight rather than leaving them outside of traditional banking.
The combination of verifiable data, agentic infrastructure, and programmable money is forging a new trust layer — not to decentralize blindly, but to build an interoperable compliance framework where enforcement and execution occur at the same speed. Institutions are no longer just talking about modernization; they are actively rebuilding the core logic of financial systems from the ground up.
Interoperability and the New Data Commons
The promise of RWAs isn’t realized in isolation. It’s discovered in coordination — where assets, oracles, contracts, and actors operate across domains without loss of fidelity. This is what interoperability enables: a programmable layer that allows institutions to plug into shared markets without having to build from scratch.
At Money20/20 USA 2025, it became clear this is no longer a fringe ambition. From Chainlink’s CCIP, Pyth Network’s data oracles, or custodial tooling from Fireblocks, the connective tissue of next-gen capital markets is solidifying. And it’s doing so with one goal in mind: composability at scale.
What emerges is a data commons — where carbon credits in Kenya, government bonds in France, and private credit portfolios in the U.S. can interact under enforceable conditions.
This evolution also points toward a new frontier: quantum interoperability — the ability to connect not just blockchain networks, but entire digital ecosystems, including edge computing, decentralized identity, and agentic AI. In this paradigm, institutions won’t just send assets across chains; they’ll transmit complete execution environments where data, rights, and enforcement travel together.
The convergence of blockchain and AI is critical here. Real-time inference engines depend on trustworthy inputs. Decentralized agents require verifiable credentials. In this mesh, interoperability becomes the logic layer that allows trust to persist — a mechanism that transforms fragmented systems into composable economies.
This isn’t speculative — it’s already happening:
The European Investment Bank launched its second digital bond on Goldman Sachs’ GS DAP® platform.
The World Bank continues to issue programmable debt instruments.
Project Guardian links shared ledgers and tokenized bank liabilities, enhancing liquidity and efficiency.
As Erica Woods, Stripe’s Head of U.S. State & Local Public Policy, put it during Money20/20:
“Don’t wait for policy to be an afterthought. Know your regulators before you need them — so when you do, you’re ready.”
That mindset reflects where the industry is headed: interoperability will not be achieved through code alone — it will be codified through collaboration between policymakers and key industry players. What’s forming isn’t just a technical upgrade; it’s a negotiated framework of rules, rights, and real-time coordination.
The throughline is clear: when infrastructure aligns with policy, experimentation scales and participation expands. Interoperability enables the system to grow — not through centralization, but through the adoption of shared standards. And that’s how finance opens itself to billions more.
The Next Phase: Infrastructure, Institutions, and Interoperability
The infrastructure era has arrived — and it’s no longer theoretical.
What once lived in whitepapers is now deployed in central banks, multinational pilots, and boardroom budgets. In 2025, the shift is no longer about technology alone — it’s about how institutions and standards scale that technology into a new financial operating system.
The composability, or modularity, of tokenized systems is reshaping how we build. Real-time compliance, programmable liquidity, and verifiable provenance are no longer fringe ideas — they’re embedded in central bank discussions, enterprise roadmaps, and active pilots.
Governments are leaning in: The EU’s 2024 Digital Public Infrastructure report calls verifiable data a sovereign function. The U.S. GDP data pilot, leveraging Chainlink and Pyth, signals a clear intent to use open infrastructure. From Estonia’s e-residency to Singapore’s Project Guardian, a programmable, interoperable framework for value is taking shape.
And yet, complexity grows. New infrastructure introduces new complexity. AI-native agents, privacy-preserving compute, and dynamic regulatory landscapes demand systems that are secure, adaptable, and interoperable by design. As digital assets converge with intelligent automation, trust must become not just an outcome — but an embedded feature.
This is where blockchain and AI begin to overlap: through the architecture of trust. As discussed at Money20/20 2025, the rise of agentic commerce signals a future where autonomous agents act on behalf of consumers. But autonomy without verifiability is a risk. That’s why KYA — Know Your Agent — is emerging as the counterpart to KYC. In this world, agents must be authenticated, accountable, and authorized — and it’s programmable infrastructure that makes that possible.
If Money20/20 is any indicator, the contrast between 2021 and 2025 is stark. What was fringe is now foundational. What was speculative is now programmable. The 2026 agenda says it plainly: agentic AI, a rewired money stack, and compliance as infrastructure - is forthcoming.
The technology is here. The market is ready. But the unlock is still policy — because tokenized systems don’t scale without standards, institutional adoption won’t accelerate without legal clarity. And finance won’t replatform until trust is enforceable — not just in code, but in law.
Data Context
2021 Recap:
→ $9 trillion of liquidity injected globally (2020-21) - (Green Economy Coalition)
→ 0% rates and stimulus-fueled risk-on speculation - (Reuters)
→ $210B+ invested across 5,684 fintech deals—the second-highest annual total. (KPMG)
→ 7B adults were unbanked globally in 2021— 2/3 owned a mobile phone. (World Bank)
→ $50B in online retail and marketplace vol. ran through BNPL platforms in 2021. (Bain)
2021 Market Themes:
→ CBDCs move from concept → pilot deployments 14% of CBs - (BIS)
→ NFT sales $82M → $17.7B - (NEAR Foundation)
→ DeFi users grew from 940k in 20’ to over 20M in 21’—a 2,000% increase. (CoinLaw)
→ 2021, Affirm announced plans to let BNPL users buy and sell crypto— (PYMNTS)
Updated Editor’s Note
Editor’s note: This feature was updated to include 2021 macro and market data drawn from BIS, Citi, KPMG, World Bank, and others, providing additional context for the liquidity cycle that shaped blockchain’s early adoption.
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Marina Mendenhall-Valente
Partner, Tiburon Advisory Group | Founder of The RWA Ledger
Bridging TradFi × DeFi Through Emerging Tech
Views are my own. This publication is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice, endorsement, or investment solicitation.
I've been thinking a lot about how far the conversation around blockchain has come in just four years.
Comparing Money20/20 USA 2021 to this year's 2025 conference, the difference is striking. Back then, blockchain sat on the fringe of fintech - 2021 was peak
"degen" culture and risk-on exuberance, fueled by unprecedented QE liquidity.
This year, with frameworks like the GENIUS Act and a growing regulatory focus, the narrative feels different.
The tone has shifted from speculation to strategy.
In my latest piece for The RWA Ledger, I explore how blockchain's role is quietly solidifying across financial services and payments, with the focus now being on regulatory clarity — and ask whether this year's Money 20/20 offered the clearest signal yet that the technology has reached its institutional inflection point.