Interviewer: Coins are rapidly moving out of the crypto trading world and into TradFi infrastructure. In fact, banks and payment companies now account for more digital asset volume on Fireblocks than crypto firms, and we are seeing this play out in real time. Just recently, Pfizer launching its new digital asset platform with Roughrider Coin using Fireblocks to power its secure infrastructure as well as tokenization layer. We'll join live here at the New York Stock Exchange to discuss how institutions are reshaping global payments is Michael Shaulov, CEO and co-founder of Fireblocks, a platform that has created more than 750 million wallets globally. Great to have you here. Thank you so much for joining me.
Michael Shaulov: Thanks for having me.
Interviewer: Well, first and foremost, we are heading into the end of 2026. So when it comes to the role of stablecoins, we know that the data out there speaks volumes. So tell us what's happening and its role right now when it comes to TradFi.
Michael Shaulov: I think this year we've actually seen quite a big push of stablecoins going from a fairly esoteric asset class and probably rail a few years back to something that is being adopted heavily by all the fintechs, all the payment companies, and now also seeing banks and some of the largest card schemes basically adopting it, mostly I would say for cross-border, but we're also starting to see it for domestic usage.
Interviewer: Yes, and I think the data is key here. So when we're talking about cross-border payments as well as volume, give us a sense of where we are right now.
Michael Shaulov: Yes, so most of the volume right now that we see on stablecoins is actually cross-border. And we see this basically compounding by about 15 to 20% per quarter, which is huge. Most of it is around corridors between the United States, Europe, to emerging markets like Latin America or Southeast Asia, and we're seeing both stablecoins being used for remittance but also for business-to-business payments.
Interviewer: And I think this real-world adoption is key when we're talking about the space, and there has been a lot of traditional finance looking at this as a commercial opportunity. But where do you see this heading as we head into 2027?
Michael Shaulov: So I think that we crossed the chasm in terms of fintechs and payment companies adopting it. Pretty much every household name in fintech or payments is already in the game. Talking about companies like MoneyGram, like Western Union, like Checkout, Stripe, etc., they all have meaningfully adopted stablecoins. And what we're now seeing is banks coming into this payment network. So I think 2027 will be mostly adoption by banks, banks setting up the infrastructure and starting to mobilize.
Interviewer: And of course, you and I are here on Wall Street. We're here at the New York Stock Exchange, and I understand that based on your conversations with executives, stakeholders out there, what are they saying about stablecoins?
Michael Shaulov: I think they're very interested in, I would say, almost three aspects here. The first one is the speed that you can leverage those stablecoins and how quickly they settle, and then the fact that it's 24/7. It has actually not only huge implications to payments but huge implications to capital markets and the way that you can turn trading into 24/7, something which we're clearly seeing in the crypto space. It's now coming into traditional assets. And by the way, it's kind of correlated with some of the facts that we've seen that a lot of the trading has moved to some of those DeFi platforms, even on oil contracts. So we're seeing a lot of interest in that, in collateral mobility. And then lastly, the last point is basically the programmability of that capability.
Interviewer: I do want to expand on the programmability that you just mentioned. So what are the implications as we move forward?
Michael Shaulov: Yes, so I think that there are a lot of implications for collateral mobility and for trading, where some of the basic functionality, like the ability to make sure that transactions are coordinated between parties, is extremely important in trade settlement, extremely important in trade finance, where we are able to do sort of things like real-time repos. And all those things, they do require programmability if you don't want a centralized counterparty operating it or you don't want people basically sitting in front of a desk and clicking buttons 24/7. So once you basically have this asset class, stablecoins or any other tokenized payment on blockchain, that you can embed the logic into it, it becomes extremely powerful to revolutionize the way that we think about the logic of money and the logic of trading, the logic of finance basically operates accordingly.
Interviewer: Yes, and expanding on what you just said, if stablecoins become more accepted as the global standard for settlement, what does it mean for the future of global finance?
Michael Shaulov: Well, I think that inherently it becomes more integrated and becomes 24/7. I also think that we see a lot of accessibility, a lot of the underbanked or a lot of the services that were only available to the elite, to the top class of investors, being rapidly commoditized. I think it's great for a lot of companies and a lot of people because of the ability to do capital formation globally and through people and populations that have yet had the access to some of those private investments and other areas.
Interviewer: And I think access is the key word here, especially when we're thinking about how a lot of products as well as technologies came into. So as we look beyond, I'm sure you and Fireblocks are looking beyond what's happening right now. So what are some trends that you are focused on over at Fireblocks?
Michael Shaulov: Well, I think that for us right now the primary thing we are focusing on is to actually make sure that we nail the banking segment right, because I think that the banking segment is actually providing much broader access, also much safer access to this technology to the mass population. The way that people access financial products is through their banking app or through their banking portal, so we think that this is key. But I think that the next frontier is, of course, agents, right? So there is a fairly clear understanding that stablecoins or tokenized money would probably be the preferential instrument of payments for agents because all the things that we mentioned earlier. You know, agents, when you work with AI, ChatGPT or whatever, you have this sense that it really appreciates when something is fast, when the data is accurate, and when it's open and available across the internet. And all those three properties are basically the properties of stablecoins.
Interviewer: Before I let you go, Michael, we're talking about artificial intelligence and DeFi, and you mentioned agentic AI as well as tokenization. Those are areas that we continue to focus on here at Fintech TV. But of course, we're talking about a highly regulated space. So how do you see all of this shaking out?
Michael Shaulov: Yeah, so I think that there are actually a lot of interesting concepts that are coming through this technology. For example, the ability to apply cryptographic identity. So instead of, you know, you showing up with a driver's license, right, which agents definitely won't be able to show their driving license because they don't drive cars at the moment, so they will be able to use those digital certificates to access those financial products. And of course, I think the big issue that we will need to address is to meaningfully reduce the fraud, meaningfully reduce the amount of cybersecurity issues that we see across the board, of course, also in crypto and DeFi. And this is actually a primary focus for us in Fireblocks, to create those technologies, to make sure that those technologies are available to our clients. We're actually mitigating dozens of cyber threats per week right now. A lot of it is actually propagated through AI because AI, of course, has a lot of advantages for productivity and so on, but also it's being heavily used by cybercriminals these days.
Interviewer: A lot to keep our eyes on as we head into year-end. So I appreciate your time, Michael, and thank you so much for sharing all of your insights today.
Michael Shaulov: Thank you for having me.
Interviewer: My pleasure.
