Circle CEO "Global finance moving on-chain... Stablecoins are key" [ADFW 2025]

Global financial infrastructure, restructuring into an on-chain structure

USDC trading volume nears $10 trillion

"Combined with AI agents... acceleration of changes in the financial structure"

Jeremy Allaire, Circle's chief executive officer (CEO), emphasized that the global financial system is moving to an internet-based structure and that on-chain payments and stablecoins play a central role in that.

In his keynote at the ADQ Arena in Abu Dhabi on the 10th (local time), Allaire said, "Global financial infrastructure is combining with on-chain and being reorganized into a new form," and added, "States, banks, technology companies, and payment networks are all participating in the transition to on-chain systems."

He assessed that the spread of on-chain payments is the most powerful driver of the financial transition. Allaire said, "Increasingly more currencies, assets, and financial functions are moving on-chain," and explained, "Major global financial institutions, global banks, private credit companies, and large tech firms are already actively involved in building on-chain infrastructure."

He pointed to the expansion of the stablecoin market as a representative example of this trend. He said, "USDC on-chain transaction volume has grown from $6.8 trillion annually to about $10 trillion," and stated, "The entire stablecoin market is expanding at an annual double-digit rate."

He analyzed that the spread of on-chain infrastructure is also linked with the advancement of AI technology. Allaire emphasized, "AI agent-based economic activity is rapidly increasing, and in the future billions of AI agents will interact with the financial system," and "The basic infrastructure required for this is on-chain data, assets, and payment systems."

He also noted that stablecoins and the tokenization of real assets are accelerating. He said, "Money market funds worth billions of dollars are already being operated on-chain, and various issuers are tokenizing real assets and introducing them to the market," and predicted, "This trend will further accelerate the restructuring of the overall financial system."

He went on to reiterate, "We are still in the early stages of an internet-based financial system," and "Technology, regulation, and markets are all preparing for this transition, and over the coming decades global financial infrastructure will be reorganized around on-chain."