Fireside Chat, Panel, Conference Presentation
Digital Assets at the Crossroads: From Promise to Permanence | Middle East & Africa Summit 2025
- Stablecoin usage is projected to expand significantly beyond its current sub-1% share of payment volume, with market size expectations rising from the current $350 billion to a potential $3.5 trillion as regulatory frameworks catch up with cross-border use cases, and a new AED local stablecoin anticipated within the next two weeks.
- The global digital asset market is forecast to grow from a $2–3 trillion economy to a $100 trillion economy over the next 10 to 20 years, with over 500 million people currently trading digital assets, surpassing the number of direct investors in stock markets.
- Approximately 10% of the US repo market, representing $400 billion in daily volume, is currently processed via the Canton network by major broker-dealers and banks, while private credit facilities from large General Partners are expected to migrate to blockchains for efficient settlement and securitization.
- A $400 trillion asset migration is predicted over the next 10 to 20 years, involving stocks, real estate, bonds, and private markets moving onto blockchains to facilitate direct legal and property rights embedding within tokens rather than derivative structures.
- Traditional capital markets are expected to adopt 24/7 transferability and trading habits to meet consumer demands influenced by crypto experiences, a shift accelerated by regulatory moves in the US and the expectation that companies will issue digital stock versions on blockchains.
- Future digital asset regulation is anticipated to evolve toward defining assets as property to drive innovation, with jurisdictions like the DIFC and Qatar setting precedents while others like the EU enforce existing laws, aiming to harmonize global legal frameworks.
- Geopolitical tensions are expected to fragment the global payment ecosystem, prompting a majority of central banks to establish their own regional payment ecosystems, while regulators in the UAE and the US are projected to co-author regulations to balance efficiency with compliance.
- Younger generations are predicted to begin investment journeys with Bitcoin and Ethereum before diversifying into stocks, driving a generational shift where retail users share public financial data by default and financial transactions become public on decentralized exchanges.
- Asset tokenization is expected to expand to include almost all asset classes and private companies, creating configurable smart contracts that allow participants to determine interaction parameters, privacy levels, and settlement speeds.
- The intersection of AI and digital assets is viewed as a transformative force for optimizing fund usage and analytics, with real estate and real asset tokenization currently in a nascent stage that AI will accelerate.
- Companies like eToro are expected to evolve into future banks by providing custody and credit services through frictionless mobile asset management, while stablecoins paired with privacy features will see increased adoption for corporate payroll and vendor payments.
- Despite growth expectations, regulatory challenges regarding anonymous transfers in jurisdictions with divergent rules remain a critical risk for fraud, requiring continued efforts to address security and compliance in the evolving digital landscape.