The narrative at Abu Dhabi Finance Week (ADFW) shifted perceptibly this year. Where once fintech and crypto existed on the periphery of traditional finance, the 2024 edition marked the moment the two worlds collided. From the “professionalisation” of the sector to the rise of stablecoins as a killer app, industry leaders gathered in the UAE capital to chart the integration of blockchain into the global financial plumbing.
The Inevitability of Convergence
For Matthew Hougan, chief investment officer at Bitwise Asset Management, the distinction between “crypto companies” and “financial companies” is rapidly evaporating. He likened the current environment to the early internet era, predicting that blockchain rails will soon become invisible infrastructure.
“We’ve been through this phase where we talk about crypto companies,” Hougan explained. “Soon, every financial company is going to have crypto as the underpinning because again, it’s just a faster, cheaper, more global, 24-7, future-proofed way to move financial assets around the world.”
This sentiment was echoed by Yoni Assia, co-founder and CEO of eToro, who views the digitisation of real-world assets as a software update for the entire monetary system. Assia noted that the industry had to wait for regulatory environments to catch up before this shift could materialise.
“There’s this very known statement that software is going to eat everything,” Assia said. “Crypto or digital assets, this is software for money. So by definition, digital assets is going to eat finance.”
The presence of global heavyweights at the event served as a barometer for this maturity. Samantha Yap, founder of Yap Global, highlighted that the attendance of major industry CEOs signaled a shift from community-led enthusiasm to serious corporate strategy.
“To get Brian Armstrong, the CEO of Coinbase, to fly in, means they mean business,” Yap observed. “We are seeing a professionalization of services that clients are looking for.”
The Year of the Stablecoin
While Bitcoin grabbed headlines, stablecoins dominated the conversation on the floor. Vincent Chok, CEO and founder of First Digital, predicted that the utility of programmable money is about to explode, particularly regarding “agentic payments”—transactions conducted autonomously by AI agents.
“We see 2025 as sort of the year of the stable coin,” Chok stated. “Without that I don’t think Web3 or agentic payments is going to be able to actually happen in the most efficient way.”
Anthony Soohoo, chairman and CEO of MoneyGram, agreed that the sector is currently in its infancy compared to its potential. He described a “refounding” of his own company to embrace digital transformation, suggesting that current developments are just the beginning.
“I think we’re going to look back at this era and feel like, you know, this was like the baby asset era,” Soohoo commented. “People talk about scaling infrastructure. I think we now need to scale trust.”
Building the Rails: Law and Liquidity
Underpinning these advances is the need for robust legal and technical infrastructure. Linda Fitz-Alan, CEO and registrar of ADGM Courts, emphasised that attracting investment requires a legal system that moves at the speed of modern commerce. She detailed how the ADGM has digitised its courts to remain accessible globally.
“If you digitise justice and therefore, you place justice in sync with business… We see it as part of an ecosystem that delivers what investors need,” Fitz-Alan explained.
On the technical side, Rico van de Veen, co-founder and CEO at Semi Liquid, used the event to launch a new protocol designed to solve counterparty risk in bilateral lending. His platform allows institutions to leverage assets without moving them from their secure environments.
“Institutions can request and receive bilateral credit without moving collateral out of custody,” van de Veen said. “It solves counterparty risk for both parties and it scales bilateral lending, which normally takes six weeks for a single loan.”