• AI and augmentation: Agentic AI pushing the next wave of ecommerce, building enhanced fraud detection and the promise of hyper-personalisation.
• Stablecoins are mainstream: The focus is no longer on whether digital assets have a place, but on how they’re being built into payment networks and settlement processes.
• Infrastructure’s role in innovation: New protocols, interoperability, and modernising legacy systems to support instant money movement.

As the fintech world converged on Las Vegas for Money20/20 USA, the industry’s brightest minds discussed the usual bold visions, but with far more focus on practical momentum than previous editions under this year’s theme of ‘Create the Future’.

The prevailing consensus on the strip as Money20/20 attendees slipped into the Nevada night after three days of discussions was no longer ‘if’ or ‘when’. It has become a question of ‘how’, particularly around the dominant themes of the event, AI and stablecoins, moving from speculative innovation to real implementation.

Artificial intelligence was the hottest topic on every stage, with leaders from Mastercard, Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google Cloud detailing advances in fraud detection, underwriting, and customer experience. Unlike previous years, the emphasis was on the scalability of AI in everyday operations, including payment systems and risk management.

Numerous panels referenced the increasing sophistication of AI-powered fraud detection systems, highlighting their ability to analyse data in real time to identify and prevent fraudulent transactions with greater accuracy. Others discussed how AI is evolving personal financial management tools, including robo-advisors, to deliver hyper-personalised financial advice and product recommendations.

The overriding sentiment was that it’s no longer about humans vs. machines. It’s how humans use machines to deliver better outcomes through augmentation.

Multiple sessions focused on execution and how AI is being embedded into operations. This included how AI can reshape commerce and the payments that power those purchases, with ‘The Future of Shopping: How AI and Agents Will Rewrite the Rules of Commerce’ exploring the many ways autonomous agents are moving from the periphery to the core of today’s consumer experiences. 

A perfect example of this was PayPal announcing its partnership with Google Cloud for agentic shopping experiences, combining Google Cloud’s Conversational Commerce agent with payments powered by PayPal.

At Money20/20 EU this year, the narrative was that stablecoins have moved beyond hype and are starting to work quietly, in the background, enabling dollar access globally and reshaping B2B settlement flows. However, they also noted that despite the positive industry noise, the broader industry is still watching from the sidelines to see how they develop, and consumer adoption remains low.

Just a few months later, it’s fair to say anyone still on the sidelines hasn’t been paying attention. In Las Vegas, stablecoins went mainstream, reflecting a whirlwind of new product launches, mergers, and rumoured acquisitions.

Everyone is discussing how stablecoins are gaining momentum, particularly in the institutional space, the emerging use cases and recent product launches. That included ClearBank announcing our partnership with Circle, and as an early participant in its Arc platform, an open Layer-1 blockchain network designed to meet the needs of developers and companies bringing real-world economic activity onchain.

The focus was no longer on whether digital assets have a place, but on how they’re being built into payment networks and settlement processes. Bankers and policymakers debated this on the panel ‘Frenemies, Friction, and the $27T Opportunity: Inside the Stablecoin Revolution’ and the forms that mainstream adoption is taking. That included whether more rules were required to facilitate interoperability between the new and old, as well as the domestic and international.

The show ended with global remittances powerhouse Western Union’s launch of the USD Payment Token (USDPT) in partnership with Solana and Anchorage Digital Bank.

It will be fascinating to see how these narratives develop between Money20/20 EU in June and now, particularly with rumours of industry titans examining acquisitions in the space.

Related to the conversations around stablecoins, there was a broader conversation around the next generation of financial infrastructure.

In the last decade, we have seen a focus on improving customer experience. We know this from our experience in the UK, where fintech flourished due to a pro-competition, pro-innovation environment was a catalyst for new providers that enhanced choice and competition and enabled us to bring to market the first new clearing bank in over 250 years.

At Money20/20, The Age of Infrastructure stream featured sessions like ‘Innovative Banking Starts with Infrastructure’, which focused on the vital role of secure cloud infrastructure in delivering the promise of agentic AI, and ‘Beyond the Backend: Crafting Customer-First Narratives in Finance’, highlighting how infrastructure decisions directly shape the customer experience.

The US is now experiencing this, with legacy payment rails being challenged by real-time settlement networks, the implementation of digital asset infrastructure in the form of stablecoins, and the increasing tokenisation of deposits and funds. Throughout the event, new protocols, interoperability, and the modernisation of legacy systems to support instant money movement were discussed across numerous sessions, dissecting settlement networks, cross-border payment efficiency, and the competitive landscape between banks, digital asset providers, and tech platforms.

Money20/20 USA once again offered a broad range of topics and thought-provoking sessions. With retail and transaction banking systems being rebuilt on cloud-native platforms, the potential for the next wave of innovation is palpable.

There is a strong drive to leverage fintech as a force for good, whether through more efficient loan origination, personal financial management, wealth building, or simply enhancing payment speed and customer-centricity. Fintech in the US is now woven into the fabric of financial services, boosting collaboration between participants.

Things are changing quickly – and the months ahead promise to be full of positive and sustained momentum. We’re already looking forward to seeing what the 2026 editions of Money20/20 have in store.