Recently, I attended an industry summit in New York and had an in-depth chat with a startup founder who’s building payment infrastructure. We discussed some pretty interesting things.

He shared an observation that really stuck with me: many people think the core value of the crypto industry is speculative trading, but in reality, users around the world—especially in emerging markets—truly need far more than that. What are they missing? Digital dollars, ways to earn yield, cross-border transfer capabilities, and equal access to core financial products.

This isn’t a new idea. But once you actually talk to users in Latin America, Africa, and South Asia, you can see how real this demand is. For example, they recently launched a feature in Bangladesh: users can now exchange stablecoins for Taka and directly transfer them into local mobile payment apps like bKash or Nagad. It may sound simple, but it means that on-chain assets can, for the first time, flow naturally into everyday payment scenarios.

He calls this setup the “On-Chain Payment Matrix”—connecting 130+ blockchains, stablecoin issuers, card/payment channels, liquidity providers, and merchants. Just this system alone has processed 150 million transactions, with total transaction volume exceeding $170 billion. So what’s the logic behind it? Payments and DeFi are completely different. Once a DeFi protocol is integrated, it can open up globally in a permissionless way; but payments must be localized. Different countries have different licenses, settlement systems, and partners.

That’s also why he said the biggest challenge isn’t technology—it’s how to connect the fragmented network of partners across different jurisdictions. The United States and Bangladesh need entirely different service providers and compliance solutions. So they have to stay chain-neutral and keep infrastructure open in order to have a chance to build a truly global financial super app.

When we talked about the U.S. market, he was frank and admitted that they hadn’t invested enough in brand building in the past. But he believes an Asian background isn’t the obstacle by itself—the real issue is lack of awareness. They’ve spent seven years refining their product in emerging markets, and in terms of efficiency, cost, and feature completeness, they already outperform most similar platforms across the Americas. So the strategy is clear: use a mature product that has been validated over the long term to gradually earn trust in Western markets.

Finally, when discussing AI, I really agree with his view. If an AI Agent is going to execute transactions, complete payments, or retrieve information, it will inevitably need a wallet. So the combination of AI and on-chain finance isn’t hype—it’s a natural technological evolution. They’ve already launched an Agentic Wallet, enabling agents to directly call capabilities like payments, exchanges, and cross-chain transfers, while also using TEE to custody private keys and maintain security.

But there’s a deeper point here: people who say “crypto is outdated” are only seeing the layer of speculative trading. What they don’t see is that globally there are still billions of people who need better financial access. At its core, crypto is just a form of digital assets on the blockchain—the real value lies in the financial inclusion it enables. As long as users still need digital dollars, opportunities to earn yield, and alternative financial rails, blockchain will continue to have strong real-world relevance.

This conversation made me feel that the industry narrative is shifting from “flipping coins for quick money” to “how to use on-chain financial services to meet real demand.” That shift may not be as exciting, but in the long run, it’s the direction with real staying power.