Stablecoins are moving from the margins toward mainstream banking as regulation, technology, and industry investment converge. Deniz Tudor argues that institutions should embrace innovation with purpose while strengthening governance, third-party oversigh
Innovation in payments should never
begin with the technology itself. Instead, financial institutions should first
ask what problem they are trying to solve, who benefits from the solution, and
whether it genuinely improves the financial system.
That principle should guide the
growing adoption of stablecoins, digital assets, and new payment technologies,
industry expert Deniz Tudor has urged, encouraging banks to innovate with
purpose rather than simply chase emerging trends.
Speaking at CeFPro's latest Risk
Americas conference event, Tudor, former Head of Modeling at Bread Financial and
currently Head of Special Projects at TabaPay, said the payments industry is
entering a new phase in which stablecoins are increasingly complementing rather
than competing with traditional financial infrastructure.
Regulatory developments,
technological maturity, and growing industry investment are combining to
accelerate adoption while reducing some of the uncertainty that previously
discouraged banks from participating.
Tudor explained that her interest in
digital assets began during the pandemic while studying financial regulation,
when she explored how banks should approach cryptocurrencies and stablecoins
from both operational and regulatory perspectives.
At that time, she said, regulatory
expectations remained unclear. Today, however, the landscape is changing as
governments establish clearer frameworks that provide institutions with greater
confidence to invest.
“I always think whenever companies
are doing innovation, coming up with products and services, the first question
they should be asking is, why?” Tudor said.
“What's the purpose? Who is it
serving? What problem are we solving?” She argued that technology should only
be adopted where it addresses genuine market inefficiencies and delivers
meaningful value to customers.
One of the most significant
opportunities, she suggested, lies in overcoming the limitations of traditional
payment systems.
Unlike conventional fiat payment
rails, which typically pause during weekends and public holidays, stablecoin
infrastructure can operate continuously, enabling institutions to manage
liquidity and treasury activities more efficiently.
“The fiat currency system shuts down
during the weekends and during holidays,” Tudor said. “Stablecoin solves that
problem of the timing problem.”
She also highlighted cross-border
payments as another major use case, noting that international money transfers
often remain expensive, slow, and opaque.
Stablecoins, she argued, have the
potential to make remittances and international payments faster, cheaper, and
more transparent.
The scale of the opportunity is
attracting investment throughout the payments ecosystem.
Payment processors, gateways, card
networks, banks, fintech firms, and technology providers are all investing in
digital asset capabilities, from on-ramp and off-ramp services to digital
wallets and stablecoin-enabled payment products.
Rather than replacing traditional
financial institutions, Tudor believes stablecoins are increasingly being
integrated into existing payment infrastructure to improve settlement speed and
reduce friction.
