Singapore — The Institutional Onchain Finance Summit 2026, held Oct. 6 during TOKEN2049 Week, brought together infrastructure providers and compliance specialists who argued that stablecoins are becoming a practical settlement layer for cross-border payments — but only if regulators get hands-on with real-world use cases. The event was jointly hosted by Cregis, FOMO Pay, Stable, and Width.
Stablecoins as a cross-border rail
Traditional cross-border payments still involve multiple intermediaries, uncertain fees, and limited visibility into where a transfer actually is. Stablecoins, panelists said, offer round-the-clock settlement and onchain visibility that legacy rails don't.
Andres Kim, Regional Expansion Lead at Tether, pointed to South Korea as an example where domestic payment infrastructure remains essential, with stablecoins serving as an additional rail for the cross-border leg. Leandro Noel, Founder and COO of Avenia, described stablecoins as a potential “global ledger” that lets companies connect markets without rebuilding financial infrastructure in every jurisdiction.
The cross-border panel was moderated by Chiara Munaretto, cofounder of Stablecoin Insider. Other panelists included Eddie Hui, Co-President and COO of MetaComp, and Zack Yang, Co-Founder of FOMO Pay. Yang noted that while stablecoins simplify fragmented payment operations, the stablecoin market itself is becoming more fragmented — a tension that infrastructure providers will have to manage.
Brian Mehler, CEO of Stable, delivered a keynote titled “Global Payments, Made Stable,” outlining his firm’s approach to stablecoin-based payments and global money movement. Jason Ma, COO of Cregis, gave a keynote on building a solid onchain foundation for business, covering Wallet-as-a-Service, fund-flow orchestration through Rails, and custody and governance capabilities.
Regulators need real-world experience
Panelists called for regulators to gain more practical exposure to stablecoin use cases. The argument wasn’t about loosening rules — it was about supervisors understanding how these systems behave in production before writing guidance that misses how settlement, compliance, and custody actually interact.
Audits are just the starting line
A second panel focused on security, moderated by Alevtina Labyuk, Chief Strategic Partnerships Officer at BeInCrypto. The panelists — Michael Chen, Non-Executive Director at 1exchange; Jason Jiang, Chief Business Officer at CertiK; Dmytro Matviiv, CEO of HackenProof; and Alexandra Wang, Head of Partnerships at ZAN — agreed that audits are a baseline requirement but only provide a point-in-time assessment.
Key management, access controls, signing policies, vendor oversight, and incident response are becoming just as important as the audit itself. Jason Jiang highlighted continuous monitoring, anomaly detection, and fund tracing as critical measures. Michael Chen focused on operational controls around transaction authorization and asset management.
AI agents introduced a new set of questions around authorization and accountability. Institutions need clear limits on what an agent can execute, especially for irreversible transactions. The discussion also pointed to a need for stronger mechanisms for traceability, dispute handling, and fund recovery as institutional participation grows.
Compliance in 2027 and beyond
Chye Kit Chioh, CEO and Co-Founder of Width, delivered a keynote titled “The Future of Compliance 2027 and Beyond: AI, Automation, and the Shift to Real-Time Risk Intelligence.” Eric Chen, CEO and Co-Founder of Injective, presented Injective’s Institutional Stack, outlining the project’s approach to infrastructure for institutions.
The summit’s throughline was that stablecoins have moved past the proof-of-concept stage for cross-border payments, but the supporting cast — compliance, custody, and security — hasn’t caught up evenly. Until regulators and institutions close that gap, the market’s growing fragmentation will keep testing the promise of a single global ledger.
What comes next is unclear on the policy side. No regulator at the summit committed to a timeline for updated stablecoin guidance, leaving the push for practical experience as an open ask rather than a scheduled deliverable.
