Startups and digital services can now reach global audiences from day one, but slow payment networks often throttle their growth. Peter De Caluwe explains why stablecoins and interoperable payment rails are the missing link for global commerce.
In 2026, I attended my first Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos as part of the innovators and Unicorn community. At the meeting, one thing became immediately clear: the pace of technological change has become exponential.
Conversations with founders and entrepreneurs centred overwhelmingly on artificial intelligence (AI) – from enterprise deployment and robotics to commercial space ventures, longevity science and the growing cybersecurity risks, as bad actors use AI to scam at scale. AI is being deployed in real markets and reshaping industries in real time.
Despite these developments, the core challenges facing many economies remain unchanged. For policy-makers and business leaders – particularly those representing emerging markets – the focus remains on the fundamentals: enabling businesses to get paid, to pay suppliers and to move money reliably across borders.
Technological capabilities may be advancing rapidly, but turning that progress into real economic impact requires interoperable financial infrastructure.
Innovation vs infrastructure
AI enables companies to operate globally from day one. Digital services can scale across borders instantly and startups can reach customers in multiple markets without a physical presence.
Growth, however, slows when payments take days to arrive, exchange rates move unpredictably or businesses cannot access their own revenue quickly enough. Working capital gets tied up, margins come under pressure and expansion plans are pushed back.
The digital economy operates in real time, but much of the financial infrastructure beneath it does not. Reliable payment and payout systems remain a bottleneck for companies expanding across borders. For small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in emerging markets, slow and costly cross-border payments make it harder to grow and compete globally.
While innovation is advancing rapidly, the financial systems beneath it need to evolve to support that growth. At the Annual Meeting, the conversation around stablecoins reflected that shift. They were no longer discussed as speculative assets and more as infrastructure – rails designed to enable instant, low-cost global transactions across markets.
Stablecoins as rails
The use cases for stablecoins now go well beyond trading. They are used for remittances, payroll and cross-border payments. For many businesses, this has become part of everyday operations and, in some markets, funds can move around the clock without having to wait for traditional banking hours.
A recurring theme at the Annual Meeting was interoperability. Stablecoins do not create value on their own: they work when they connect banks, mobile wallets and digital networks so that money can move smoothly between them. Without that connectivity, they risk becoming another silo in an already fragmented system.
Regulation of digital assets is part of the same conversation, because as adoption grows, so does the need for clear rules and consistent oversight. Trust is essential for scale, while institutional participation depends on transparency, safeguards and regulatory certainty.
There was also significant discussion about AI at the Annual Meeting. As AI systems begin to transact in the digital economy, whether that’s for automated procurement, digital services, or machine-to-machine payments, payment rails need to be programmable, reliable and integrated with existing systems. Infrastructure must support that next phase of automation.
The direction is becoming clearer: the future is not about choosing between traditional finance and digital assets; it’s a hybrid model where stablecoins integrate with and strengthen existing financial systems, improving efficiency without compromising trust.
Infrastructure as a multiplier
The discussion around AI and digital assets ultimately points to a broader reality: technology expands what is possible, but infrastructure determines how widely those possibilities are shared.
When financial systems work well, new technologies can contribute more to businesses, workers and local economies. When payment systems connect smoothly and reliably, businesses can sell across borders with confidence. Digital workers can get paid on time and companies can use their money straight away instead of waiting for it to arrive.
This is how innovation reaches beyond early adopters and large economies. Without modern, interoperable financial systems, access remains limited to a small number of markets. With reliable and connected infrastructure, more businesses and more economies can participate in global commerce.
AI will continue to advance rapidly. Digital services will continue to scale across borders. Ensuring that financial infrastructure evolves alongside them will determine whether that acceleration translates into a broad economic impact or not.
- Peter De Caluwe is the CEO and Deputy Chairman of Thunes, where he leads strategic and operational efforts to accelerate real-time, secure and cost-efficient cross-border payments. This article was originally published by the World Economic Forum.
