In This Newsletter

Money20/20 Middle East
Boston Blockchain Week: Real-World Asset Tokenization
FinTech at the Asia Summit
Stablecoin Policy Update
FinTech at the Milken Center for Advancing the American Dream
 

Money20/20 Middle East

Nicole Valentine, director of the Milken Institute’s FinTech program, joined global leaders at Money20/20 Middle East in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, last month to moderate and speak on the future of inclusive financial systems.

She participated in the session “Who Is Finance Really Built For?,” a conversation with Ayman Essawy, cofounder and CEO of Connect Money, and Omar Saleh, cofounder and CEO of Khazna, moderated by Nataliya Gorbunosova, principal, Kearney Saudia Arabia Limited. The panel explored whether FinTech has truly shifted finance toward inclusion—or simply digitized existing systems—and examined how new entrants in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) are designing products for underserved youth and workers.

In “Are Digital Assets Fundamentally Transforming the Ecosystem of Financial Markets?” Valentine moderated a high-level discussion with regulatory leaders, including Hon. Caroline D. Pham, acting chairman of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission; Emomotimi Agama, PhD, director general of Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission (and Milken Institute’s International Finance Corporation-Capital Markets Scholars alum); Yazeed A. Alnafjan, deputy governor for financial innovation at the Saudi Central Bank; and Paul Kayrouz, chief FinTech officer at the Central Bank of the UAE.

Later, in the session “Platform Power: How Embedded Finance Will Reshape Digital Economies in MENA region,” Valentine guided a discussion with Ashraf Sabry, cofounder and CEO of Fawry, and Essawy. The panel highlighted how FinTech, telecommunications, and digital ecosystems are embedding payments, credit, and insurance into everyday experiences, unlocking new revenue streams and expanding financial access.

Valentine then moderated “Building a Financial System That Works for Everyone,” featuring Olugbenga Agboola, founder and CEO of Flutterwave; Abdullah Binghannam, deputy, financing and investment at Saudi Arabia’s Capital Market Authority; Ralf Germer, CEO of PagBrasil; and Tino Waked, CEO Middle East, Taptap Send. Panelists shared lessons from Africa, Brazil, and the Gulf on how to extend inclusion through payments, remittances, and regulatory innovation.

Valentine also took part in a roundtable on “Education, Youth, and Financial Services Innovation,” with global regulators and market leaders, where she emphasized financial literacy, impact measurement, and the role of artificial intelligence in bridging access gaps. Participants included Mohammed Alhamazany, chief of capability development, The Financial Academy; Aleena Nadeem, founder and CEO, EduFI; and Sitoyo Lopokoiyit, CEO of M-PESA Africa.
 

Boston Blockchain Week: Real-World Asset Tokenization

At Boston Blockchain Week, Maxwell DeGregorio, senior associate at the Milken Institute’s FinTech Program, moderated a session on the state of “Real-World Asset Tokenization.” The panel brought together Travis John, founder of RWA Builders; Gregory Johnson, cofounder and CEO of Rubicon Crypto; Keeyan Ravanshid, cofounder of HODL Markets; and Jacob Haap, CEO of Anomaly Science.

The panel discussed what has materially changed in 2025 for tokenization compared with past market cycles, highlighting advances in technology, product design, and policy clarity. Panelists explored the implications of the recently enacted the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins Act (GENIUS Act), debating whether stablecoins will serve as custodial rails for tokenized dollars and what regulatory clarity still remains.
 

FinTech at the Asia Summit

At the Milken Institute Asia Summit, global leaders from across banking, technology, and digital assets explored how Asia is shaping the future of finance through innovation, policy, and technology.

The session “From Crypto to CBDCs: Asia’s Blueprint for Digital Finance,” moderated by Angelina Kwan, CEO of Stratford Finance, featured speakers including Eric Anziani of Crypto.com; Luke Boland of Standard Chartered Bank; Melvin Deng of QCP Capital; Jaime Leverton of ReserveOne; and Tom Lee of Fundstrat. 

The panel explored how regional regulators such as the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, and the Securities and Futures Commission are enabling the convergence of traditional finance and crypto, with new models for digital asset treasuries, stablecoins, and tokenized finance.

In our Milken Institute Insights piece this summer, “Global Digital Asset Adoption: Asia,” we explored these themes. Asia now has a central role in global digital assets markets, accounting for six of the top ten countries in Chainalysis’s Global Crypto Adoption Index.

Leverton and Lee led the panel’s conversation on the rapid rise of Digital Asset Treasuries (DATs), and how they are driving institutional adoption. According to a DLA Piper report, more than 200 companies now employ DAT strategies, collectively holding over $100 billion in digital assets. The panelists discussed the expansion of DATs beyond bitcoin and into altcoins like Ethereum and Solana, and how some DAT-linked equities now trading below net asset value could be signaling possible saturation in a fast-crowding space.
 

Stablecoin Policy Update

Momentum around stablecoin regulation accelerated this September as both policymakers and market leaders moved to operationalize new frameworks in the United States.

In Washington, the GENIUS Act officially entered its implementation phase after being signed into law in July. The Treasury Department and federal banking regulators will now define the criteria for state comparability and set rules governing issuance limits, licensing, and disclosure standards. Several questions remain unresolved, including how to treat indirect yield offerings, tax and custody implications, and the role of smaller state-chartered issuers, Morgan Lewis observes.

With legal clarity expected soon, private stablecoin issuers are rolling out a host of new products and offerings. Tether announced plans to launch USAT, a fully US-compliant dollar-backed stablecoin issued through Anchorage Digital Bank, aligning with the new statutory framework, Reuters reports. Visa also rolled out a pilot using stablecoins for cross-border settlements, citing improvements in speed and capital efficiency, Reuters adds. Total stablecoin circulation surpassed $300 billion, reflecting the sector’s expanding systemic footprint, Axios notes.
Against this backdrop, the Milken Institute’s FinTech Program participated in a policy roundtable hosted by the Alliance for Innovative Regulation (AIR). The session, “Shaping the Future of Stablecoin Oversight,” convened leaders from finance, technology, and regulation to explore frameworks for safe and scalable global adoption. Discussion focused on reserve quality, redemption and contagion risk management, privacy-preserving data sharing, and cross-border supervisory coordination.
 

FinTech at the Milken Center for Advancing the American Dream

This September marked the grand opening of the Milken Center for Advancing the American Dream. The center features FinTech Advisory Council Member and CEO of AIR Jo Ann Barefoot in the Tapestry of Dreams exhibit in the Foundations Gallery. The Tapestry exhibit also features Wemimo Abbey, cofounder and co-CEO of Esusu. FinTech Advisory Council Member and President of Florida Bankers Association Kathy Kraninger led a delegation of regional bank CEOs through a tour of the center this September.