Arthur Hayes, Chief Investment Officer at Maelstrom, said Tuesday at CONNECT: Seoul Edition that US money printing to support AI and service government debt could drive up cryptocurrency prices. According to Hayes, AI companies require trillions of dollars for data centers as the cost of their services declines.

Hayes also suggested that China may shift from "moderate austerity" to significant monetary stimulus, which he said could boost demand for scarce assets. In Europe, he is watching for signs of financial stress in France, including CDS linked to BNP Paribas and government bond spreads. "Money printing will eventually happen, but it’s a slow collapse beneath the surface," he said.

Wall Street Moves On-Chain, Retaining Client Relationship Advantage

Portal Ventures partner Katrina Wang noted that banks and asset managers are bringing their existing client base to blockchain: "whoever owns the client relationship owns the economics." R3 co-founder Todd McDonald added that public blockchains provide access to clients outside institutional private networks. Justin Kugel, Executive Vice President of Growth at World Liberty Financial, emphasized that decisions about capital allocation and risk create work for intermediaries, as many users do not want to manage assets themselves and prefer centralized exchanges.

R3 Announces Partnership to Connect to Public Solana in May 2025

R3 has built its business on private financial networks based on the Corda platform, and in May 2025 announced a partnership to connect institutions and their assets to the public Solana network.

Franklin Templeton Focuses on Tokenized Funds Over Stablecoin

Chetan Karkhanis, Senior Vice President of Digital Asset Client Engagement at Franklin Templeton, said the company does not plan to issue its own stablecoin: "let our layer be the yield." Subscriptions and redemptions in tokenized funds still generally require fiat; some stablecoin conversions are already available, but broader industry access is needed. In June, Franklin Templeton announced a partnership with MoonPay, allowing eligible institutional investors to move between supported stablecoins and tokenized funds via on-chain transactions.

Stablecoin Payments Grow on Latin America–Africa–Asia Routes

Haonan Li, co-founder and CEO of Codex, noted rising demand for stablecoin payments along trade routes connecting Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa with Asia, where buyers send funds for goods produced there.