The world’s financial institutions are now “panicking” to adopt decentralised technology as the era of traditional capital markets draws to a close, according to a panel of digital asset leaders at Abu Dhabi Finance Week.
Speaking on the “Bullish for Builders: Is 2026 the Year the Foundations Hold?” panel on December 10, industry veterans delivered a stark message: the transition to a system built entirely on tokenised assets and blockchain infrastructure is inevitable, fast-paced, and has just hit its “starting line.”
The session featured a line-up of foundational figures in the crypto world: Mike Novogratz, Founder & CEO of Galaxy, Joseph Lubin, Co-founder of Ethereum and Founder & CEO of ConsenSys, Reeve Collins, Co-founder of Tether and Co-Founder & Chairman, STBL | WeFi.
The consensus from the founders of the two most important crypto ecosystems—smart contracts and stablecoins—was clear: stablecoins and tokenised equities are the “bridge” and the future operating system for money, set to replace legacy banking infrastructure within the next few years.
The race is on for institutional adoption
Novogratz, a former hedge fund director and Wall Street leader, asserted that every major player in the financial landscape is already preparing for the change.
“Every single financial institution on the planet is preparing themselves for a world of tokenised assets. When I say every single one, I mean every single one from the biggest and smallest banks.”
Novogratz predicted that legislative progress in major economies, particularly the United States, will unlock a floodgate of capital from major Wall Street players.
“Mark my words. Six months after this market structure bill passes, you will see the Goldman Sachs’s and the Citibanks… providing services for digital assets, for Bitcoin, but also for all digital assets.”
He framed the shift not as a choice, but as a commercial imperative driven by the financial sector’s nature as a vast selling machine.
“Wall Street is a selling machine. It’s not a buying machine… There is a wave coming where not just consensus and Galaxy and Coinbase and the crypto guys are touting the merits of this new revolutionary shift, but every old financial school institution is going to be part of that team.”
The ‘panicked’ banks and the new monetary system
Lubin described the immediate pressure facing incumbents, driven by the emergence of new instruments like stablecoins.
“We are seeing banks panicking because of stablecoins… I think in the next two years we’re going to see the financial industry totally reformat itself.”
Lubin suggested that even global messaging giants like SWIFT are shifting their strategies in response to this decentralised revolution.
“We are seeing organisations like SWIFT reach out to us to help them build the SWIFT ledger. They did that because they’re panicking. They did that because stable coins are going to change the nature of banking.”
Collins reinforced the view that stablecoins are not just a bridge, but the future of cash itself, fundamentally transforming how money moves.
“It won’t be a stablecoin that you see in your wallet. It will be USD, or whatever your local currency is. And on the back end, it will run on an improved infrastructure, some sort of blockchain technology that’s been integrated in that bank, and so it will just be finance. It’s greatly improved.”
Collins dismissed the notion that capital inflows would be limited, arguing that stablecoins will eventually absorb all forms of traditional currency due to their efficiency.
“How much money will flow into stablecoins? All of it, because stablecoins aren’t stable, because they [just move money] in a more efficient way.”
The breakdown of traditional trust
The speakers repeatedly linked the rise of digital assets to a deep-seated loss of public trust in existing systems, exacerbated by decades of quantitative easing and monetary crises.
Novogratz argued that the entire existence of crypto is rooted in the “breakdown of this debt bubble in the West” and the extreme inequality perpetuated by central bank policy.
“The reason crypto exists, really, is that Satoshi and then the followers of Satoshi sense that things were getting carried away in this credit cycle perpetuated by the US and the West… We created an alternative money. You can call it digital gold.”
Lubin echoed this sentiment, arguing that the world is moving away from a “top command and control Trust” model.
“There’s a real loss of trust in the system by the people in the system. And essentially a new form of trust, a more powerful form of trust… we enabled the application of decentralized trust to basically everything that you can imagine writing software for,” he said.
Despite the current market volatility, which Novogratz noted has seen many crypto assets trade lower, the panel remained certain about the structural shift.
Novogratz called the present moment “the golden era of actual crypto… digital asset permeating around the globe,” while Lubin concluded that the pace of transformation “is going to be pretty short”.
“All of us in the crypto industry have to be bullish. We have to believe we are entrepreneurs. We are builders, at heart,” Collins concluded. “The technology itself has proven itself over and over, and finally, the large institutions are recognising that, and that money is going to pour in here and make this last decade of laying the foundation all required.”
