Stablecoin Infrastructure Takes Center Stage at Ondo Summit 2026

Remy: Ondo Summit 2026 is kicking off this morning. The plumbing of DeFi is just as critical as the assets themselves. As Wall Street moves on, the focus has shifted to building these secure rails necessary to support institutional volume at scale and also the removal of traditional institutional friction. Well, that does mean a shift beyond simple capital transfers towards rigorous governance as well as multi-layer security required by institutional mandates. Joining me as the summit kicks off is Adam Levine, CEO of Fireblocks Trust Company and SVP of corporate Development, as well as partnerships. Fireblocks is a digital asset and stablecoin infra company. Well, Adam, great to have you here. Thank you so much for joining me.

Adam: Of course. Thanks for having me.

Remy: Well, it's an exciting day as we kick off Ondo Summit 2026. And this is the second year of the summit. So of course let's start out with stablecoins. Tell us what's happening in the space right now and your expectations. Adam:Yeah.

So last year for many in the market, it was the breakout of stablecoins. People were thinking about bitcoin and crypto, but the value of being able to move assets on-chain really came to life when people talking about all the cliches of stablecoin sandwiches. But that's what we love. The ability to move assets quicker with less risk is where stablecoins really took off. Even from the Fireblocks perspective, while we're so well known for crypto, what we saw for the very first time is that more than half of our volume was in stablecoins at the end of last year, which is a great leading indicator of what's coming.

Remy: And while we're on the topic of stablecoins, tell us how the digital rails are actually changing the traditional banking model and also the way that firms manage liquidity.

Adam:Yeah. So when we think about it, we talk about being able to move assets 24/7. Right. In traditional finance, whether it's dollars or there's still limitations of when you can move currency, but now you can move it at the speed of a blockchain. So that means for certain companies where they're worried about moving assets on a T+2 or 2 days plus settlement, if they're in APAC that becomes T+2.5 and over a holiday weekend, maybe 3.5. You've now introduced the ability to manage your liquidity much tighter. It means that CFOs, treasurers can figure out where they need the money at the exact time and get it there without having to rely on the speed, of course, but in banking and all the charges that come across that, and when you introduce tokenized money markets, they now have that ability to manage their treasury with even more efficiency. So they're getting interest down to maybe the minute or the few seconds before they then swap it into the fiat that they need.

Remy: Yeah. And you touched upon what we saw in 2025, but 2026 is well underway. So I do want to talk about catalysts. And here at the series Ondo Summit, of course there is traditional financial institutions that are represented here. So when it comes to the top of bank priority list, we know things such as payments as well as custody and tokenization are on the top of their list. But what is actually driving this demand?

Adam: Yeah, the things that you just mentioned are foundational, right. Being able to hold the assets securely in the custody and all that that you're looking to achieve. But what's really starting to drive the banks is where they realize, I think, two different areas.

One is the theme of tokenized real world assets, and the second is institutional DeFi. These are things the industry's been talking about for a while. And it may sound like a talking head where we're seeing real applications of both. And banks are excited about tokenized RWA and therefore need that infrastructure today, whether it's to tokenize their own assets or more likely, to help the issuers that are coming in and the strong demand from investors. On the flip side, some banks - but really asset managers - are getting quite sophisticated around institutional decentralized finance or DeFi. And it's no longer going to be the pure crypto names, but some traditional names that we all know for a very long time are leaning into the space. And that's going to unlock a lot of demand from those institutional investors that previously were a bit too skeptical to jump all the way in.

Remy: Yeah. And of course, when we're talking about opportunity, there are challenges as well, the competitive advantage. So when we're talking about what we're seeing, are the early adopters ahead of, say, the newer entrants?

Adam: Yeah. So I think early adopters in many instances have proven out the model. Oftentimes they prove it out with the pure crypto story before they transition in. It's still early enough that when some of the names I'm thinking of those asset managers and banks, when they move in because of their credibility, and it's still relatively early in the market, plenty of opportunity for them to win.

However, for those that are still thinking about, do they need a blockchain or digital asset strategy? I liken that to maybe 2 or 3 decades ago institutions thinking, do they need an internet strategy? Do I need an internet team? It doesn't make sense to think of it that way. Any bank right now that's thinking. Do they need a digital asset team? is already going to be behind, and many of them are either going to hire quickly or have a very expensive acquisition a few years when they realize that they miss this opportunity.

Remy: Yeah. So you mentioned early adoption. And of course hindsight is 2020. Whenever we look at any technology that has become mainstream now. So in what ways do you see this unfolding? And from someone who's on the infrastructure side, what does it mean for traditional institutions?

Adam: Yeah, so it really depends on the type of bank or institution, what's really important for them. You mentioned stablecoins. So we think about payments. Banks have an opportunity to potentially get disrupted and maybe lose their correspondent banking business or create new payments opportunities to really power their clients. Now the challenge, often from these larger traditional financial players is when you say infrastructure, it's very expensive. When you think about the second lens, the fence of the security teams and compliance teams that are really essential, it suddenly feels like a very big project and re-platforming and a lot of scary words that come out. But what we see when it comes to infrastructure is it's not a rip and replace. Very clearly, the industry needs to start building now, and maybe long term people like me think could all move on-chain. But the banks have the opportunity to start with that foundational Infrastructure, focus on security, scalability, and then grow that business and long term while they're maintaining their traditional rails that they still need for their legacy businesses.

Remy:Yeah. And Adam, we have about 60s here. So I do want to ask you about security and compliance. So we're talking about financial services and the financial industry here. So regulation is key. So what needs to be done when it comes to security as well as compliance?

Adam: Sure. So we're a bit biased. But we say everything that you want to do in digital assets, all the weird and wonderful things starts with being able to hold the assets in the most secure way. And so leveraging best practice around multi-party computation or MPC, all the transaction authorization policies, things that Fireblocks has been focusing on with its institutional clients at scale is really important. Also, making sure you're working with the sort of providers that have the ability to be layered in with other compliance solutions. So we won't speak about regulation, but security compliance are foundational for the banks, for all the traditional payment service providers. And that's really where they need to pick the right partner to help them build.

Remy: Yeah. And I know you mentioned regulation, but we won't dive into that. So when it comes to jurisdiction in a nutshell why is that important?

Adam:Yeah. Look it really depends where you see the industry grow is where you see the central banks and the federal governments lean into the technology you've seen in the U.S. over the last year or so, at least in countries like Brazil, Australia, similar, where you have the federal government leaning into the tech. It really sends the message to the market, it's okay to innovate, whether that's a crypto story or in all those jurisdictions, the leading banks and payments companies take that nod and are leaning in and are starting to prove it out with their business models.

Remy: Well, it does appear as though the Ondo Summit is getting underway here in New York City, so we will have to leave it there, Adam, but thank you so much for joining me today, and thank you so much for sharing your perspective.

Adam: I appreciate the opportunity.