As digital assets move further into mainstream financial discussions, the conversation is shifting from speculation to practical applications in payments, cross-border commerce, and financial infrastructure. Stablecoins, tokenised money, and blockchain-based payment rails are increasingly being explored by financial institutions, policymakers, and payment providers as part of the next generation of global payments. In this Q&A, Mariel Laxamana, Marketing Director at Payments Consulting Network and Merchant Advisory, speaks with Chad Harper, Head of the Coinbase Institute at Coinbase, about the evolving role of digital assets in modernising payments. Harper shares his perspective on the opportunities and misconceptions surrounding stablecoins, the importance of regulatory clarity, and how different forms of digital money can coexist within the financial ecosystem. He also discusses where on-chain payments are already delivering tangible value and why interoperability will be critical as payment systems continue to evolve. Finally, he offers a preview of the themes he is looking forward to exploring at the Central Bank Payments Conference 2026, where leaders from across the payments industry will examine the future of money and financial infrastructure. 

Read the full interview below. 

Mariel Laxamana: Can you start by telling us about your role as Head of the Coinbase Institute at Coinbase and an overview of the company? 

Chad Harper: I run the Coinbase Institute, a think tank inside Coinbase’s Policy function. We publish research and engage with policymakers, central banks, international organisations, and other think tanks on things like stablecoins, tokenised capital markets, and of course payments. As for Coinbase itself, our mission is to increase economic freedom in the world. Coinbase started in 2012 with the idea that anyone, anywhere, should be able to send and receive Bitcoin easily and securely; today we provide a trusted, easy-to-use platform that millions of verified users in over 100 countries rely on to access the crypto economy, and we’re the platform of choice for many of the largest, most sophisticated participants in crypto markets, who demand high standards of compliance, risk management, and investor protection. That puts the Institute close to where a lot of the real-world payments’ innovation is actually happening. 

ML: From your perspective, what role do digital assets and blockchain technology play in modernising global payments? 

Blockchains and stablecoins let businesses and people exchange value directly, the way the internet let them exchange information directly without every payment having to traverse a chain of correspondent banks. The intermediary is still there when it adds value; it’s just no longer the only path, which means faster settlement, lower cost, and 24/7 global reach on rails that public-interest goals like soundness, stability, and oversight can all still be met on. It’s still early, stablecoin payments are small relative to the overall system, but the trajectory is steep: real-world stablecoin payments are now running at roughly $400 billion a year, more than double the prior year, with business-to-business flows alone up more than 700% year over year. 

ML: What are some of the biggest misunderstandings around stablecoins today? 

A persistent one is the “deposit erosion” fear — the idea that stablecoins will drain trillions from banks and affect community lending. The evidence doesn’t support it: multiple U.S. studies (Charles River Associates, Cornell’s Will Cong, the Council of Economic Advisers) find no meaningful link between stablecoin growth and bank deposits. Most stablecoins are held overseas, and 70–80% of US deposits are “sticky” and don’t chase yield. This misunderstanding has led to treating stablecoins as a threat rather than an opportunity. Properly regulated, they’re a chance to complement traditional banking, letting even small community banks offer instant, low-cost, cross-border payments that used to require a GSIB’s scale. 

ML: Cross-border payments still come with high costs and delays in many parts of the world. Where do you think on-chain payments can make the biggest real-world impact first? 

Cross-border flows are the clearest first win, because that’s where the pain — high fees, multi-day delays, correspondent-banking chains — is most acute. We already see it in remittances, where migrant workers and their families are increasingly moving money via stablecoins on their own, and in B2B payments, where regulated stablecoins are the only form of tokenised money settling across borders at scale today. 

ML: Central banks, fintechs, and payment providers are all exploring different forms of digital money from CBDCs to tokenised deposits and stablecoins. How do you see these evolving alongside each other? 

The right model is coexistence by design. Tokenised central bank reserves may settle the largest wholesale flows, while tokenised deposits and stablecoins compete for commercial flows — with institutions free to choose whichever fits the use case. The design problem worth solving is interoperability: how value moves cleanly among all three from day one. A framework that starts by excluding the instrument actually moving cross-border value at scale today isn’t building the future of payments; it risks building a walled garden the rest of the market simply routes around. 

ML: Regulation continues to be one of the biggest talking points in digital assets. Are you seeing a shift in how policymakers and regulators approach innovation in payments compared to a few years ago? 

Yes, and quite noticeably. A few years ago, the default posture was caution; today we have durable, purpose-built frameworks — the GENIUS Act in the US, MiCA in the EU, and a UK regime the Bank of England has called “world class.” Good regulatory regimes are actually accelerating adoption here, because clarity on reserves, redemption, and disclosure is exactly what gives banks, businesses, and consumers the confidence to build and transact. And when even Agustín Carstens is publicly saying he’s warmed to stablecoins, you know the shift is real — that’s about as clear a signal as you’ll get that the official-sector conversation has genuinely moved. 

ML: A lot of discussion around blockchain focuses on technology, but trust and adoption are equally important. What do you think the industry still needs to do to drive wider mainstream confidence in digital asset-powered payments? 

Trust follows good rules. The single biggest driver of mainstream confidence has been sound regulatory regimes — full-reserve backing, par redemption, transparent disclosures — that let people use digital dollars as money without worrying about what’s under the hood. The industry’s job now is to keep meeting that standard, prove reliability at scale, and keep showing that these rails deliver real, everyday improvements rather than just novelty. 

ML: Without giving too much away ahead of the Central Bank Payments Conference 2026, what key themes or conversations are you most looking forward to discussing at the event? 

I’m most interested in the conversation about the next phase of the internet — the shift from mobile to agents, where software is becoming the internet’s “second customer”: it browses, compares, and transacts on our behalf. In a sense this fulfills the original promise of the web — a “Payment Required” status code (HTTP 402) was built into the internet from the very beginning, but it sat dormant for decades because there was never a native way to actually settle the payment. The interesting question for this audience is what that second customer pays with — and why regulated, dollar-denominated stablecoins on open rails are emerging as the natural answer for funding the open internet and the machine-to-machine economy. 

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Author: Mariel Laxamana, Marketing Director, Manila, Payments Consulting Network and Merchant Advisory  

Mariel brings over 14 years of professional experience spanning news production, events, client servicing, and digital marketing. She began her career managing newscasts for a leading television network in the Philippines and now leads the digital marketing team at Payments Consulting Network, overseeing the global digital presence for both PCN and Merchant Advisory.  

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Payments Consulting Network is a media partner of Central Bank Payments Conference. 

Chad Harper will be speaking at the Central Bank Payments Conference 2026, presenting sessions on “Money at Machine Speed: Stablecoins, x402, and Agentic Payments” and “The Payments Edge – Developing the Next Generation of Payments Leaders.”

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