While the panel centred on the future of digital money and infrastructure, the discussion also underscored the UAE’s growing relevance in the global Web3 ecosystem.
At BRIDGE Summit 2025, Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire and Binance CEO Richard Teng engaged in a forward-looking discussion on how Web3 is set to redefine global ownership models, economic participation and financial infrastructure. The session, titled Web3 and the New Rules of Ownership, was moderated by Erik LaPaglia, Managing Partner at NextTech Ventures, who opened by noting that between 600 and 800m people worldwide now hold digital assets, a sign of how much the landscape is expanding and the challenges that lie ahead.
Allaire projected a dramatic rise in stablecoin adoption. “In the coming years, we’ll see stablecoins grow to as much as $4tn in circulation. Stablecoins are becoming a form of electronic money that is in the background for people all over the world. Users are increasingly viewing them as the most high-utility, kind of safest form of money, native internet money.”
He added that scaling from hundreds of millions to billions of users will require stablecoins to “come more into the front,” praising Binance’s wallet and payments experience for making onboarding straightforward.
Teng framed the rise of digital assets as a reaction to long-standing limitations in traditional finance. “If you look at traditional financial infrastructure, it is still very slow. When you do things like cross-border, it takes two to three days. With stablecoin and crypto, it is 10 minutes at a fraction of the cost. Blockchain is solving big problems, enabling better distribution of rewards, faster transferability, and transparent rights management.”
Allaire added that blockchain is now at a moment similar to when mobile technology reached with the arrival of iOS and Android. “More and more economic activity is going to move on-chain. The entirety of what it is to be an economic actor in the world is going to move on this infrastructure over the next roughly 10 years,” he said.
While the panel focused on technical and economic futures, both speakers signaled, implicitly through their remarks, a recognition of the UAE as a place where progress accelerates.
Teng referenced Binance’s milestone announcement of reaching 300m users worldwide, made the day before on December 8 in Abu Dhabi, as well as the company’s newly announced global license at ADGM, framing the UAE as a jurisdiction that provides “a lot more credibility” for global growth.
Allaire noted Circle’s expanding collaborations across blockchain networks and stablecoin issuers, positioning cross-border payments as one of the “killer apps” with rapidly growing adoption, a momentum reinforced by being in a global convergence point like BRIDGE Summit.
Their presence and announcements in Abu Dhabi illustrated the Summit’s core purpose: bridging global actors in an environment that enables real movement, not just discussion.
The panel was part of a 300+ session programme that reflects BRIDGE Summit’s scale and ambition. The debut edition of BRIDGE Summit takes place from December 8–10 , 2025 at ADNEC in Abu Dhabi.
