CryptoSwift and TEGOS Legal hosted a meetup on stablecoins x AI – two of the hottest topics in tech. Alongside our partners R2 Labs and Krüpto Klubi, we gathered a room of experts to peek behind the bend.
The evening was kicked off by a data-rich keynote from Aaron Landeros, co-founder of R2 Labs, who set the stage for our panel by mapping out the current landscape and future opportunities in the stablecoin.
Here’s a summary of his talk.
The “Killer App” is Already Here
While the conversation often jumps to future possibilities, Aaron began with a grounding poll: only about 30% of the expert audience regularly use stablecoins. This shows just how early we are.
But “early” doesn’t mean “small.”
What began as a “little experiment” in 2014 with Tether is now a financial behemoth. Aaron defines stablecoin as “WhatsApp for money”—a borderless, 24/7, digital currency that operates entirely outside traditional banking rails.
The numbers are staggering:
- $300 Billion: The total market cap of stablecoins today, up from just $5 billion in 2020.
- $10 Trillion: The annual settlement volume on stablecoin rails, which has already surpassed Visa.
- Top 2 Buyer: Tether (USDT) is now the second-largest buyer of US treasuries in the world, holding more than entire countries like Germany and Canada.
This is no longer a niche “crypto” tool. It’s a systemically important piece of new financial plumbing.
Not All Digital Dollars Are Created Equal
A central theme of Aaron’s talk was that not all stablecoins are the same. They all face the “Stablecoin Trilemma,” forced to pick two out of three key attributes: Decentralization, Stability, and Capital Efficiency.
This choice creates distinct models:
- Centralized (USDC, USDT): These prioritize stability and capital efficiency. They are run by single entities, fully collateralized by assets like US treasuries. Aaron contrasted their go-to-market strategies: Tether used a “bottom-up” approach, becoming a lifeline for US dollar access in emerging economies like Argentina and Nigeria. Circle (USDC) took a “top-down,” regulatory-first approach, becoming the choice for institutions. As Aaron put it, it was “Freedom versus the Compliant… and both succeeded.”
- Decentralized (DAI): This model prioritizes decentralization and stability, but at the cost of capital efficiency. Because it’s backed by volatile crypto assets, it must be over-collateralized (e.g., you must deposit $150 of ETH to mint $100 of DAI).
- Synthetic (USDe): Newer models, like Ethena’s, use complex, delta-neutral financial strategies to maintain their peg.
The New Whales: Why Amazon Could Dethrone Tether
The real game-changer, Aaron argued, isn’t just which stablecoin wins, but who will issue them next.
With new regulations like the EU’s MiCA providing clarity, the “whales” (major institutions) finally have a green light to enter.
Aaron offered a powerful thought experiment: Amazon.
Forget Amazon accepting crypto. The real strategy, he proposed, is Amazon paying its massive global supply chain with its own stablecoin.
Think about it:
- Amazon sources the majority of its products from Asia-Pacific, where factory owners strongly desire US dollars.
- If Amazon offered to pay them instantly in an “Amazon Stablecoin” rather than through the slow, costly traditional banking system, they would accept.
- If Amazon issued $300 billion of its own stablecoin, it would instantly become the largest issuer in the world. More importantly, it would capture the 4-5% yield from the $300 billion in US treasuries backing it.
The takeaway was stark: “The stablecoin game is just starting… the players that are playing now, maybe in five years, will become irrelevant.”
Why Now? The “Great Alignment” of Three Forces
Why is this explosion happening now? Aaron pointed to a “great alignment” of three major forces for the first time in history.
- US Geopolitics: There is a clear strategic interest in promoting the digital dominance of the US dollar. Distributing US government debt globally through stablecoins to retail and small businesses is a powerful way to diversify debt holders and maintain global financial influence.
- Macro-Economics: For the first time, we have a “real yield” of 4-5% from US Treasuries, the safest financial product in the world. This makes holding the underlying assets of a stablecoin highly profitable.
- Technology & Regulation: The infrastructure is finally mature, and for the first time, technology, economic incentives, and regulation are all pointed in the same direction.
The Future: “Yield-Bearing” Money and the “Zero-Click Internet”
This all leads to the next great evolution: Tokenization.
Aaron put it best: “In a few years, holding a stablecoin that doesn’t give you any kind of yield will feel like having a phone without internet access.”
Why would anyone hold a digital dollar that pays 0% when the underlying asset (a US Treasury) yields 5%? They won’t. The future of stablecoins is inherently yield-bearing.
This is where R2 Labs operates—tokenizing institutional-grade assets to make their yield accessible to everyday users. When you tokenize an asset like a stock or a treasury, it becomes “software”—liquid, composable, and productive 24/7. We’re already seeing this with Robinhood tokenizing stocks on Arbitrum to be used as DeFi collateral.
This new, tokenized plumbing is what will ultimately power the AI revolution. Aaron pointed to Stripe’s collaboration with OpenAI as the blueprint for agents that can “self-drive” a business, autonomously paying subscriptions and taxes.
This is the “Zero-Click Internet,” where AI agents make machine-to-machine micropayments without any human intervention, all running on the stablecoin rails being built today.
The key message from the evening was clear: stablecoins aren’t just a faster way to trade. They are a fundamental rebuilding of our financial plumbing—and the revolution is just getting started.
We then moved on to a panel discussion on the regulatory and risk management aspects of stablecoins in the hands of AI agents. Moderated by Priit Lätt, Partner at TEGOS Legal, the panel includes three speakers:
– Pavel Ruban, CFA, Head of Finance at Ready Player Me
– Kate Voogla, Head of Sales at CryptoSwift
– Kirsti Pent, Partner at TEGOS Legal
The Future of Money: Stablecoins, Regulation, and the Rise of AI Agents
Tradition Meets Innovation
The discussion opened with contrasts between traditional finance and crypto pioneers. Kirsti Pent, a long-time advisor to banks, admitted being the “dinosaur in the room,” while others represented the new wave of fintech founders and crypto operators.
Paul from Ready Player Me—an Estonian startup backed by Andreessen Horowitz — described how his company builds cross-game avatars and how crypto concepts like interoperability and digital assets naturally intersect with gaming economies. Kate from CryptoSwift added a payments-sector view, recalling the painfully slow settlements of early mobile payments and how stablecoins now promise near-instant value transfer.
Why Stablecoins Matter
Despite the hype around blockchain and NFTs, stablecoins appear to be the first crypto innovation with real traction. Panelists noted that:
- Stablecoins now move trillions of dollars monthly and represent $300 billion in circulation.
- They enable instant settlements, always-on liquidity, and programmable finance.
- For companies paying international contractors or selling subscriptions globally, stablecoins can dramatically cut friction and costs.
However, Paul warned that stablecoins remain tethered to fiat risk: “If the underlying banking system wobbles, so do stablecoins.” The 2023 Silicon Valley Bank collapse illustrated this vulnerability—instant withdrawals could trigger liquidity crises even faster.
Europe’s Regulatory Tightrope
A major theme was the contrast between Europe’s MiCA regulation and the U.S. Genius Act.
- MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets): heavy compliance, mandatory EU establishment, and strict cross-border limits.
- Genius Act (U.S.): lighter-touch, innovation-first, allowing foreign equivalence instead of requiring local incorporation.
Panelists agreed that Europe risks becoming uncompetitive due to over-regulation and administrative complexity. Still, MiCA’s passporting rights—once a license is granted in one EU state, it applies across the bloc—were seen as a rare advantage.
Estonia’s own history shows both sides of the coin. Once praised for its digital governance, it initially took a hard-line enforcement approach toward crypto before swinging to liberal licensing—creating 2,000 service providers and later, regulatory headaches.
AI and “Agentic Payments”
The conversation then turned to AI in finance, with talk of “AI agents” triggering or managing micropayments autonomously. Companies like Stripe, Coinbase, and Google are already piloting such systems.
Still, the panelists agreed that AI adoption is early, and legal questions around liability remain unsettled. Under the EU’s AI Act, high-risk systems require human oversight, meaning that for now, humans remain accountable for the actions of AI payment agents.
Key Takeaways
- Stablecoins have moved from hype to utility, especially for cross-border payments.
- Europe’s MiCA provides legal certainty but may stifle innovation compared to the U.S. approach.
- AI-driven payments are emerging, but regulation must clarify accountability before mass adoption.
In sum – the financial world is converging, so traditional and crypto players alike are learning that regulation, technology, and trust must evolve together.