The Federal Reserve Board Wednesday, confirmed it will host a Payments Innovation Conference on Tuesday, October 21. The move is aimed at modernizing America’s payment infrastructure.
Fed Governor Christopher J. Waller emphasized the evolving expectations of both consumers and businesses and the imperative to enhance the safety and efficiency of payment systems. “Innovation has been a constant in payments to meet the changing needs of consumers and businesses,” he said.
Focus areas of innovation
The conference will feature panel discussions on pressing themes such as the convergence of traditional and decentralized finance, emerging stablecoin use cases, the integration of artificial intelligence in payments, and the tokenization of financial products and services. These discussion areas reflect the Fed’s proactive role in navigating the nexus of financial stability, innovation, and technology.
Accessible to a broad audience
Importantly, the event will be livestreamed for the public on federalreserve.gov, ensuring broad access to insights and discussions that may shape future payments policy. Additional details regarding speakers and the agenda will be announced in due course.
The conference is a step that shows the Fed’s commitment to fostering collaboration between regulators, fintech innovators, financial institutions, and stakeholders. It will ensure that the U.S. payment ecosystem adapts to emerging technologies and remains robust in the digital era.
On-chain RWA value hits record highs
The announcement of this event also comes at a time when there has been a growing appetite for real-world asset (RWA) tokenization and blockchain-based finance in the U.S. Interest has been growing ever since the passage of landmark stablecoin legislation in July. The surge in attention coincides with record levels of on-chain RWA activity.
According to data from RWA.xyz, the total value of tokenized real-world assets on public blockchains has climbed to an all-time high of $27.8 billion, representing a 223% increase since the start of the year. The majority of this value is concentrated in tokenized private credit instruments and U.S. Treasury securities, underscoring strong institutional demand for secure yield-generating products.
Ethereum continues to dominate as the infrastructure of choice for asset tokenization. It currently supports 56% of all tokenized assets, a figure that rises to more than 77% when layer-2 networks are included. This entrenched leadership has positioned Ethereum as the backbone of tokenized finance.