Blockchain Moves Beyond the Buzz at Money20/20 USA

At Money20/20 USA in Las Vegas, blockchain finally shed its reputation as a tech experiment. In a discussion led by Preeti Chaturvedi of HSBC, Circle’s Kash Razzaghi and Worley’s Pushkar Rao explored how the technology is reshaping payments, compliance, and enterprise operations.

The fast arrival of a new form of money

Chaturvedi opened with a reminder that the financial system rarely transforms overnight. “Money has changed form only five times in five thousand years,” she said. “This time, the shift is happening much faster.” The conversation has moved from if blockchain will change payments to how it can fit within the infrastructure that already moves trillions every day.

Fixing inefficiency through shared visibility

For large enterprises, payment friction remains a constant. Rao described how global operations with thousands of suppliers often struggle with slow settlements and little transparency. “We build mega projects worth billions, yet we lack predictability over payments,” he said. The issue, he explained, is not liquidity but process.

Blockchain is helping bridge that gap. By introducing shared ledgers and automated payment triggers, his team is creating real-time visibility across banks, vendors, and internal systems. Rao pointed to his collaboration with HSBC on a distributed orchestration layer that links traditional payment rails with newer, faster systems. The approach has already simplified procurement and accelerated payments that once required manual reconciliation.

Regulation opens the door for enterprise adoption

Razzaghi reflected on why blockchain adoption took time. “Digital assets had a marketing problem,” he said. “For years, enterprises wouldn’t touch them because they didn’t know what backed them or how regulated they were.”

That picture is changing quickly. Frameworks in the US, Japan, the Middle East, and Europe have brought digital assets into a clearer legal structure. “Regulation is what gives enterprises the confidence to move,” he said. With those rules in place, corporations are starting to design strategies for digital money and stablecoins, rather than treating them as experiments.

Programmable money and the bridge to traditional finance

Circle’s long-term vision has been to make money move with the same speed as data on the internet. “If funds could travel like information, transaction volume could rise exponentially,” Razzaghi said. “That kind of velocity creates new access to capital and inclusion for regions that never had it before.”

He sees programmable money as the key development ahead. Rather than relying on manual approvals, payments could execute automatically once conditions are met, written directly into business logic. To succeed, however, this innovation must connect to existing rails. “People don’t want to custody their own money. They want institutions they trust,” he said. “That’s why banks and payment providers are investing heavily in on-chain movement.”

Scale, experience, and inclusion

Analysts project that the value of stablecoins in circulation could reach between two and six trillion dollars by 2030. Razzaghi believes the infrastructure is catching up. Public blockchains can now handle high transaction loads, and major players like Circle are building proprietary networks to sustain that growth.

He also pointed to user experience as the missing piece. Managing digital wallets is still complex for many, but design improvements are simplifying how users store and transfer value. “The complexity is disappearing,” he said. “Once it moves to the background, mass adoption will follow.”

From pilots to progress

Rao’s division is already testing what that future looks like. Blockchain is automating nearly all procurement payments and providing instant supplier visibility. When payments clear in seconds, even small efficiency gains translate into measurable savings. “A one percent improvement on billions of dollars is a material result,” he said.

He views technology as the easy part and culture as the real obstacle. Smaller companies can pivot fast, but global corporations need sustained leadership commitment to change how money moves.

Enterprise interest becomes action

As the session closed, Razzaghi observed that momentum is no longer theoretical. “It’s not just adoption, it’s genuine interest from enterprises that now want to use blockchain to improve customer experience,” he said. Companies in finance, infrastructure, and energy are building strategies, not experiments.

The transition from buzzword to backbone is well underway. Blockchain is quietly moving from panels and pilots into the architecture of everyday payments, where speed and trust are finally meeting at scale.

---

Event Coverage Sponsored by Liberis

• Read more under:
• Fintech Events
• Unofficially Money 20/20