US Fed to Host Payments Innovation Conference on Crypto and AI

In brief

The conference will examine stablecoins, tokenized assets, AI for payments, and DeFi.
Governor Christopher Waller said innovation has been “a constant” in meeting consumer and business needs.
The event adds to a packed Q4 policy calendar alongside other initiatives from the SEC, CFTC, BIS, and MAS.

The Federal Reserve Board announced Wednesday it will host a conference on payments innovation on October 21, with a focus on emerging technologies in U.S. payment systems.

The event will bring together regulators, academics, and industry participants to discuss ways to “innovate and improve the payments system,” per the announcement.

“Innovation has been a constant in payments to meet the changing needs of consumers and businesses,” Federal Reserve Governor Christopher J. Waller said in a statement.

The conference is positioned to bring together “ideas on how to improve the safety and efficiency of payments, and hearing from those helping to shape the future of payments,” Governor Waller added.

The event will feature panel discussions on the convergence of traditional and decentralized finance, new stablecoin use cases, the intersection of artificial intelligence and payments, and the tokenization of financial products and services.

It will be livestreamed on the Federal Reserve’s website, with further details to be announced. Decrypt has reached out to the central bank for further details.

The inclusion of stablecoins and tokenization under one conference table connects with how the Fed and regulators are viewing digital assets through the same policy lens as traditional payments.

Last month, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission advanced its own “Crypto Sprint” where it will assess custody, leveraged retail trading, and consumer protections. It is now in its public consultation phase, which runs through October 20.

The Fed’s October conference announcement follows a joint SEC and CFTC statement on Monday that sought to clarify how registered exchanges may list certain spot crypto products, including leveraged retail trades, under their Project Crypto and Crypto Sprint initiatives.

The move, pitched as advancing regulatory clarity and market choice, comes just weeks before policy dialogues and pilots from the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Bank for International Settlements.