The Future of Cross-Border Commerce in the Age of AI and Stablecoins - Are We Building Payments Infrastructure That Works for Merchants, Consumers, and Machines?

Cross-border payments for merchants remain expensive, slow, and fragmented — and for SME sellers in emerging markets, often inaccessible entirely. This session tests whether tokenised money (stablecoins, tokenised deposits, CBDCs) is genuinely reducing cost, time, and friction for merchants in live corridors today, or whether the promise still outpaces reality. It then introduces agentic commerce — AI agents executing transactions autonomously on behalf of businesses — as the stress test that reveals whether the infrastructure, regulation, and trust frameworks being built are fit for what comes next. Participants will leave with a grounded picture of where tokenised money works for merchants today, where the gaps remain (particularly for SME sellers in emerging markets), and the specific policy and infrastructure conditions that would unlock the next stage of cross-border commerce.