Stablecoin infrastructure emerged as a central theme at MERGE Madrid 2026, where financial institutions discussed building payment and settlement systems for digital assets. The conference ran from October 27 to 29 at the Bolsa de Madrid stock exchange and the Palacio de Cibeles.

Speakers described a sector in transition: banks are moving beyond client-facing cryptocurrency trading toward backend systems for stablecoins and tokenized assets. Panels covered payment rails, custody, settlement, and the connections between emerging blockchain networks and existing financial infrastructure, drawing perspectives from payments firms, regulators, and digital asset companies.

Stablecoin Payment Rails Gain Momentum

Jordan Wain, Global Policy Lead at Chainalysis, said overall cryptocurrency economic activity reached roughly $9.4 trillion between June 2025 and June 2026. Total volume edged down 1.6% year-over-year, while cross-border stablecoin transfers rose by 80% over the same period. According to the conference report, the figures point to increased stablecoin use for payments even as token market prices softened.

Alexandra Soroko of Visa highlighted card settlement using stablecoins, which she said allows institutions to settle obligations around the clock, seven days a week. She identified corporate treasury management and cross-border commercial transactions as key drivers.

Marie Winter, managing director of OSL EU, said the company secured its Markets in Crypto-Assets license in Austria in early July under the European Union's harmonized crypto framework, which allows a provider authorized in one member state to operate across the bloc. It is applying for payment institution and Electronic Money Institution licenses, with plans to focus on third-party payments, token exchanges, and fiat on/off-ramp infrastructure across Europe.

Banks Position Themselves as Digital Asset Infrastructure Providers

Stijn Vander Straeten, CEO of Crypto Finance Group, a Deutsche Börse subsidiary, said most current bank revenue from digital assets comes from basic client trading desks. Investment, he noted, is also going into backend architecture, including staking protocols, tokenized deposit systems, and settlement networks.

Executives from Commerzbank, N26, and Applied Blockchain described banks as potential neutral infrastructure operators. In that model, institutions provide systems for corporate clients to transact rather than holding large stablecoin reserves directly on their balance sheets.

Mirko Pfiffner, senior solutions manager at Bank Frick, said crypto exchanges and liquidity providers continue to rely on banking relationships for fiat flows. He described a possible specialization in which banks focus on payment rails, custody, or trading rather than attempting every function.

António Henriques, CEO of Bison Bank, said his institution connects traditional banking clients with crypto firms while helping them navigate regulatory compliance. Shrutisagar Chandrasekaran of Fireblocks described workforce training, compliance processes, and corporate governance as operational challenges in digital asset integration.

Luis Nacarino of Santander CIB argued that digital currency networks need to connect rather than become isolated systems. Alberto Carlos Alonso Temprado of Iberpay said blockchain should enhance existing European payment systems rather than start from scratch.

Tokenization and Automated Payments Raise Questions

Abel Peña, chief strategy officer at Bit2Me, announced approval for STX, a platform intended to tokenize corporate shares and bonds for medium-sized enterprises. Experts from BBVA and Bullish cautioned that tokenized assets need sufficient market liquidity, particularly during heightened market volatility.

Panelists from Mastercard, Tether, and the Cardano Foundation discussed artificial intelligence agents making autonomous transactions. They said digital identities and explicit authorization protocols are important safeguards before software executes payments.

Guillaume Rodenas of TRM Labs said know-your-customer compliance for AI payment agents must identify the human or company with ultimate control of an algorithm. Luis Ayala of BitGo discussed agentic wallets, AI systems that use large language models to settle transactions for users. The report presented these as emerging payment concepts, not as current deployments.

Western Union and Qivalis Describe Settlement Plans

Malcolm Clarke of Western Union and Emilio Rivero Coello of Anchorage Digital discussed USDPT, a dollar-backed token that Anchorage issued on Solana in May. According to the report, it was deployed in remittance markets including Bolivia and the Philippines as a back-end settlement mechanism across Western Union's local agent network, not as a retail consumer wallet.

Anchorage Digital said replacing pre-funded correspondent bank accounts with liquid stablecoin balances can reduce international settlement from several business days to minutes.

The report also described Qivalis, an Amsterdam-based consortium that grew from nine founding institutions to 37 financial organizations across 15 countries. Qivalis plans to issue a regulated euro stablecoin on the public Ethereum network under the MiCA framework and the direct supervision of the Dutch Central Bank.

Euro-backed stablecoins remain below $1 billion in market capitalization, according to the report, compared with more than $300 billion for US dollar-pegged stablecoins globally — a gap that frames the scale of the euro-denominated issuance Qivalis is planning.

Taken together, the plans and figures framed the conference's practical next steps: institutions are building systems while addressing liquidity, compliance, and network interoperability. Near-term milestones include OSL EU's pending payment institution and Electronic Money Institution license applications, Qivalis's planned euro stablecoin issuance under the Dutch Central Bank's supervision, and the ongoing use of USDPT as back-end settlement in remittance corridors such as Bolivia and the Philippines.