Vegas & Voltage: Highlights from Money20/20 USA 2025

In true Vegas style, Money20/20 USA 2025 didn’t tiptoe into the future – it kicked the door open, neon lights blazing.  So yes, it was business as usual for the greatest fintech show on earth.

Even in the few months since we were at Money20/20 Europe in Amsterdam, it was interesting to see how buzzwords – AI, digital assets, infrastructure – are now evolving into blueprints. It felt as if this year’s theme, Create the Future, was less of an invitation and more like a challenge.

Here’s our take on what really mattered.

Infrastructure Takes Centre Stage

Remember when fintech had an unhealthy obsession with front-end design and kerb appeal for customers? That is giving way to something deeper. Money20/20 USA 2025 made it clear: the next wave of fintech innovation won’t be something you see – it’ll be something you run on.

Under the banner of the Age of Infrastructure, much of the discussion was about systems, rails, and digital currencies quietly rewiring the way money moves. Stablecoins, once dismissed as crypto’s experimental cousin, took centre stage as the new infrastructure currency of the digital economy.

With the GENIUS Actsetting the stage for stablecoin regulation in the US, conversations turned from theory to tangible progress. Circle, Citi, and even Bitcoin’s early evangelists were talking less about speculation and more about settlement – the faster, cheaper, and more transparent movement of money.  

They have finally been able to shake off the stigma that anything with the word ‘coin’ used to have. These are real-world applications that we all hoped would eventually emerge.

As Circle’s CCO, Kash Razzaghi noted, merchants are increasingly asking practical questions: how can stablecoins solve speed, cost, and transparency in online payments? This was just one of the signals that blockchain’s long-promised potential is finally shedding its murky past and stepping into the mainstream.

Trust in a Machine World

If 2024 was the year AI talked a big game, 2025 is the year it started showing its hand.  Industry leaders shared how machine intelligence is now deeply embedded in fraud detection, underwriting, and customer experience.

But while the new intelligence has packed its bag and is ready to fly, trust is the rubber stamp required in its passport before it can take off. In session after session, speakers circled back to one truth: the future of digital finance will only move as fast as consumers are willing to trust it.

That’s why agentic AI – systems that don’t just predict outcomes but act on them – dominated the discussion. Checkout.com, eBay, and Uber explored what they called ‘agentic commerce’. This is the fascinating discussion around the next generation of online transactions, powered by autonomous agents that can search, compare, and buy on behalf of users. It’s a bold new model – and one we explored ourselves in our recent “Predictive, Agentic & Human: The 3 Intelligences Shaping Payments” piece.

As eBay’s Avritti Khandurie Mittal reminded the room, “We need to remain grounded, and maintain trust at the centre of every merchant-consumer interaction.” In other words, even the most advanced automation can’t win out over the need for accountability.

At the event, the concept evolved into something new – the architecture of trust. The idea that we must go beyond KYC (Know Your Customer) to KYA (Know Your Agent). This means verifying not just who the customer is, but which AI systems are acting on their behalf. It’s a mindset shift that reframes trust from a defensive measure to a growth enabler.

And that’s the next great challenge: not just teaching machines to think but teaching them to be trusted.

From our perspective as a fintech marketing agency, it opens fascinating and potentially game-changing discussions about who (or what) we will be selling to in the future.

Powering Global Money Movement

If there was one theme that cut through the noise in Vegas, it was scale, not just in ambition, but in access. The spotlight turned to the infrastructure and innovation driving the faster and fairer money movement across borders and into the hands of the businesses that need it most.

Global interoperability and instant settlement have become top priorities, with new digital rails and tokenised systems reshaping how value flows between markets. What was once a slow, opaque process is becoming seamless – and that shift could redefine global trade for SMEs.

Startup and payment providers were showcasing new models for small and mid-sized businesses to send, receive, and reconcile payments in real-time, without being burdened by fees or waiting days for funds to arrive. From blockchain-based remittance corridors to stablecoin-enabled settlement, these innovations are doing more than connecting systems – it’s now about connecting economies.

As Capital Pioneer put it, the convergence of crypto, payments, and finance is blurring the boundaries between traditional and digital players. But this year, the convergence wasn’t about competition – it was about circulation. The movement of money, data, and opportunity across borders is becoming the new growth engine for fintech.

For SMEs, this means access to liquidity, consumers, and confidence. The future of finance is fairer, finally bringing small businesses into the global financial conversation on equal footing.

The Human Touch in a Digital Future

Even as fintech’s infrastructure gets rewired and AI  strains at its leash, one sentiment rang loud and clear: no machine, no matter how smart, replaces the need for human connection.

Between panels on agentic commerce and the AI-driven future of payments, the conversation kept coming back to the same point: technology might be transforming the way money moves, but trust, emotion, and connection still decide where it lands.

The rise of agentic AI sparked lively debate among leaders from Checkout.com, eBay, Uber, and Mastercard. Their focus wasn’t just on what these systems can do, but on how they make people feel. When algorithms start comparing deals and completing checkouts for us, what happens to loyalty, transparency, and choice? It’s a question that cuts to the heart of how humans and machines will coexist in commerce.

At Blue Train Marketing, we’ve been exploring this very tension in our whitepaper, “Intelligent, Not Imitated: A Guide to Balancing AI & Emotional Intelligence in Fintech Marketing”. Because while predictive and agentic systems can anticipate and act, they can’t empathise. Emotional Intelligence is what keeps technology trustworthy and brands relatable.

From what we took from these discussions, the real challenge isn’t about making smarter systems. It’s about making them feel human. That means fintech’s next big breakthrough won’t be measured in speed or scale, but in how seamlessly it blends intelligence with empathy.

Until Next Time

It’s always a pleasure to join these debates and meet so many industry innovators and game-changers. We would like to thank Money20/20 for once again having Blue Train Marketing as Media Partners for Money20/20 USA. See you all again soon!