What was once seen as a speculative fringe movement is quickly becoming part of the global financial system, according to executives from Binance, Revolut and Circle (CRCL) who spoke at Consensus Miami on Wednesday.
“We were in the Prohibition era,” said Rachel Conlan, chief marketing officer at Binance. “We are now in the infrastructure phase.”
Conlan said cryptocurrencies are evolving beyond commerce into functional everyday use cases and are “on their way to becoming the fabric of everyday society.”
This change is increasingly visible in consumer financing. Mazen ElJundi, head of global trading investments at Revolut, said the cryptocurrency narrative has moved from speculation to “real-life utility and scaling.”
Revolut, which operates in more than 40 countries and serves more than 75 million customers, now integrates cryptocurrencies into a broader set of banking services including remittances and the use of stablecoins. “Cryptocurrency is about banking without borders,” he said.
At Circle, senior vice president of marketing Tim Queenan said institutions are increasingly exploring how to move core financial infrastructure on-chain. “Infrastructure should be boring,” he said. “What’s built on top of it is what’s interesting.” Queenan noted that stablecoins are so integrated into payments that many users don’t even consider themselves cryptocurrency users anymore.
Panelists said institutional momentum, from exchange-traded fund (ETF) approvals to major asset managers putting money on chains, is bolstering retail adoption globally.
But challenges remain. Conlan said the industry still needs to reduce friction and make onboarding easier.
Read more: Crypto ETFs go mainstream as traditional finance takes hold
