Solana Foundation President Lily Liu said the growing adoption of stablecoins by large corporations is validating blockchain’s evolution into global financial infrastructure, while laying the foundation for AI-powered “machine economies.”
Speaking at Consensus Miami 2026 on Tuesday, Liu pointed to recent announcements involving Meta and Western Union integrating stablecoin payments on Solana as evidence that large companies increasingly view blockchain rails as a practical infrastructure rather than a speculative technology.
“It’s not new,” Liu said, referring to Visa’s decision in 2023 to build stablecoin settlement capabilities on Solana following what he described as an “extensive objective review” of blockchain networks.
“Fast and cheap is a no-brainer for payments,” he said, adding that businesses also need deep liquidity, developers and a broad ecosystem of applications surrounding those payment avenues.
Liu described Western Union’s move to blockchain infrastructure as a particularly significant milestone for the crypto industry. “When I first entered this industry in 2014, Western Union was always the white whale crypto,” he said.
Exploring the intersection of cryptocurrencies and artificial intelligence, Liu argued that blockchain-based payments are especially suited for “agent commerce,” where AI agents autonomously transact with other machines and services.
Traditional online payment systems still rely heavily on credit cards, making micropayments economically impractical due to interchange fees, Liu said. Blockchain rails, on the other hand, enable sub-dollar transactions and real-time payment transmission.
“The vast majority of transactions that occur on the Internet actually have microtransaction value,” Liu said. “You literally can’t process those individual transactions because you have to do them using credit cards.”
Liu also defended Solana’s recent ecosystem interventions following security incidents involving projects like Vault and Drift, saying that preserving industry trust sometimes trumps competitive rivalries within decentralized finance.
Looking ahead, Liu argued that the industry is still underestimating the fundamental role of blockchain. Rather than functioning primarily as widespread technology platforms, he said blockchains are fundamentally “financial rails first and foremost.”
She added that the long-term promise of cryptocurrencies could extend beyond payments to what she called “Internet capital markets,” allowing companies and sovereign entities around the world to access global capital formation more directly.
