Solana Foundation President Lily Liu said the growing adoption of stablecoins by large corporations validates blockchain’s evolution into a global financial infrastructure, while laying the foundation for an AI-driven “machine economy.”
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 are increasingly viewing blockchain rails as practical infrastructure rather than speculative technology.
“This is not new,” Liu said, referring to Visa’s decision in 2023 to build stablecoin settlement capabilities on Solana following what she described as a “thorough objective review” of blockchain networks.
“Fast and cheap payments are a no-brainer,” she said, adding that businesses also need deep liquidity, developers and a large ecosystem of applications surrounding these payment avenues.
An important milestone for crypto adoption
Liu described Western Union’s move to blockchain infrastructure as a particularly significant step for the crypto industry. “When I came into this industry in 2014, Western Union was always the crypto-white whale,” she said.
Exploring the intersection of cryptography and artificial intelligence, Liu argued that blockchain-based payments are particularly suited to “agent commerce,” in which AI agents transact autonomously with other machines and services.
Traditional Internet payment systems remain heavily reliant on credit cards, making micropayments economically impractical due to interchange fees, Liu said. In contrast, blockchain rails enable sub-dollar transactions and real-time payment streaming.
“The vast majority of transactions made on the Internet actually have microtransaction value,” Liu said. “You literally can’t process these individual transactions because you have to go through them through credit cards.”
Defending interventions on ecosystems
Liu also defended recent interventions by the Solana ecosystem following security incidents involving projects such as Vault and Drift, saying that preserving industry trust sometimes trumps competitive rivalries within decentralized finance.
Looking ahead, Liu argued that the industry still underestimates the ultimate role of blockchain. Rather than functioning primarily as generalized technology platforms, she said blockchains are fundamentally “financial rails first and foremost.”
She added that crypto’s long-term promise could extend beyond payments into what she calls “internet capital markets,” allowing businesses and sovereign entities around the world to more directly access global capital formation.
