The future of digital money: Industry leaders forecast what’s next
The global online gambling market is projected to reach $153.57 billion by 2030, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.9 percent from 2025 to 2030, according to a report by Grand View Research. The report said the surge is fuelled by the growing popularity of freemium gaming models, the rapid expansion of mobile betting platforms, and broader internet accessibility. The Asia Pacific region alone is expected to gain 333 million new mobile internet users this year, further accelerating demand for seamless digital payment systems.
At Philippine Blockchain Week 2025, during the panel titled “Fintech Flex: Where Digital Money Gets Real,” experts from across the crypto and payments industries gathered to discuss the evolving landscape of digital money — and the infrastructure needed to support its future.
Machine-to-machine payments and programmable wallets
“We are going to see more machine-to-machine money transactions,” Alice Truong, Vice President and Head of Digital Assets for APAC at Nuvei, said. “We work with Mercedes-Benz. Imagine you go to the petrol station or 7-Eleven — you don’t even need to get out of the car. You can just use the wallet inside the car to pay because everything is programmable now.”
Truong also predicted a shift in how personal data and ownership are handled through blockchain. “In the future, everything’s going to be on-chain — your property, your loans, your cars, even things under the table can be on-chain.” She envisions a future in which individuals can selectively present proof of ownership or financial data on demand.
Stablecoins dominate, CBDCs lag in retail use
Anton Golub, Chief Business Officer at FreedX, offered a deep dive into the current use cases for stablecoins and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). “Stablecoins are a proven use case,” he said. “Today, you have $250 billion of stablecoins on the blockchain.”
However, Golub noted that much of this activity is concentrated in the trading sector. “Most of the use cases are still in trading. So, traders are moving stablecoin dollars around the blockchain. Less than 10 percent is used for everyday purposes like payments or remittances.”
As for central bank digital currencies, Golub expressed scepticism about their usefulness for consumers. “CBDCs will be for the banks,” he explained. “The retail use case will be mostly stablecoins. Every payment company might have its own stablecoin and exchanges, too. But the end-user will use stablecoins.”
Jonathan Feder, Co-founder of Comet, echoed Golub’s sentiment — though with a sharper critique. “CBDCs don’t make much sense, honestly,” he said. “They could work in a wholesale approach between banks and governments, but not for everyday use.”
While he sees stablecoins less as traditional money and more as “a representation of balance,” Feder believes they hold tremendous promise for cross-border financial services. “There’s a huge opportunity for payments and cross-border transactions,” he said. “The Philippines is an amazing market for global remittance. That’s why we’re all here — to help institutions, banks, and fintech onboard into this new frontier.”
Real-world asset tokenisation: A global game-changer
Golub also spoke about tokenisation as a transformative trend in financial markets. “One of the biggest opportunities now in the world is tokenising real-world assets,” he said, citing a recent initiative in Dubai where a flat ownership was fractionalised. “[They] split the apartment into very small pieces. Then, hundreds of small investors — with just $100 or $200 — became fractional owners. This allows regular people to access investments that were once only for big institutions.”
He sees parallel potential in the Philippines. “There are so many smart people here producing or building something — in agriculture, logistics. They can tokenise their assets or services and get liquidity from investors around the world,” Golub said.
The digital future is local, global, and automated
The next chapter of digital money lies not only in breakthrough technologies but also in the pragmatic deployment and adoption of these innovations. From self-executing car payments and streamlined remittances to tokenised real estate and programmable identity, digital currencies — whether stablecoins, CBDCs, or innovations still to come — are already reshaping how value moves across borders, sectors, and communities.
