President of the Solana Foundation, Lily Liu, has highlighted how the growing use of stablecoins by major corporations is proving blockchain’s role as a global financial infrastructure and paving the way for artificial intelligence-powered ‘machine economies.’ During her speech at Consensus Miami 2026 on Tuesday, Liu cited recent integrations by Meta and Western Union to incorporate stablecoin payments via Solana as evidence that large businesses increasingly regard blockchain technology as practical rather than speculative.
Liu referenced Visa’s decision in 2023 to adopt stablecoin settlement capabilities on Solana after conducting an ‘extensive objective review’ of various blockchain networks, stating, “It’s not new.” She emphasized the necessity for payment rails to be fast and cost-effective while also requiring deep liquidity, a developer community, and a robust ecosystem of applications.
Liu described Western Union’s transition to blockchain infrastructure as a significant milestone for the cryptocurrency sector. “When I first entered this industry in 2014, Western Union was always considered the elusive target,” she remarked.
In discussing the synergy between cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence, Liu proposed that blockchain-based payments are ideally suited for ‘agentic commerce,’ where AI agents autonomously conduct transactions with other machines and services. She noted that traditional internet payment systems rely heavily on credit cards, making micropayments economically unfeasible due to interchange fees. In contrast, blockchain technology facilitates sub-dollar transactions and real-time payment streaming.
“The majority of online transactions are microtransactions,” Liu stated. “You can’t process these individually through credit cards.”
Liu also justified recent actions taken by the Solana ecosystem in response to security incidents involving projects like Vault and Drift, arguing that maintaining industry confidence sometimes takes precedence over internal competition within decentralized finance.
Looking forward, Liu believes the industry underestimates blockchain’s ultimate role. She suggested blockchains are primarily ‘financial rails,’ rather than just general technology platforms. Additionally, she posited crypto’s future potential could extend beyond payments into what she termed ‘internet capital markets,’ facilitating more direct global access to capital formation for companies and sovereign nations.