From the stage of the Web Summit in Lisbon, the founder of Noah explains how stablecoins can revolutionize international transfers, reduce costs and connect local payment systems.
The next frontier? Artificial intelligence agents capable of carrying out transactions autonomously.
Stablecoins could become the underlying infrastructure of future international payments, allowing money to be transferred from one country to another in a few seconds, without going through traditional correspondent banking networks.
This is the vision of Shah Ramezani, CEO and founder of Noah , a company specializing in payment infrastructures based on stablecoins, who spoke during a panel at the Web Summit in Lisbon.
“We move money at the speed of the Internet,” Ramezani explained, summarizing the company’s mission.
The central point of his speech is that the blockchain does not necessarily have to be visible to the end user. Its value lies in making possible a global financial infrastructure capable of connecting local payment systems that today work efficiently within their respective countries, but still encounter numerous obstacles when they have to interact with each other.
Stablecoins and international payments: the limits of traditional systems
In Europe there are instant payment systems, just as in Brazil Pix makes it possible to transfer money quickly between bank accounts.
The problem emerges when you try to transfer money between two different markets.
A domestic payment can be practically immediate, while an international transfer often still requires several intermediaries, especially when it involves correspondent banks and traditional infrastructures such as SWIFT.
Each step can introduce additional costs, waiting times and operational complexity.
According to Ramezani, stablecoins can eliminate a large part of these steps by directly connecting local payment infrastructures through the blockchain.
The result is what the CEO defines as a form of instant global money: the speed of domestic payments combined with the ability to transfer value between different countries.
The user does not necessarily have to know that they are using a blockchain. They can continue to use their own payment app or platform, while the underlying infrastructure takes care of currency conversion, transfer via stablecoins and distribution of funds in the local currency.
It is precisely this technological invisibility that represents one of the most interesting aspects of the model.
A market worth tens of trillions, but stablecoins still represent a small share
During the panel, the economic potential of international payments was mentioned.
According to market estimates, cross-border transfers between companies represent an enormous market, still largely dominated by traditional financial infrastructures.
A McKinsey report estimates at around 226 billion dollars the volume of B2B payments made via stablecoins in 2025, with growth of 733% compared to the previous year.
To understand the size of the opportunity, it is enough to compare this figure with the global B2B cross-border payments market, which FXC Intelligence estimates at around 34.8 trillion dollars in 2025.
B2B payments in stablecoins therefore still represent less than 1% of the potential market.
For Ramezani, it is precisely this gap that makes the sector particularly interesting.
Noah states that it is already processing transactions worth several billion dollars and that it has recorded significant growth in recent years. During the panel, the CEO explained that the company has increased its revenues by more than 500%, emphasizing how building the regulatory infrastructure was a priority before further accelerating expansion.
The data subsequently published by the company confirm revenue growth of 538% in the first months of 2026 compared to the same period in 2025.
The company also announced that it has surpassed 40 regulatory licenses, registrations and authorizations, with a presence in over 150 markets and support for more than 60 currencies.
Noah: regulation as a competitive advantage
One of the most interesting parts of the talk concerns the relationship between stablecoins and regulation.
Ramezani explained that Noah deliberately chose to tackle from the outset some of the most complex markets from a regulatory point of view: the United States, Europe and Canada.
A decision that involved considerable costs, time and difficulties, but which according to the CEO represents one of the most important investments for the company’s future.
In the payments sector, in fact, having efficient technology is not enough. When handling customers’ money, it is necessary to ensure controls, compliance procedures and adequate security standards.
Noah’s strategy is therefore to build a regulated infrastructure that allows its customers to access more markets without having to face the entire authorization process on their own.
The CEO stressed how the stablecoin sector has radically changed its reputation in recent years. While initially the connection with the crypto world generated distrust, today operators such as Circle and Paxos represent examples of companies that have built business models strongly oriented toward regulatory compliance.
Ramezani also believes that the risk for a payment infrastructure such as Noah is different from that of an entity that permanently holds reserves in stablecoins. In the model described during the panel, stablecoins are used for the time necessary to complete the transfer, often only for a few seconds or minutes.
This does not mean that the risks disappear: the freezing of transfers by an issuer, loss of the peg or problems with a banking partner remain eventualities to be considered.
However, according to the CEO, the combination of regulated operators and infrastructures that comply with regulations can significantly reduce exposure to these problems.
Why digital dollars are so popular in emerging markets
Another central topic of the panel was the growing international interest in dollar-pegged stablecoins.
Ramezani mentioned markets such as Brazil and several African countries, where inflation and volatility of local currencies can make the possibility of holding dollars particularly attractive.
In some contexts, he explained, people have historically tried to protect their savings by keeping dollar banknotes. Stablecoins now offer a digital alternative, easier to transfer and use in international transactions.
According to the figures cited during the panel, the stablecoin market has grown from around 30 billion dollars in capitalization to over 300 billion in the span of four years.
The phenomenon is not only technological, but also monetary.
For many users, especially in countries with weak currencies, a dollar stablecoin represents a way to access an asset perceived as more stable than the national currency.
Noah’s CEO acknowledges that this trend can create tensions with the monetary policies of individual countries and contribute to greater dollarization of economies.
However, from his perspective, the priority must also be to offer people better financial tools.
The spread of stablecoins could also push some governments and central banks to improve their monetary policy in order to make local currencies more competitive.
From stablecoins to tokenized securities: the next step
For Ramezani, the digital dollar is only the first layer of a much broader change.
The real evolution could come when blockchain infrastructures make it possible to transfer and use other categories of financial assets as well.
The CEO indicated tokenized securities, including bonds and stocks, as the next developments.
The idea is that stablecoins can become the means of payment and settlement through which to access a broader ecosystem of digital financial instruments.
During the panel he proposed a concrete example: a small Brazilian company that today sees the value of its savings eroded by inflation could gain access to digital dollars and, subsequently, to tokenized financial instruments capable of offering new return opportunities.
In this scenario, the blockchain would not only serve to transfer money, but would become a gateway to financial markets that were previously difficult to reach for part of the population and small businesses.
Naturally, access to these instruments will have to be accompanied by adequate safeguards, transparency and regulation.
Circle, Tether and Noah: who controls the new payment system?
Another interesting part concerned the economic structure of the stablecoin sector and the relationship between issuers and payment infrastructures.
Ramezani offered a comparison: Circle and Tether can be considered, in some respects, like Visa and Mastercard, while companies such as Noah operate at a different level of the value chain.
Issuers create stablecoins and manage the reserves that back them. Payment operators, on the other hand, allow these digital currencies to circulate between different systems, connecting local infrastructures and making international transfer possible.
These are two distinct activities, although they are closely interconnected.
Issuers can generate revenue through the yield on the underlying reserves, while infrastructure operators monetize conversion, transfer and payment management services.
Ramezani observed that new stablecoins are also emerging that adopt different models for distributing yields, making the sector increasingly competitive.
To give an idea of the weight this market could take on, he also pointed out that stablecoin issuers have become important buyers of U.S. Treasury securities.
The growth of reserves could turn these operators into increasingly significant players in the U.S. debt market.
Western Union is also betting on stablecoins
The transformation does not concern only fintech startups.
During the panel, Ramezani mentioned the growing interest of established operators such as Western Union and MoneyGram in stablecoin-based infrastructures.
The message is significant: even companies that have built their business on traditional international transfers are beginning to understand the potential of this technology.
A concrete example comes from Western Union itself, which on October 20, 2026 announced that it had chosen Noah to power its global stablecoin-based payment infrastructure.
The partnership involves the use of Noah’s infrastructure for the Receiver Redirect service, which will make it possible to transfer funds via USDPT, a dollar stablecoin issued by Anchorage Digital Bank on the Solana blockchain.
The project aims to make transfers available in over 60 currencies and more than 200 countries and territories, leveraging Western Union’s international network.
This is an important step because it shows that stablecoins are no longer just an infrastructure used by crypto-native companies, but are gradually entering traditional financial services.
For Noah, working with operators of this scale means being able to integrate its technology into payment networks already used by millions of people.
AI agents and autonomous payments: the next frontier
The final part of the panel was dedicated to one of the most interesting topics for the future of digital finance: payments made autonomously by artificial intelligence agents.
Ramezani believes that AI agents will be one of the main drivers of growth for stablecoins in the coming years.
The reason is relatively simple: AI agents must be able to make payments autonomously, quickly and continuously.
Traditional banking infrastructures were designed for human beings and involve authentication, authorization and control procedures that can make interaction with autonomous software more complex.
Stablecoins, on the other hand, are native to the Internet and can be transferred through digital wallets, with operations available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
According to the CEO, this feature makes them particularly suited to the needs of AI agents, which may need to purchase services, pay for access to data, use cloud infrastructures or carry out transactions without waiting for human intervention for each single operation.
During the discussion, a figure of around 50 million dollars in transactions and 40,000 on-chain agents was mentioned, demonstrating a market still in its early stages.
However, Ramezani believes that these numbers represent only a small part of the future potential.
Noah is already investing in this direction, trying to understand how to adapt its infrastructure to a world in which customers may no longer be only people or companies, but also software agents acting on their behalf.
The strategic question, according to the CEO, will therefore become: to whom will the companies of the future sell their services? Directly to users or to AI agents that will interact with them and manage their transactions?
“Apps could become irrelevant”
One of Ramezani’s most ambitious predictions concerns precisely the future of applications.
According to Noah’s founder, traditional apps could gradually lose centrality, leaving room for interfaces based on personal agents.
Users could rely on a single AI assistant to manage purchases, work, health and financial services, delegating payment operations to these systems as well.
In this scenario, companies will have to rethink their products so that they can be used directly by agents, rather than being designed exclusively for human interaction through an application.
For payment providers, a new market would open up: providing infrastructures that allow agents to transfer money, access services and complete transactions autonomously.
This evolution will also require new standards for authorization, security and control, because delegating to an AI agent the ability to spend money means defining limits, responsibilities and permissions precisely.
But according to Ramezani, the change has already begun and could accelerate very quickly.
Stablecoins at 4 trillion by 2030?
In conclusion, Noah’s CEO addressed the growth prospects of the stablecoin market.
During the panel, a possible value of 4 trillion dollars by 2030 was mentioned, a forecast that Ramezani considers even conservative.
The figure is consistent with the most optimistic scenario developed by Citi in its September 2025 report Stablecoins 2030. It is important to note, however, that Citi indicated 1.9 trillion dollars as the base scenario and 4 trillion as the bullish scenario.
According to Ramezani, the United States has a strong strategic incentive to encourage the spread of dollar stablecoins.
These instruments can in fact help expand the international distribution of the U.S. currency and create new demand for U.S. Treasury securities through issuers’ reserves.
American political and regulatory support could therefore become an important accelerator for the entire sector.
The CEO’s forecast is that the market could grow even beyond current estimates, especially if international payments, asset tokenization and AI agents begin to converge.
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