Stablecoins Took Toronto by Storm: Takeaways from Consensus 2025
Bitcoiners took over Toronto last week as CoinDesk’s Consensus event was held from May 14-16th. Some flashy guests attended like Eric Trump and Dave Portnoy to speak about their ventures into digital assets, as well as industry leaders like Bitwise, Kraken, Ondo, Chainlink, WisdomTree, Securitze, and others.
While Bitcoin and other tokens were certainly discussed, nothing took the stage quite like stablecoins during this year’s event. Whether it was infrastructure or regulation, it was certainly the theme of the conference. In its agenda, CoinDesk dedicated a session track specifically to stablecoins and across the mainstage, regulatory considerations were being weighed as the Trump Administration begins its pro-crypto regime.
For background: stablecoins are a type of cryptocurrency designed to maintain a steady value, usually by being tied to something stable, traditionally the U.S. dollar or even gold. For every stablecoin issued, there should be an equal amount of real-world assets held in reserve to represent that same value.
Regulation
Executives and product leaders alike spoke to the winds of change across U.S. regulatory agencies both on and off stage at Consensus. Panels often hung the “we’ll have to see” and “the stage is set” comments on the progression of a stablecoin bill that has been moving its way across legislators’ desks.
Currently the GENIUS Act is slated for final passage in the U.S. Senate having advanced on Monday, May 19th in a procedural vote, 66-32. The bill represents a crucial piece of legislation that will be the first of its kind regulating cryptocurrency. How the bill will proceed is yet to be seen, but the industry is very excited about this action and support from the U.S. government.
As regulations continue, we may see a new frontier in finance, especially as it relates to asset diversification. Matt Hougan, CEO of Bitwise said on the mainstage, “95% of Bitcoin is owned, and 95% of investable dollars, do not own Bitcoin”, representing a large growth opportunity for the industry and retail investors alike,
Infrastructure
Mirroring considerations across the financial sector, many sessions discussed necessary infrastructure changes for using blockchain technology and stablecoins, running from identity and privacy to liquidity and trading systems.
Especially for payments use cases, when it comes to stablecoins the more availability and users that have them, the greater liquidity will be and therefore better user experience. The industry echoed the need for better on/off ramps to fiat currency and seamless connectivity from fiat to blockchain rails, which may just be on the horizon. Many also shared that as institutional adoption continues, there will be a greater trust among the general public, encouraging them to leverage this technology for every day activities like purchases, trading, and more.
There are still many questions as to how the ecosystem will evolve, specifically around the merging of traditional finance (TradFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi). Concepts like Proof of Liquidity (Credit to Berachain) and questions like whether yield-bearing tokens will become securities are still working their way to the Street.
Whether or not you were at Consensus in Toronto, one thing is clear — crypto is here and it’s here to stay.
