The Future of Finance May Barely Be Seen

Finance may be heading toward a quieter form. At Paris Blockchain Week 2026, Bybit co-founder and CEO Ben Zhou said the next phase will center on AI agents, stablecoins, and clearer regulation rather than crypto hype.

Good to Know

• Ben Zhou said users may soon let AI agents handle market tasks and payments.
• He pointed to stablecoins as a practical link between blockchain systems and mainstream finance.
• He also said clearer rules in places such as the UAE are helping institutional adoption.

Ben Zhou Maps Out a Finance System That Fades Into the Background

Ben Zhou used his fireside chat at Paris Blockchain Week 2026 to push the conversation away from price swings and toward infrastructure. Speaking with Brian McGleenon of BeInCrypto on April 15, he described a financial system shaped by AI, tokenized assets, and rules that are now getting easier to read.

A big part of that vision is what Zhou called agentic finance. Bybit has already introduced AI agent accounts that let clients create sub accounts for AI systems to interact, run strategies, and pull market data. As he put it:

“We’ve introduced AI agent accounts that allow clients to create sub-accounts for AI to interact, execute strategies, and access market data. Agentic payments are becoming a major theme — and we’re just at the beginning.”

His point was simple. Users may stop handling every step themselves. Instead, AI agents could read data, act on it, and manage execution in real time. In that setup, the platform matters less because the intelligence layer does more of the work.

Zhou also argued that the bigger story is not speculation. In his view, traditional finance is already using blockchain rails for practical reasons such as payments, settlement, and access to liquidity. Stablecoins sit at the center of that shift. Many institutions, he said, are adopting the infrastructure without even wanting the crypto label.

That change makes trust more important than novelty. Zhou said regulation is now helping rather than holding things back.

“The regulatory framework has become significantly clearer in recent years. Jurisdictions like the UAE are setting the pace by actively welcoming innovation and providing structured pathways for growth.”

He also pointed to Europe, the US, and the UK as places where clearer policy is helping the market mature. As rules get firmer, larger institutions get more comfortable entering the space.

Zhou closed on the wider goal, saying the aim is not to replace finance but to improve how it works.

“This is not about replacing existing financial systems, but enhancing them. Our focus is on building infrastructure that makes financial services more accessible, efficient, and intuitive for users globally.”

His end view is a system where users do not think about blockchain, wallets, or even platforms very much at all. The service just works. Trust sits inside the system, intelligence runs behind the scenes, and the technology becomes harder to notice.