Yes quote from *Reuters at IMF/World Bank meetings Bangkok, Oct 16, 2026*.$AGT $ICNT $SIREN
Exact quote: *"There's a very, very long time where the banking industry fought successfully to keep other people out, and I think they are no longer in charge, and the innovators are having their day"*
*Context:*
- Allaire announcing *Circle push into ∼40 emerging/developing markets* - Southeast Asia, LATAM, Africa, Middle East - where he says organic demand for digital dollars is surging
- Backed by: *$400M acquisition of Singapore B2B payments firm Tazapay* (60+ banking/FinTech partners, payout rails in 100+ markets) closing next year, + *$100M strategic investment from Binance* + *federal bank charter July 2026*
- *USDC:* *$73.3B circulation Q2, +19% YoY*, ~*25% market share* vs Tether ∼60%. Q2 revenue *$1.4B H1*, 59% went to distribution partners. Now *$72.6B* per CoinDesk
- Transition framing: _"We're kind of going through an inflection point...moving from the early adopter phase of blockchain technology into the mainstream scaling phase"_
- *GENIUS Act* (US stablecoin law effective Jan 2027): Allaire calls *"watershed moment... world will have legal digital dollars"*
- Banking stablecoin coalitions (US + Europe - e.g., 9-bank euro stablecoin with UniCredit, ING, Danske etc) - Allaire says that's *healthy competition*, not threat
- Also pitched *Circle Arc* ($3B valuation, $222M token sale) - on-chain OS used by BlackRock, Visa, Standard Chartered - and *Circle Agent Stack* for AI agents doing *fraction-of-a-cent machine-to-machine payments* for web scraping/research, driving USDC use
- Warning: AI also raises security risk - _"If you're not concerned about it, then your head is in the sand, right?"
So not "banks losing control" as attack, but as market structure shift he welcomes.
Exact quote: *"There's a very, very long time where the banking industry fought successfully to keep other people out, and I think they are no longer in charge, and the innovators are having their day"*
*Context:*
- Allaire announcing *Circle push into ∼40 emerging/developing markets* - Southeast Asia, LATAM, Africa, Middle East - where he says organic demand for digital dollars is surging
- Backed by: *$400M acquisition of Singapore B2B payments firm Tazapay* (60+ banking/FinTech partners, payout rails in 100+ markets) closing next year, + *$100M strategic investment from Binance* + *federal bank charter July 2026*
- *USDC:* *$73.3B circulation Q2, +19% YoY*, ~*25% market share* vs Tether ∼60%. Q2 revenue *$1.4B H1*, 59% went to distribution partners. Now *$72.6B* per CoinDesk
- Transition framing: _"We're kind of going through an inflection point...moving from the early adopter phase of blockchain technology into the mainstream scaling phase"_
- *GENIUS Act* (US stablecoin law effective Jan 2027): Allaire calls *"watershed moment... world will have legal digital dollars"*
- Banking stablecoin coalitions (US + Europe - e.g., 9-bank euro stablecoin with UniCredit, ING, Danske etc) - Allaire says that's *healthy competition*, not threat
- Also pitched *Circle Arc* ($3B valuation, $222M token sale) - on-chain OS used by BlackRock, Visa, Standard Chartered - and *Circle Agent Stack* for AI agents doing *fraction-of-a-cent machine-to-machine payments* for web scraping/research, driving USDC use
- Warning: AI also raises security risk - _"If you're not concerned about it, then your head is in the sand, right?"
So not "banks losing control" as attack, but as market structure shift he welcomes.