This is the future of money, according to four experts in World Economy News 03/03/2026 “The global economic infrastructure is fragmenting, but the world is accommodating that.” Among the leaders and experts gathered at Davos 2026, this sentiment from Standard Chartered’s Bill Winters was widely held: business is definitely not as usual, but adjusting nonetheless. With the geopolitical landscape constantly shifting and the world economy “undergoing profound transformation”, what exactly does adjustment look like? And where does it leave the future of money? The World Economic Forum sought the views of four experts to answer these questions: Jeremy Allaire, CEO of Circle; Denelle Dixon, CEO and Executive Director of the Stellar Development Foundation; Ray Dalio, CIO of Bridgewater Associates; and Bill Winters, CEO of Standard Chartered. From tokenized dollars and refugee aid to gold reserves and digital wallets, here they explain how money is being rewired – and what that means for trust, growth and inclusion. The internet financial system Jeremy Allaire, whose company Circle operates the largest regulated stablecoin, USDC, envisages a world in which money is exchanged “as effortlessly as we communicate”. He expects that “all money will be digital” in the near future and that payments will feel as easy as sending a message or starting a video call – instant, global, low‑cost and largely invisible on the backend. Just as the internet enabled information for all, Allaire sees future finance democratizing money – “what we call the internet financial system”. He says that “every person, every business, everywhere in the world” will be able to transact and access capital. To demonstrate the technology’s potential reach, Allaire referenced Circle’s recent efforts to get digital aid to displaced refugees from the war in Ukraine. “We created a system where there could be direct aid disbursement to known individuals registered as refugees. Those known individuals only needed a mobile device, which they were able to get access to. The funds would effectively reach them as digital dollars – instantly – in a corruption-resistant way. There’s no cash being handed around, no one taking pieces of it and hiding it. And when they receive the money, they can use it directly to make payments.” Digital money as everyday inclusion Denelle Dixon, of nonprofit Stellar Development Foundation, speaks along similar lines, in terms of the ease and equality of digital assets. “My goal is that, hopefully, when people use any kind of digital wallet, that it feels very similar to what they’re using today.” She views blockchain as the backend technology that people will neither need, nor want to know about – instead, it “should just feel like they’re either using mobile money or their bank account, and that they’re able to easily trade the assets themselves for whatever value they’re seeking, whether that be other kinds of digital assets or when they’re buying things”. Dixon makes the point that, unlike in traditional banking, “there are no intermediaries” with digital assets – “you are the owner” – giving individuals much more financial freedom. She gave the example of developing countries that “started using mobile money years before” the West got on board. “We’re seeing that you can now, as a creator, for example, export your talent globally and get paid in a stablecoin in your home country – whether that be in a part of the African continent or in Latin America and