Invisible Payments, Visible Growth Under the Hood of Today's Power Plays

Good afternoon everyone and thank you for joining us. Uh my name is Gina Clark. I'm from Abu Dhabi Finance Week and I hope you're all having a lovely Wednesday. Um I'm glad to be here to bring you both out because there's some really interesting things happening in both of the spaces that you're in at the moment. But first, a quick introduction.

Ben, we'll start with you. Yeah. Hi everyone. Uh, glad to be here. My name is Ben.

I'm the co-founder and the CEO of Bybit. Uh, we're the world's second largest uh, cryptocurrency exchange. Uh, with 85 million registered users. Uh, UAE is our home. We have a big office in Dubai and also in Abu Dhabi.

Uh, recently we were the first one who get the ASCA license for crypto. So, we're going to do a lot of expansion here in the UAE and the Gulf region. Um, we also have the VER license here. So very excited to be here.

Yeah.

And Hassan.

Hey everyone, it's uh Hassan Harab. I'm the co-founder and CEO of Tabby. Uh we're the leading financial services app in the region. We operate across Saudi and the UAE. Uh we started off doing buy now pay later providing uh buy now pay later services for consumers across the region.

We've since expanded into more uh products on the financial services side for both consumers and merchants. And that's uh where we're headed.

Perfect. And if we have another guest uh come on, we will do an introduction for them as well. So, thank you for both of you for joining us. Now, Ben, I'd just like to start. We have another event going on at one of our other stages, Risk 4.

0, uh which is a a great topic to start because you had a bit of a tough incident this year. Uh it was the largest cryptocurrency heist in history. 1.5 billion in Ethereum tokens was stolen from your exchange. And what have you learned from this?

uh when it comes to getting that trust back to the consumer and the financial infrastructure setup that we have when there are vulnerabilities still to come.

Yeah, I I think it was a definitely unfortunate event but again this is something the whole industry is facing. Uh recently we've seen a few other not only exchanges institutions uh had the similar challenges and issues with the hack. Um I think the silver lining is uh if you look at how BBET handled the the the hack and actually not a single user was affected shows that the exchange today after the FTX collapsed we all moved into a uh full reserve mode which means every single users token and asset is onetoone backed uh which the incidence was ultimate test to prove that we were following that same rule. Um so actually after the incident I think by bit earned more trust from our users and even global regulators on how we handle the case with transparency. I think this is something blockchain and crypto as a whole we can offer is more transparency and also in how we can deal this type of situation.

Um and I think hopefully that through the Bible event although was unfortunate uh we set the textbook on how to deal and how to face this type of issue and making sure customer is always fully protected. Lastly is actually the industry already have solutions to be extremely safe such as the ETF custody solutions and things like that. uh while a exchange like BBIT we can choose the safest uh uh uh methodology to store user asset but we also need to consider where do we give user efficiency so there's always a trade-off but now I I think we've implemented our own internal structure to make sure that um with HSM banking grade solutions that at the same time by offering efficiency making user experience instant in the second level withdraw but also completely secured in the cold wallet. Yeah.

And I just want to touch on that a bit more briefly for those cryptonatives um or non-crypto natives amongst us. How can cryptocurrency be stolen but a user not affected and where do your partners play their part as well?

Sorry, the first part I didn't get.

Um so if cryptocurrency has been stolen, how does it not affect uh any of your users? Uh how did that happen? And then also what sort of partners are you looking at when it comes to the decentralized ecosystem? Uh what are you seeing out there that are doing great things in privacy and treasury and protection?

Yeah. So uh a simple answer is we covered all the users asset from our own treasury. I think it shows that we have always had a good corporate governance uh with Bayet and obviously with a lot of the previous exchange who had issues it was really boils down to its own corporate governance port managed and poorly managed on the risk side. So Bayet is extremely focused on that and this was the kind of the ultimate test right and when it comes to I think how other players are trading security incidents like that the in the the industry facing challenge is is fund tracing is when an incident like this happens um is really a time race because the hacker can simply move money to multiple locations to uh decentralized uh uh mixers that can mix the fund which you can still crack but by the time you decode everything it's two days lag and the two days lag will make the hacker uh cash out. So that's kind of the industry uh problem.

uh how we try to solve it is we started a league uh a group organization called Lazarus group and that helps the industry to work with multiple exchanges you know uh OTC players so that when another victim happened we can and the whole industry can respond faster yeah

thank you for the insight really really interesting um and now to another uh I guess high-risk area uh was well initially when you started out with buy now pay later but you're now dominating lots lots of financial well parts of financial services for some um now that buy now pay later is so adopted by consumers uh how are we getting them to to manage their money better or do you think um services like BMPL are just pushing people to spend more what's your take on that

yeah I mean I'm I'm obviously biased but I think you know if if we're being honest by now can do both and it really depends on the company and how they want to run this. Um, from our perspective, I think it is important that we understand that we only make money when the customer is performing well. We're not able we're not structured as a traditional financial services player in the sense that we don't make interest from consumers that are delayed on payments. Uh, so we structure the business accordingly. We bu we built that into our DNA.

Um, so we work with consumers, provide them access to credit, which otherwise they don't have access to. Uh, but we make our money off of the merchants and, uh, what differentiates us as well from the traditional financial services players is that we underwrite every single transaction every time. So we're not providing consumers with a limit that they spend over time and and whether they're delinquent or not, they continue to operate and they continue to spend. We're underwriting every single transaction. And so it is in our best interest that we only lend to the customers that pay us back or that have have the ability in the that have the ability to pay us back on time um because we're funded by the merchants.

So that's I think a a a very important nuance. Yes, we could look good by uh generating large GMV, but at the end of the day, if it's not translating into revenue and and profitability, it's very short-lived and it's just not how we want to run the business. So two different markets but still governance at the heart of of both of them. And I want to just introduce Mark up from uh Mark was managing director at Google. So welcome.

Thank you for joining us. You might need to pull that that towards you. Um but great to have you all here. Um Ham, I will just come back to you as well because I' I'd love to know sort of what's one thing that you think every day user today could unlearn? uh where are we kind of uh where's our financial mishaps coming in and what would you do with the market that we have today?

Uh where would you where would you go with that?

I mean we're um we're in the business of today providing credit um and so I think it is important for customers to understand what their uh credit abilities are what they can and cannot do how much how much they can afford to spend um and where to put their money. um you know there are risky assets that we we don't we don't provide and we we are at a place today where we're comfortable not providing those risky assets. Uh it is important for us to ensure that our customers understand what they're get what they're getting into uh and what the risks associated with that are. Um so for now I think we're we're fairly comfortable where uh where we are of providing a a short-term low uh low ticket uh consumer finance product that then deh evolves into other forms of financial services. So, some of the areas that we want to get into are again areas that customers deeply understand, right?

Remittances, uh, payments, um, basic investing products and things like that are all within the realm of of what your average consumer understands. Over time, whether we get into some of the more complex risky assets is is a question. I don't think we we want to get there just yet.

Thank you for that. And Mark, just to ring you in, um, Google synonymous with everything, uh, maps, email, etc., But are we heading towards a world where Google becomes the invisible layer behind our payments too?

Yeah, good afternoon and uh good afternoon everyone. Sorry I was a bit late. Um look, two years ago there was a a discussion or a debate going on about whether AI would disrupt search and would it fundamentally change the way in which people search. Um I think two years on from where we were the company has grown in value by 70% in the last 12 months and what that's the signal that that's sending is AI is not disrupting search it's actually augmenting it and so um there's a very clear signal now in the valuation that we've seen in the last 12 months that AI is additive to our core mission which is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. So over two billion people use five of our products every week and Google is a verb.

I'm going to Google something. Have you googled that? And so on. So we are very interwoven into the fabric of how society lives, works and plays. And so, um, to your question, the advent of AI will see all of our products embrace AI and make the accessing of information even more uh, richer for the user.

Be whether you're in YouTube or you're in maps or you're searching, the use of AI will become and is becoming embedded into all of those products. Uh the next part of that which is becoming useful is about then executing tasks either with a human or behalf of the human and that's where we see the advent of agents particularly in 2026 which we're really excited about and agents that will then execute payments which we can talk more about but

and we're talking about invisible uh payments today but actually what I've heard from some people on the stage is that friction seems to be making a little bit of a return sometimes is deliberate. Um, I'd like to just kind of ask this question to all of you, but where do you think we are in terms of invisibility, friction, bringing in the AI layer perhaps? Um, at the end of the day, what is the best user experience that we're that you're looking to provide? Ben, we'll start with you.

Yeah. So, maybe I will interpret this question as what does crypto bring onto payment and why that's kind of the future. Uh to me crypto is just simply more efficient. Um it's borderless is 247. So by have a BBIT pay service uh which the vendors jump on to us simply because uh the the traditional let's say Mastercard or Visa consolidates not in the weekends or only a few times a week where crypto is instant with stable coin.

Um on top of that crypto offers a lot more access and opportunity with different type of token you can get a yield on chain. So when user are simply using payments or vendors when they have a little bit stock they can make extra yield. Um although it's similar to them uh US dollar but simply by switching to crypto. Lastly, it's just much faster efficient, right? With a swift system, with all these other ones that I I think what crypto brings is really access and efficiency and and solve a lot of the friction issues as well.

Yeah.

And ham for for Taby's side of financial services, is it the invisibility that you're looking for or what do you think is the perfect user experience?

Yes. I think I I'd be lying if I said we wanted to get to zero friction. Um, obviously, we want to make the experience of the consumer as seamless as possible. um and and reduce the amount of friction there. But you know, at the end of the day, again, we are providing a credit product.

Um and so in so far as as we're doing that, we want to make sure that we're providing it to the right person and that right person has the ability to pay us back and has the ability to take on that credit. Um so, and that's where we introduce the friction, right? It is around KYC, knowing who you are and and um and whether you exist. Um, and then secondly, just around affordability, we want to make sure that you're able to afford to take on that short loan, short-term loan, um, that you're getting at the point of checkout very, very seamlessly, but you you are able to pay us back. Uh, and so that's where we do a lot more work and introduce friction to the journey.

Um, yes, it would be great if we remove friction completely from that, but but it's just not realistic. And Mark, I know uh we've talked about KYC's, but today I think we're also talking about KYA's, newer agents. Where do you see sort of that coming in? And will it ever be frictionless with Azens?

Yeah, look, I mean, I think the industry's come a long way in making the experience less friction to have less friction experience frictionless. So just to make it easier and GP and other technologies like that have come a long way. Now whether you're paying in crypto, whether you want buy now pay later, you still want to pay and you want to make that experience as easy as possible. We see car abandonment. If it takes longer than 22 seconds, the abandonment rates are really, really high.

So, what we're working on is the establishment of standards to allow agents to talk to one another and execute tasks. So, in April, we announced something called A2A, an agent to agent protocol. And that's a big step by Google to send a an industry message that agents will evolve to execute tasks, but there will be different flavors and therefore they need to work with one another. And then in September, we announced something called AP2, which is a payment protocol to allow those agents to then actually execute financial tasks. Now, if we just think about the user experience, what that's going to allow you to do is invoke an agent to wait in the queue for you for concert tickets or you can use a camera on a device to be able to look at a piece of clothing and say, "Can you please troll the web for that web for me and find that and buy that for me?"

Either in crypto on a buy now pay later scheme. But either way, the the friction is taken out of that. So your key word of friction, all of this reduces the friction because it just makes agents do the work on your behalf, including the execution of payments in a multi- aent world. And we're really really excited about what that means for the for for 2026 and beyond.

It's interesting. So despite, you know, different sectors of financial services that we find ourselves in, AI is the the thread that might pull us all together and have your consumers interacting with each other. Um, as we just countdown to the end of this session, I'd just, you know, like to know, we're here in December 2025. Where will we be in 2026? What's your predictions for next year?

Uh, Ben, we'll start with you. If you had to give us a sharp, snappy quote.

Prediction for next year. Um, I hope the beer market the bull market comes back for crypto. And I I see a lot more RWA adoption that's happening. A lot more Treadfire firms coming into uh into the space. So I think probably the size of this conference going to be doubled.

I'd like that.

Yeah, we're running out of time but just uh very briefly a lot more embedded solutions in uh in all our journeys. I think there's a lot more that each of us can do once we built that platform. Um that's where uh our focus is going to be and I imagine uh a lot more of our uh peers are going to be thinking about the same things. Mark

Yeah. Look, I I when I was a boy, there was a TV program where cars drove themselves and spoke to the driver. And I thought that was the stuff of science fiction. And now we live in an era where driverless cars are going to be hitting the streets, even of my hometown in London this year. The reason I mention that is it's not too big a mental stretch to think about the execution of commerce with agents that are beyond just the phone or the laptop.

So we've just announced that we'll be releasing in 2026 Google Glasses which will have AI agents embedded or AI capabilities embedded in the device. Now it's not the device itself. It's the concept that an agent can execute a task in multi- device types be a watch, a phone, glasses and so on. Now we're going to see whether users accept that as a new mo mode of interaction for commerce using agents on a device like glasses to execute tasks including e-commerce. So we're again really excited about that for

exciting times. Thank you so much everyone. It's been a great speak to you.

Thank you.