By Ray Birch
TAMPA, Fla.—As digital assets move from fringe experimentation to mainstream financial infrastructure, Velera is positioning credit unions to navigate what it sees as a high-stakes transition year — one shaped by stablecoins, open banking, and AI-driven commerce.
According to Vladimir Jovanovic, vice president of Innovation at Velera, stablecoins have entered a classic hype cycle, driven in part by regulatory momentum following passage of the GENIUS Act last year. That legislation sparked a surge of investment, corporate interest, and product launches across the broader financial ecosystem — raising new questions for credit unions about payments, interchange, consumer adoption, and long-term business models.
“From a credit union standpoint, there were a lot of questions,” Jovanovic said, noting concerns about how digital assets could affect consumer card usage, non-interest income, and payments economics. Rather than rushing into product development, Velera took what Jovanovic described as a deliberate, pragmatic approach — focusing first on education, regulatory clarity, and real-world use cases before building solutions.
Digital Asset Lab
That effort led to the launch of Velera’s Digital Asset Lab, a collaborative initiative designed to help credit unions understand stablecoins, blockchain, and evolving legislation — while shaping industry-appropriate applications. The goal, Jovanovic said, is to avoid reactive investments and instead ensure digital-asset strategies align with member needs, operational realities, and risk management.
So far, Velera sees limited consumer-facing adoption of blockchain tools. Most current use cases, Jovanovic noted, focus on internal efficiency gains rather than transformative retail experiences. Still, he believes cross-border payments represent one of the most promising near-term opportunities — particularly as global networks like SWIFT begin experimenting with blockchain-based settlement models.
At the same time, Velera is tracking broader innovation currents that could reshape the industry over the next year. One is open banking, where new regulatory frameworks could expand data portability, money movement flexibility, and consumer control over financial information. Jovanovic said the implications extend beyond compliance — potentially transforming digital experiences, product personalization, and how financial institutions monetize data-driven services.
AI-Powered Commerce
Another major frontier is AI-powered commerce, including the rise of agentic transactions, where artificial intelligence executes financial actions on behalf of consumers. While Jovanovic sees opportunity to improve convenience and engagement, he also flagged heightened fraud and security risks, emphasizing the need for strong safeguards as AI becomes more autonomous in payments and account activity.
Velera’s strategy, he said, is to stay ahead of innovation without chasing hype — combining regulatory awareness, industry collaboration, and real-world pilot testing to ensure credit unions can adopt new technology without compromising member trust or financial stability.
Over the next year, Velera expects stablecoins, open banking, and AI-driven commerce to remain three of the most influential forces shaping credit unions and payments — and aims to serve as a bridge between emerging technology and practical, member-focused deployment.