Stellar Is Becoming Financial Infrastructure | Interview with Candace Kelly

In this episode, we sit down with Candace Kelly, Chief Legal and Policy Officer at Stellar Development Foundation, for a deep conversation on Stellar, stablecoins, real-world assets, regulation, AI payments and the future of financial infrastructure.Candace shares her perspective on how Stellar was designed from the outset for cross-border payments and asset issuance, why public blockchain infrastructure can expand access to the global financial system, and how distributed ledger technology may become part of everyday financial services sometimes without users even realizing it.We also discuss the role of stablecoins as a potential settlement layer, the rise of tokenized real-world assets, institutional adoption, regulatory clarity in the United States, AI-driven payments, digital identity, privacy, and why blockchain infrastructure may become increasingly important as finance moves on-chain.Topics Covered· What Stellar was built to solve· Cross-border payments and asset issuance· Stablecoins as settlement infrastructure· Tokenized real-world assets· Stellar’s role in institutional blockchain adoption· Regulation, the GENIUS Act and the CLARITY Act· DLT as invisible financial infrastructure· MoneyGram, Franklin Templeton, State Street and Société Générale· AI payments and agentic finance· Digital identity, privacy and compliance· The future of blockchain-powered financial access