Confused about stablecoins? Adrian Wall can boil it down. 

“An easy way to think about it is a payment stablecoin is a digital dollar, and it’s designed to maintain a stable value by being backed 1-to-1 by fiat currency, which is unlike Bitcoin or ether, where the value of those cryptocurrencies fluctuates in price,” said Wall, Managing Director of The Digital Sovereignty Alliance (DSA), and CEO/Co-founder of Stablecoin Leadership Alliance (SCLA). DSA is a nonprofit focusing on education, research and policy engagement around emerging technologies, while SCLA’s goal is to ensure stablecoins are safe, transparent and trusted across borders. 

Wall’s explanation skims the surface, but he promises a deeper dive at Nacha’s Smarter Faster Payments 2026, April 26-29 in San Diego, which features a new stablecoin track. 

Wall will be on a panel looking at bridging the gap between digital payments and traditional assets. He promises a “stablecoin 101” covering the basics, before the bulk of the session becomes a “stablecoin 201” examining real-world use cases, streaming payments, the future of decentralized finance, using AI to uncover bad actors, and more. 

And just as an intern learns from someone on the job for decades, Wall believes his fellow SCLA members have a lot to learn from Nacha and the payments experts attending Smarter Faster Payments.

“ACH didn’t become a trusted standard overnight. It took decades of coordination, rules, reliability, and the industry—every stakeholder coming together and working together around this common goal. Those lessons are invaluable as we build digital money systems that must work at scale,” Wall told Nacha’s Payments SmartCast podcast. 

He was joined by Stephanie Prebish, AAP, AFPP, APRP, CTP, Nacha Senior Managing Director, Association Services, who said stablecoin gives her a sense of déjà vu. 

“I like to think about the stablecoin movement as where we were six or seven years ago with instant payments. We knew that it was going to be big, and that’s how we feel about stablecoin right now,” said Prebish. She sees “so many opportunities for all of the financial institutions out there”—regardless of size—to do everything from being stablecoin custodians to issuing stablecoins under their own brand. 

Prebish said she’s “super excited” about Payments 2026, featuring 130 sessions across 11 tracks. She acknowledges that’s a lot and offers this advice: “Bring a buddy so you can divide and conquer.” 

Much more was discussed, and you can listen to the complete podcast below. 

For details on Smarter Faster Payments 2026, visit the conference website.