Aquanow: An always-on economy needs always-on finance
As financial systems evolve, the real transformation is happening beneath the surface, where new settlement infrastructure, stablecoins, and regulated digital asset rails are reshaping how value moves across the global economy, reveals Phil Sham, co-founder and CEO of Aquanow
12 May, 2026
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Financial systems appear faster than ever, yet the underlying movement of money has changed far less.
Payments are authorised within seconds, yet settlement, the point at which value actually transfers between institutions, can still take days. Beneath the surface, the system that moves money has not kept pace with the economy it serves.
Over the past decade, the industry has focused on optimising the surface, with faster payments, better interfaces, and fintech platforms making money movement feel instant. Beneath that layer, however, the core architecture has barely changed. Settlement still happens in batches, liquidity remains fragmented across jurisdictions, and capital is positioned in advance to manage timing rather than deployed dynamically. This is where the real constraint sits.
As businesses operate across time zones and make decisions continuously, the gap between how the economy functions and how financial systems move value is becoming more visible. The shift now underway is not about replacing the system, but upgrading it by introducing new infrastructure alongside traditional rails.
These systems are not in competition. Traditional infrastructure continues to provide trust, compliance, and regulatory oversight, while new rails introduce speed, programmability, and the ability to move value more continuously. Together, they form a more efficient financial stack.
This transition is already visible.
Stablecoins, increasingly used as settlement instruments, now process trillions of dollars in monthly volume. While still largely driven by trading activity, their role is expanding into payments, treasury, and settlement use cases, signalling that new forms of settlement infrastructure are gaining traction beyond crypto-native environments. The question is no longer whether these rails will be adopted, but how they can be integrated efficiently and within a regulated framework.
As Phil Sham, co-founder and CEO of Aquanow, explains, “We are seeing institutions across payments, logistics, and financial services looking to integrate new rails to enable more continuous movement of value. In practice, this depends on the availability of on- and off-ramps, robust compliance frameworks, and seamless integration into existing systems. The technology enables the shift, but reliable infrastructure makes it usable.”
This is where the UAE has established a clear lead.
Rather than treating digital assets as a separate category, the country has built a regulatory environment that allows them to operate within established financial frameworks. Through ADGM, VARA, and the Central Bank, clear pathways have been defined for issuance, distribution, and use, creating the conditions for institutional adoption.
This approach is also shaping how digital money itself is designed. The recent launch of USDU, a fully backed USD stablecoin issued within ADGM and aligned with UAE regulatory frameworks, reflects a more mature phase of the market, where instruments are built for institutional settlement, with supervision, reserve transparency, and integration at their core.
The capabilities are now in place. The focus is shifting to connectivity and usability and this is where infrastructure providers play a critical role. “Aquanow,” continues Sham, “operates as a connective layer between traditional financial institutions and digital asset infrastructure, providing the liquidity and rails needed to integrate these capabilities into existing systems. This allows institutions to upgrade how value moves without rebuilding core infrastructure or altering their regulatory posture.”
With time the distinction between traditional and digital systems is becoming less relevant, while the ability to connect infrastructure and move liquidity efficiently is becoming central. Finance is not being replaced. It is being re-engineered around how value actually needs to move for today’s financial markets.
