Animoca Brands pitches AI and digital ownership as finance on-ramp at IMF meetings

Animoca Brands took its case for AI and digital ownership to one of the most buttoned-up rooms in global finance. At the 2026 International Monetary Fund and World Bank Annual Meetings in Bangkok, Group President Evan Auyang argued the two technologies can bring more people into the financial system. There was a catch, and he named it himself. The upside only shows up if trust and regulation are handled properly from the start. What Auyang told the room The remarks came during a World Economic Forum session held as part of the annual meetings, which ran from October 12 to 18. Auyang’s central claim was simple. AI paired with digital ownership can widen access to finance. His conditions were less simple. He stressed that trust, suitability, and protection need to be built in at the outset, not bolted on afterward. Auyang also pointed to two specific building blocks. He said regulated stablecoins and decentralized identity belong inside the regulatory frameworks that governments are still drafting. He also flagged regulatory sandboxes as a key piece of the puzzle. A sandbox is a controlled environment where regulators let firms test new products under supervision, with limited scale ...