Despite surging crypto adoption in emerging markets, the promise of financial sovereignty remains unfulfilled. Millions hold digital wealth they can’t easily use without seamless payment systems and practical off-ramps.
Opinion by: Timothy Chen, global head of strategy, Mantle
While crypto adoption accelerates across Southeast Asia and Latin America, a deeper structural problem persists: Payments remain slow, error-prone and exclusionary. The premise of financial sovereignty through blockchain remains tantalizingly incomplete.
Millions hold digital assets, yet they cannot seamlessly integrate them into daily life. This paradoxical disconnect — digital wealth without practical utility — represents a critical infrastructural gap where emerging markets suffer most.
