Why the Future of Banking Lies at the Intersection of AI and the Blockchain
By Steve Cocheo, Senior Executive Editor at The Financial Brand
Simple Subscribe
Subscribe Now!
Until now, the adoption and management of artificial intelligence and the encroachment of blockchain technologies have been two parallel but separate trends with profound implications for banking. But those technologies are poised to converge, and financial marketers will increasingly find themselves working at the nexus where the two cross.
Marketers will be both empowered and challenged by these technologies, argues Michael Toner, innovation advisor at Profor and a breakout session speaker at The Financial Brand Forum 2026.
• Empowerment comes in the way AI tools will change financial marketing, from content creation to measurement of its potential and actual impact.
• Challenges will come from dealing with AI fakery — including false communications purporting to be from the marketers’ own institutions — but also in devising ways to persuade customers of the benefits of moving to blockchain-based payments, credit and investments.
AI is already changing financial marketing and this influence will grow, predicts Toner, but the impact of the blockchain is on the cusp of its moment.
The blockchain will take off meaningfully, he believes, when Congress completes its deliberations over pending legislation, the “CLARITY Act.” (Digital Asset Market Clarity Legislation for Asset Regulation, Innovation, and Trading Yields Act, a follow-up to last year’s GENIUS Act — the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act.)
Key insight: Blockchain technologies can offset and solve for consumers’ burgeoning trust issues with AI.
Need to Know:
- Artificial intelligence, from GenAI tools to agentic AI for commerce, continues to drive banking evolution.
- Meanwhile, blockchain technology, the foundation of cryptocurrencies, is becoming more solid as regulatory structure continues to develop and harden through legislation and regulation.
- Trust and authenticity will be critical touchstones as people do more and more of their financial business via these means.
In a World Awash in AI Fakery, Blockchain and Banking Go Together
In the past, Toner worked as manager of social media and digital marketing at Navy Federal Credit Union. He says this experience gave him an appreciation of how much trust the public puts in banking institutions, relying on them to be “good stewards of their finances.”
This faith will be more important than ever — and at risk — as GenAI enables creation of more and more false messages — fake photos, fake text, fake videos, fake people.
“Who am I going to trust? How am I going to verify authenticity and provenance? How do I even know that this text message is really from my bank?” says Toner.
“When you can have AI create anything, it’s really important to know where it came from. Blockchain will be that ‘truth layer’,” he predicts.
Blockchain as bank “insurance.” A risk that banks and credit unions face is when customers have been duped by tricks like phony digital marketing messages.
Toner suggests that blockchains could be a means of tracking what messages truly came from the financial institution and which ones are fakes.
Here’s how it would work: Every legitimate communication would be stored and cataloged on-chain, he suggests, to back up the institution’s claim that a promised interest rate or other incentive was faked. This is a high-tech variation on the practice at Navy Federal, when he was there, of assigning a tracking number to every marketing message for later reference.
Learn more from Michael Toner at
The Financial Brand Forum 2026.
Don’t miss Michael Toner’s breakout presentation, “From Hype to ROI: AI, Blockchain & The Next Era of Banking Innovation” — a session loaded with proven strategies and real-world examples you can put to work immediately.
Meet Michael in person live at the Forum 2026, and see why he’s one of our all-time top-rated speakers with sessions that are standing-room-only!
Read more:
- The Identity Dilemma: How AI Blurs the Line Between Reality and Fraud
- Is That Your Boss or a Deepfake on the Other Side of That Video Call?
- How to Stop Three AI Threats Changing the Face of Identity Fraud — Literally
Blockchain Could Enable Enhanced Forms of Lending
While Toner sees blockchain as an important anti-fraud tool, he’s equally excited about its utility for introducing new variants on traditional financial services.
Blockchain-enhanced lending. For example, Toner sees a new age of consumer lending riding the blockchain wave.
• Assets such as bitcoin holdings could serve as digital collateral for loans or credit lines granted via blockchain rails.
• Repayment could be ensured via smart contracts, a self-executing blockchain command given such and such conditions.
• Payment due dates, recovery through liquidation of collateral, and more could be handled automatically, with reliance on blockchain technology.
“This could open up an entire new world of business with folks who have not participated in the traditional banking system,” says Toner.
If the CLARITY Act becomes law, he says, a valuable change will be that cryptocurrencies will be regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as commodities, rather than as securities under Securities and Exchange Commission supervision.
Upending traditions Banking has long coped with “know your customer” anti-money-laundering compliance, where they must screen for veracity and other factors. But in the face of AI fakery, says Toner, customers willing to use digital tokens or accept digitally granted credit will need to “know your issuer.”
Read more: The War Over Crypto “Rewards” is a Distraction. Get Ready for the Age of Stablecoins Now
How Blockchain Will Improve the Payments Business
Toner also sees increasing use of the blockchain encouraging greater use of the technology as a payment rail.
A lesson via Roblox. Toner’s children use “Robux,” the virtual currency traded on the Roblox game platform.
“That currency has value in that digital world,” says Toner, “but it’s locked within the game, in that little world.”
Toner would like to see interoperability between the Roblox economy and the world at large.
“When I buy them $20 in Robux, why shouldn’t they be able to go to a Nike store and buy a pair of real shoes?” Toner asks.
Toner sees the anticipated reliability of blockchain payments as driving down the cost of traditional payment rails, such as the credit card system. As a result, consumers could actually see lower credit card rates.
Why marketers must care. “Financial brand marketers need to start to understand these possibilities,” he says, “because if they’re going to be out there marketing, say, a blockchain-based credit card, they need to understand how it works and what the value propositions are for the end user.”
Read more previews about sessions at The Financial Brand Forum 2026:
