HashKey Group's Xiao Feng: In the AI era, the financial system will shift from "financial digitalization" to "digital financialization," and AI Agents may become new financial participants.

BlockBeats news, November 13 — Xiao Feng, Chairman and CEO of HashKey Group, stated in a speech at the 2026 Citi China Summit that the "financial digitalization" of the internet era mainly involved using digital technology to improve financial efficiency, whereas in the AI era, AI Tokens enable intelligent value to be measured, traded, and invested. AI Agents and robots have also begun to autonomously use currency, and the financial system needs to further upgrade from "financial digitalization" to "digital financialization."

Xiao Feng cited data stating that over the past 12 months, the AI payment protocol x402 on a certain overseas compliant public chain recorded approximately 138 million payments, of which 87% were between $0.01 and $0.1. He believes that the high-frequency micropayment demand brought by AI Agents and robots is difficult for traditional bank accounts and clearing systems to accommodate, and that the proportion of AI Agents and robots among financial institution clients may continue to rise in the future.

On the infrastructure front, Xiao Feng pointed out that the global financial system is accelerating the tokenization of deposits, stablecoins, and assets. Once both the funding side and the asset side achieve tokenization, a complete on-chain financial closed loop is expected to form, driving transaction-as-settlement and round-the-clock trading. In addition, HashKey Exchange is exploring potential cooperation with Citibank in areas such as custody, tokenized deposits, and fund clearing and settlement.