Speaking

Gordon Y. Liao is Chief Economist and Head of Research at Circle (NYSE: CRCL), the issuer of USDC, where he leads economic research and R&D — from the design of Arc, a Layer-1 blockchain purpose-built for stablecoin finance, to capital standards for digital dollars (TCAF) and post-quantum security. He previously shaped monetary-policy analysis at the Federal Reserve Board, led research at Uniswap Labs, and managed fixed-income portfolios at the Harvard endowment. His research appears in the Review of Financial Studies and the Journal of Financial Economics. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics and an A.B. in Applied Mathematics from Harvard.

The Stablecoin Standard

How payment stablecoins become reserve infrastructure for the digital dollar — from an economist who helped write the capital rules (TCAF).

From the Fed to DeFi

What central banks, DeFi protocols, and public companies each get wrong about the other — lessons from working inside all three.

Quantum Risk Is Crypto's Y2K

The unaddressed vulnerability in blockchain security and the roadmap for post-quantum digital assets.

ETHDenver · Mar 2026 · Denver, CO

Invited talk: “Making Onchain Agents Useful”

Stanford Blockchain Alumni Summit (BASS) Denver · Feb 2026 · Denver, CO

Invited talk: “Quantum Risk in Blockchain and Crypto”

Berkeley RDI Summit on Decentralization and AI · Aug 2025 · Berkeley, CA

Invited talk: “The Autonomous Economic Fabric: How Onchain AI is Redefining Economic Boundaries”

Institute for Global Economics (IGE) Global Economy Webinar · Aug 2025 · Seoul (virtual)

Keynote: “The Rise of Stablecoins: Rewiring the Global Financial Grid”

CBER Forum · May 2025

Invited talk: “Cryptoasset Pricing”

American Banker Payments Forum · Mar 2025

Invited talk: “On-stage interview with Nik De”

ETHDenver · Feb 2025 · Denver, CO

Invited talk: “Stablecoins on Unstable Chains”

7th IMF Annual Macro-Finance Research Conference · 2025 · Washington, D.C.

Discussion: “Decrypting Crypto: How to Estimate International Stablecoin Flows”

NABE Economic Policy Conference · 2025 · Washington, D.C.

Panel: “Crypto and Tokenization Policy in a New Era — with Hester Peirce (SEC) and Eswar Prasad”

Stable Summit · 2025

Invited talk: “Message Embedding for On-Chain Payments”

Uniday (Uniswap Foundation) · 2025

Invited talk: “Scaling DeFi for Global Finance”

Western Finance Association (WFA) Annual Meeting · Jul 2024

Discussion: “Anatomy of a Run: The Terra Luna Crash”

Harvard Program on International Financial Systems (PIFS) · Jun 2024 · Cambridge, MA

Invited talk: “AI in the Future of Finance”

Japan FinTech Festival · Mar 2024 · Tokyo

Panel: “Moving Money at the Speed of the Internet”

OCC Symposium on the Tokenization of Real-World Assets and Liabilities · Feb 2024 · Washington, D.C.

Invited talk: “Beyond Speculation: Payment Stablecoins for Real-time Gross Settlements”

Georgetown Law — Institute of International Economic Law · Feb 2024 · Washington, D.C.

Invited talk: “Payment Stablecoins Colloquium — fireside with Prof. Chris Brummer”

Point Zero Forum · 2024 · Zurich

Panel: “FX in a World of Digital Money — roundtable with the IMF and MAS”

Stanford Blockchain Alumni Summit (BASS) NYC · 2024 · New York, NY

Invited talk: “Enabling Liquidity in LSTs and RWAs”

D.C. Fintech Week · Oct 2023 · Washington, D.C.

Invited talk: “Beyond Speculation: Payment Stablecoins for Real-time Gross Settlements — Best Paper Award”

Berkeley RDI Summit · Aug 2023 · Berkeley, CA

Invited talk: “Cooperative AI and Decentralized Trust”

Bank of Canada — Networks in Modern Financial and Payments Systems Conference · Jun 2023 · Ottawa

Invited talk: “On-Chain Foreign Exchange and Cross-Border Payments”

Harvard Blockchain Conference · Apr 2023 · Cambridge, MA

Keynote: “TradFi, CeFi, DeFi: A Balance Sheet Journey Through Financial Alchemy”

NABE Economic Policy Conference · Mar 2023 · Washington, D.C.

Panel: “Regulating Digital Assets and Payment Stablecoins — with Tobias Adrian (IMF) and Nellie Liang (U.S. Treasury)”

Davos — World Economic Forum Annual Meeting week · Jan 2023 · Davos

Invited talk: “The Next Evolution of Money — fireside with Niall Ferguson”

SNB-CIF Conference on Cryptoassets and Financial Innovation · 2023 · Zurich

Discussion: “Stablecoins and Short-term Funding Markets”

Brookings Institution · Oct 2022 · Washington, D.C.

Panel: “Digital Asset Regulation: The Prudential Perspective”

For speaking inquiries, reach out via LinkedIn. Print this page for a one-page speaker sheet.