Finance Executives Highlight Transparency in Crypto and AI Adoption at Consensus Miami

Com and 248 Ventures spoke at CoinDesk's Consensus Miami conference on May 5, 2026, stressing that transparency and user control are key to driving retail adoption of crypto and AI products. The event took place on Tuesday, where panelists urged slowing down development to build trust.

Nicola White, Robinhood's VP of Crypto Institutions and general manager of Bitstamp, noted that 50% of Robinhood's new platform users in Q1 2026 were first-time investors.

She reiterated that 50% of the company's new first-quarter 2026 users self-identified as first-time investors. White stated, 'We're all building so quickly. I think we need to make sure that we're slowing down and thinking about: is what we're building the right thing for the customer?

She referenced a crypto liquidation event that occurred on October 10 as an example of such risks. com has built its agentic-investing product so that users review and approve a deterministic recipe before any trade is placed. com, everyone is now writing code, including accountants and marketing people.

Smitha Purohit, PayPal's senior director of product for crypto, said trust is a factor of two things: whether users can start small and experiment, and whether the company has their back when something goes wrong. Lindsey Bell, Chief Investment Strategist at 248 Ventures, said traditional market research is now only 23% accurate, citing remarks from a former Mastercard CMO.

Bell predicted that 80% of Americans will be operating with at least one AI agent by early 2027.