The closing roundtable, chaired by Dr Gérardine Goh Escolar, was a genuinely moderated conversation: rounds of questions to central bankers, multilateral institutions and academics, punctuated by lively exchanges with the audience. Dr Fabio Araújo opened from Brasília, presenting Brazil's DREX model and its ecosystem of innovation labs as a way of reconciling innovation with monetary sovereignty — regulators, he argued, cannot build the infrastructure alone. Dr Arthur Rossi distilled the lessons of a decade of cross-border CBDC experimentation, from the wholesale-first logic of central banks to today's interconnection projects. Dr Sandra Švaljek and Mr Panagiotis Papapaschalis brought the discussion to the monetary anchor: the danger begins not when people pay with crypto, but when prices start being quoted in it — and, as Švaljek noted through the disarming test of explaining the digital euro to her own mother, the communication challenge may be as hard as the technical one. Dr Miguel Fernández Ordóñez offered the liberalising counterpoint, recalling how sectors without regulatory monopolies — photography, media — were transformed by digitalisation into engines of massive inclusion.

Dr Marino Vollenweider illustrated the BIS's cooperative mission and its tokenisation projects, including Project Agora and the preservation of the singleness of money; Dr Marcello Miccoli set out the IMF's work towards a globally consistent regulatory framework and the capacity building it requires, since for many central banks these are entirely new topics. Recurring interventions from the floor — on bearer instruments versus accounts, on legal tender, on the very need for a CBDC separate from credit — kept the debate honest. Asked by the chair to chart the course in a single word, the panellists answered: inclusive, interconnected, collaborative, and open. Ambassador Bitange Ndemo and Dr Helmut Elsinger were regrettably unable to join the session.