Brian Muse-McKenney is chief revenue officer at payment technology firm Episode Six.

We’re entering a new era of value exchange, one where multiple forms of currency and digital assets coexist and interoperate. The payments multiverse is a vision of the near future where multiple forms of value exchange live side by side. In this new landscape, traditional fiat currencies and bank deposits are just one parallel form of value. They coexist with digital assets like stablecoins and CBDCs, with brand-issued currencies such as loyalty points or game virtual currencies, and with emerging forms of value like tokenized assets or live-streaming “gifts” for creators on social platforms.

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All of these can work together seamlessly, meaning a person could, for example, pay for a coffee by combining dollars, reward points, and a sliver of Bitcoin in one transaction. We’re already seeing early signs of this convergence: loyalty points are turning into a de facto replacement for cash in some markets, and governments are piloting digital currencies alongside physical money. This represents a fundamental shift from a one-size-fits-all payments model to an interconnected network of networks.

Modern payments are also becoming dynamic and programmable. The old system was linear – funds moved from A to B through a limited set of channels, with little flexibility or context. In the multiverse model, payments become programmable and context-aware. Value can route itself through the most efficient path — be it a card, a bank rail, an internal ledger, or blockchain — and transactions can carry rich data and logic.A payment might trigger conditional actions (such as releasing an escrow upon delivery) or split into multiple asset types along the way. It’s a globally interconnected web where a user in Singapore could send value to a user in Brazil instantly, converting the format — say, from a stablecoin to a local currency or loyalty credits — on the fly. In short, payments are evolving into a borderless, programmable and composable experience.

To stay competitive, businesses must rethink their payments infrastructure. The current ecosystem will reward those who can adapt quickly, offering customers more ways to pay, redeem rewards, and transact across borders and platforms. Legacy systems, built for a simpler era, weren’t designed for this level of agility.

Companies stuck on rigid, siloed payment platforms will struggle to support things like cryptocurrency wallets, real-time loyalty redemptions or multi-currency transactions. The time to modernize is now.

So, why the shift?

There are three key trends within the payments multiverse. The first is the concept of connected value, or the rise of multi-asset payments and seamless value exchange. In this new environment, value isn’t confined to cash in a bank. Consumers and businesses are embracing diverse forms of value: from fiat currencies to cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), loyalty points and even in-game currencies. Connected value is about seamlessly exchanging and transacting across all these forms.

The second notable trend is programmable transactions — payments that adapt, automate and enable new interactions. As payments go digital, they are becoming smarter and more programmable. No longer just a static transfer of funds, a payment can now carry dynamic rules and conditions that execute in real time. Programmable transactions refer to the growing ability to customize payment flows on the fly — whether setting spending controls on a virtual card, automatically splitting a purchase into installments or triggering payments based on events. This trend is powered by API-driven platforms and fintech innovations that embed logic into the payment process.

The third trend involved in the payments multiverse is “going glocal,” which means scaling financial infrastructure globally while delivering local experiences. This trend recognizes that while commerce is increasingly global, payments still must feel local. Innovative companies are pursuing glocal growth, leveraging cloud-based and composable payment hubs to scale worldwide and adapt to local market needs.

This means unifying once-fragmented payment systems into a single platform that can be deployed across regions while supporting local currencies, payment methods and regulatory requirements. A truly glocal payments strategy lets a company expand seamlessly into new markets without rebuilding its infrastructure from scratch each time and ensures customers everywhere get a familiar, localized payment experience.

The road ahead

The dawn of the payments multiverse undoubtedly brings challenges. Regulators will need to catch up to innovations like crypto and embedded finance, cybersecurity threats will evolve as more value goes digital and competition will intensify as new players enter finance from every angle.

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Yet the opportunities are immense. New revenue streams will flow to those who can facilitate these novel forms of value exchange. Customers will be more engaged and loyal when they have a choice and personalization in how they pay. And millions of unbanked or underserved people could gain access to financial systems through alternative currencies and platforms that didn’t exist before.

The winners in this new era are those that embrace payment infrastructure that is modular, interoperable and massively scalable. It’s not about betting on one winner — whether it’s a digital currency or a platform. It’s about being ready for a world of many possibilities.