Why Trust Is Crypto’s Most Valuable Asset
- Jun 2
- 4 min read
Overview
At Consensus 2026, industry leaders Britt Cambas, Senior Manager of Circle, Rachel Castro, Senior Vice President of Business Banking Partnerships of U.S. Bank, Pauline Shangett, Chief Strategy Officer of ChangeNOW and Ali Tager, VP of External Affairs of the National Cryptocurrency Association explored one of crypto's most important challenges: trust.
For an industry built on the idea of trustless systems, the discussion highlighted a paradox that has become increasingly clear over the years. While blockchains remove the need to trust intermediaries, people still need to trust the companies, products, and communities that help them navigate the ecosystem.
The panel explored what creates trust, how companies earn it, and why the future of crypto adoption may depend more on human relationships than technical innovation.
Trust Is Built Through People, Not Technology
One of the strongest themes throughout the discussion was that trust rarely happens instantly.
Ali Tager, Vice President of External Affairs at the National Cryptocurrency Association (NCA), argued that people don't want to be marketed to, they want to be heard.
The NCA has focused heavily on listening to everyday users and understanding why many people remain hesitant about crypto. According to Tager, the biggest barrier isn't necessarily regulation or technology.
Many potential users feel overwhelmed by complexity, jargon, misinformation, and the perception that they've already missed the opportunity.
Rather than promoting crypto through hype, the NCA has invested in educational resources, beginner-friendly learning tools, and community-driven storytelling.
As Tager explained:
"We can't just be shoving our opinions down people's throats. We need to foster a dialogue."
That approach reflects a broader shift happening across the industry: moving from promotion to education.
Customer Support May Be Crypto's Most Underrated Feature
Pauline Shangett, Chief Strategy Officer at ChangeNOW, offered a perspective shaped by years of experience navigating multiple market cycles.
After witnessing everything from ICOs to NFTs and meme coin speculation, she admitted that trust is not something she gives easily.
For Shangett, one of the most important indicators of a trustworthy project is the presence of real people behind it. She emphasized that robust customer support remains one of the most overlooked factors in crypto adoption.
Too often, users encounter platforms where support is difficult to access or where companies appear indifferent once a transaction is completed. In contrast, organizations that acknowledge mistakes, communicate openly and resolve issues create lasting loyalty.
As she noted:
"If you actually own up to it and make sure to fix your mistakes, that increases trust."
Her comments highlighted a reality many crypto companies overlook: users often remember how problems were handled more than whether problems occurred in the first place.
Simplicity Creates Trust
Britt Cambas, who leads AI partnerships at Circle, emphasized that trust grows when products are easy to understand and clearly solve a problem.
She pointed to Circle's Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP), which allows users to move USDC between blockchains without relying on wrapped assets or traditional bridge models. What stood out was not just the technology itself but Circle's willingness to adapt based on customer feedback.
After hearing repeated requests for faster transactions, Circle reduced transfer times from approximately fifteen minutes to roughly fifteen seconds. For Cambas, trust comes from reducing complexity and eliminating uncertainty.
She explained that viral adoption often occurs when:
"The value is obvious, the product is useful, and it's easy to explain."
It's a lesson that applies far beyond stablecoins. The easier a product is to understand, the easier it becomes to trust.
Banking's Perspective: Trust Is the Product
Rachel Castro of U.S. Bank brought a traditional financial services perspective to the conversation.
Banks, she argued, operate on trust as their primary competitive advantage. People deposit their savings because they believe the institution will protect them, provide reliable service, and be there when needed. That trust, however, is fragile.
Castro noted that trust can be broken quickly but takes much longer to rebuild. As a result, every customer interaction matters, whether it's product design, support, communication or problem resolution. She also emphasized the importance of understanding customer needs rather than overwhelming them with features. Companies build trust by solving specific problems clearly and efficiently.
In her view, successful products begin with understanding what customers actually need.
Empathy May Be the Missing Ingredient
Another recurring theme throughout the discussion was empathy.
Shangett argued that many crypto founders still underestimate the emotional realities users face when interacting with financial products.
For some users, a few thousand dollars may represent discretionary investment capital.
For others, it may represent an entire month's income.
She observed that many builders approach users with technical expertise but little understanding of the financial stress and uncertainty those users may be experiencing.
Her conclusion was straightforward:
"Empathy is pretty much the most important thing to build trust in the cryptosphere."
As crypto continues expanding beyond early adopters, this insight becomes increasingly relevant. The next wave of users won't arrive because they understand blockchain architecture. They'll arrive because products make them feel safe, understood, and supported.
The Future of Adoption Depends on Trust
The panel offered an important reminder that trust cannot be automated, tokenized, or engineered solely through code. Technology, infrastructure and security matters, but long-term adoption depends on something far more human.
Users trust companies that listen. They trust products that solve real problems. They trust organizations that communicate clearly, support customers and remain transparent when things go wrong.
As crypto moves from niche technology toward mainstream adoption, the winners may not simply be those with the best products, they may be the ones that earn and maintain trust at scale.
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