This article comes from: 21st Century Business Herald
Author: Zhang Xin Guo Congcong
Editor: Zhou Yanyan
Reprinted: Circle's performance after listing is exaggerated (see " Crypto Bull Market, All in US Stocks: Circle's Ten Days from US$31 to US$165 "), the stablecoin craze is causing global listed companies to come and record a short-term surge in stock prices. Even in China, which has been cracking down on currency-related businesses for many years, a large number of companies have officially announced the exploration, development, and embrace of stablecoins, virtual assets, and RWA in the name of their international or Hong Kong entities, further amplifying the FOMO sentiment. The media "21st Century Business Herald", which frequently published articles on the blockchain industry (today's Crypto Web3) from 2020 to 2021, published another article last night, warning of the risks behind stablecoins. Its perspective is quite representative. The statement in the article that "Huatai Securities' research report shows that in Yiwu, China, the world's small commodity center, local stablecoins have become one of the important tools for cross-border payments; blockchain analysis company Chainalysis estimates that as early as 2023, the flow of stablecoins on the Yiwu market chain has exceeded US$10 billion" also aroused discussion.
As the focus of the global financial market recently, stablecoins have set off a frenzy in the capital market.
Wind data shows that since its listing on the New York Stock Exchange on June 5, the share price of Circle, the "first stablecoin stock", has nearly doubled in just over ten days, from an issue price of $31 per share to $298.99. On June 24, Guotai Junan International was approved by the Hong Kong Securities Regulatory Commission to upgrade its virtual asset trading service license, and its share price soared by nearly 200% on the same day. On June 27, Tonghuashun showed that its digital currency concept sector had been on the list for 22 consecutive days, ranking first in popularity that day.
“Sometimes nothing happens in decades, and sometimes decades of big things happen in weeks.” This sentence is becoming a true portrayal of the impact of stablecoins on the global monetary system. From the controversy caused by the Libra project led by Facebook in 2019, which impacted sovereign currencies, to the stablecoin market that may exceed $250 billion in market value in 2025, this blockchain-driven payment revolution has evolved from a technical experiment to a new battlefield for the game between major powers.
When USDT (Tether, a type of stablecoin) occupies more than 60% of the market share, when the United States passed the "Guidance and Establishment of a United States Stablecoin National Innovation Act" (hereinafter referred to as the "GENIUS Act") to anchor stablecoins to the US dollar or US bonds, and when Hong Kong, China passed the "Stablecoin Ordinance", a profound impact on monetary sovereignty, financial supervision and global governance is quietly brewing.
Faced with the wave of popularity created by stablecoins, the successive statements from mainland and Hong Kong regulators and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) have sent out important signals: we need to remain rational in our approach to the impact on stablecoins, and we must face up to their innovative value while also being wary of potential risks.
On June 18, Pan Gongsheng, governor of the People's Bank of China, mentioned at the Lujiazui Forum that emerging technologies such as blockchain and distributed ledgers have promoted the vigorous development of central bank digital currencies and stablecoins, realizing "payment is settlement", reshaping the traditional payment system from the bottom up, and significantly shortening the cross-border payment chain. At the same time, it has also posed huge challenges to financial supervision; Xiao Feng, chairman of HashKey Group, recently stated bluntly that if stablecoins occupy 30%-40% of the transaction share in the traditional financial market, it will have a subversive impact on the traditional payment system.
However, there has been a lot of discussion about whether the impact of stablecoins has been overestimated by the capital market recently. On June 23, Eddie Yue, chief executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, wrote an article calling for "I also want to cool down the market due to my duty as a regulator, so that everyone can look at stablecoins more objectively and calmly"; the BIS report also clearly pointed out that stablecoins cannot serve as the pillar of the monetary system due to structural defects in the three dimensions of singularity, elasticity and integrity, and can only play a supporting role.
Rise: From Crypto Asset Trading to Penetration of Cross-Border Payments
Stablecoins are a type of cryptocurrency that maintains the stability of its value by being linked to specific assets (such as the U.S. dollar) or asset portfolios, and have currency functions such as payment tools and value storage. Compared with other cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, stablecoins are seen by the industry as building a "bridge" between legal tender and cryptocurrency because of their relatively stable value and the ability to overcome the defects of other cryptocurrencies such as difficulty in pricing due to price fluctuations.
According to BIS, stablecoins are mainly divided into three categories:
Fiat-backed stablecoins (e.g. Tether, USD Coin) are backed by short-term USD-denominated assets, dominate the market and have an asset structure similar to money market funds;
Crypto-backed stablecoins (such as Dai) use cryptocurrencies as collateral, where “decentralized stablecoins” rely on smart contracts to manage collateral;
Algorithm-backed stablecoins (such as the collapsed TerraUSD) use algorithms to adjust the supply anchor price, but are vulnerable to market confidence and pose systemic risks.
Yao Qing, assistant partner of Hashkey Tokenisation, told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter that fiat stablecoins with US dollars as reserves were initially used mainly to solve the deposit and withdrawal problems of cryptocurrency exchanges. Most cryptocurrency exchanges have low compliance levels and do not receive support from the commercial banking system. They cannot use fiat currency for deposits and withdrawals, so they can only use US dollar stablecoins.
The earliest stablecoin was issued in 2014, USDT issued by Tether, with 1 USDT anchored to 1 USD. Since then, USD stablecoins have accumulated a large number of users in crypto asset transactions and have gradually penetrated into other application scenarios, including cross-border trade settlement, inter-enterprise payment, consumer payment, employee salary payment, and corporate investment and financing, with gradually diversified types. By the end of May 2025, the global stablecoin scale is about 250 billion US dollars, which has increased 11 times in five years compared with 20 billion US dollars in 2020.
It should be noted here that many people confuse the digital currency of the central bank with stablecoins. In fact, the central bank's digital currency is a digital representation of legal tender, and its credit support comes from national sovereignty; while stablecoins are issued by private institutions and rely on anchoring legal tender or other assets to stabilize the currency value, but anchoring deviations may still occur in actual operation. There is a certain degree of substitution relationship between the central bank's digital currency and stablecoins, and some complementary effects can also be formed. The two can jointly promote the improvement of the efficiency of financial infrastructure.
In fact, stablecoins are more attractive to high-frequency, small-amount international payment scenarios (such as cross-border e-commerce settlement and labor remittances) due to their lower cross-border payment costs, and are gradually penetrating into daily cross-border payments.
Huatai Securities research report shows that in Yiwu, China, the world's small commodity center, local stablecoins have become one of the important tools for cross-border payments. Blockchain analysis company Chainalysis estimates that as early as 2023, the flow of stablecoins on the Yiwu market chain has exceeded 10 billion US dollars.
In Manila, the Philippines, the queues at traditional remittance centers are becoming increasingly sparse, as more than 40% of remittances are now using stablecoin channels. According to statistics from the Central Bank of the Philippines in 2023, the scale of stablecoin remittances has accounted for 18% of the total remittances in the country, becoming a new pillar of the economic lifeline.
In Seoul, South Korea, stablecoin transactions account for more than 70% of the average daily trading volume of the cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb. According to the 2024 report of the Korea Institute of Finance, 32% of people aged 18-35 hold stablecoins, which are not only used for investment hedging, but are also gradually replacing bank transfers for daily consumption.
Zeng Gang, chief expert and director of the Shanghai Finance and Development Laboratory, concluded that the rise of stablecoins stems from four core characteristics.
The first is price stability . By pegging 1:1 to the US dollar and other fiat currencies, the volatility is usually less than 0.1%, becoming the "value yardstick" of the crypto market.
Second, cross-border liquidity . Relying on peer-to-peer transactions on blockchain, USDT cross-border transfers only take 2 minutes, with costs as low as $1, crushing the 2-3 day cycle and 1%-3% handling fee of traditional wire transfers.
The third is the diversified endorsement mechanism . From legal currency mortgage to algorithm adjustment, it meets the needs of different scenarios. For example, PAXG is bound to physical gold, becoming a new choice of safe-haven assets.
Fourth, it is a digital economy hub . On exchanges such as Binance, 90% of transactions are conducted in stablecoins; on DeFi (decentralized finance) platforms, more than 70% of lending agreements are denominated in stablecoins, building the underlying infrastructure of DeFi.
It is understood that in virtual asset market transactions, the proportion of stablecoins as currency transaction intermediaries has risen sharply in the past four or five years, and now exceeds 90%. According to Citi's forecast, under the scenario of clear regulatory paths, the total circulation supply of stablecoins may grow to US$1.6 trillion by 2030; under optimistic circumstances, it is expected to reach US$3.7 trillion.
Race for legislation: Stablecoins seek to integrate into the mainstream financial system
From the budding of Tether's issuance of USDT in 2014 to explore decentralized cross-border payments, to the "crypto-Lehman moment" in 2021 when the price of the algorithmic stablecoin TITAN plummeted and triggered a panic sell-off in the market, to the current stablecoin market size exceeding the $250 billion mark, the stablecoin industry has experienced a transformation from wild growth to risk exposure. This has prompted major economies such as the United States, the European Union, and Hong Kong, China to accelerate regulatory actions. Behind the rush of countries to legislate, it is not only a struggle for digital financial regulatory power, but also a sign that stablecoins are seeking to integrate into the mainstream track of the traditional financial system with a compliant attitude.
On June 17, US time, the US Senate passed the GENIUS Act (also known as the Guidance and Establishment of a National Innovation Act for Stablecoins in the United States, referred to as the 'GENIUS Act' or the 'Genius Act'). The bill provides a clearer regulatory framework for the development of the US stablecoin market, marking a shift in US stablecoin regulatory policy from restricting development to actively supporting it.
The "GENIUS Act" puts a "dollar shackle" on stablecoins. On the one hand, there are strict registration restrictions on the issuance of stablecoins. Only US entities can issue compliant stablecoins, and foreign institutions must meet strict cross-border regulatory requirements. On the other hand, stablecoins are required to be bound to reserves, that is, stablecoins must be reserved in core assets such as US dollar cash and US Treasury bonds within 93 days, directly injecting liquidity into the US Treasury market.
"The stablecoin mechanism cleverly transforms the expansion of the crypto market into an extension of the dollar's influence on the chain." Li Yang, a member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and chairman of the National Finance and Development Laboratory, believes that the United States promotes stablecoin legislation, and its legislative purpose clearly serves the interests of the dollar. It promotes the modernization of dollar payments, consolidates and strengthens the international status of the dollar, and creates trillions of new demand for U.S. Treasury bonds.
In South Korea, the new president Lee Jae-myung has actively fulfilled his campaign promises. The ruling Democratic Party led by him has proposed the Basic Act on Digital Assets, which stipulates that companies with a share capital of 500 million won or more can issue stablecoins and use reserves to guarantee refunds. At the same time, the roadmap for the approval of local spot cryptocurrency ETFs submitted by the Financial Services Commission of South Korea shows that an implementation plan will be formulated in the second half of 2025, and preparations will be made to relax the regulation of stablecoins based on the Korean won. Lee Jae-myung emphasized the importance of establishing a Korean won stablecoin market to prevent capital outflows, and intends to promote financial innovation, enhance the stability of the financial system, and participate in global digital asset competition through the legalization and standardization of stablecoins.
As one of the international financial centers, the Stablecoin Ordinance in Hong Kong, China, provides an experimental sample for the "gradual breakthrough" of offshore RMB stablecoins:
As early as 2024, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority launched the "Sandbox Program" for stablecoin issuers, selecting three groups of participating institutions from more than 40 applications: JD CoinChain Technology (Hong Kong), Yuanbi Innovation Technology, and an entity jointly formed by Standard Chartered Bank, Anmi Group and Hong Kong Telecom. These institutions have carried out testing of stablecoin issuance processes and business models in a controlled environment.
On May 21, 2025, the Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China passed the Stablecoin Bill; on May 30, 2025, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government of China published the Stablecoin Ordinance in the Gazette, marking the official entry into force of the Ordinance. The Stablecoin Ordinance will officially take effect on August 1, marking the official implementation of the world's first systematic regulatory framework for fiat stablecoins.
The Stablecoin Ordinance requires that any entity that issues a legal currency stablecoin or a stablecoin anchored to the value of the Hong Kong dollar in Hong Kong must apply for a license from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, and only stablecoins issued by licensed institutions can be sold to retail investors. Yu Weiwen mentioned that considering the characteristics of stablecoins as emerging things, the risks inherent in the issuance business, the need to protect user rights and interests, as well as the market carrying capacity and long-term development plans, the license application has set a high standard, and only "a few licenses" will be issued in the initial stage.
However, there is still a long way to go for stablecoins to truly integrate into the mainstream financial system. Zhao Binghao, dean of the Financial Technology and Law Research Institute of China University of Political Science and Law, told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter that the legislation and supervision of stablecoins by various countries marks its official entry into the financial regulatory field of vision, but this does not mean that stablecoins have become mainstream currencies.
Zhao Binghao believes that regulatory policies have a double-edged sword effect: on the one hand, they promote the development of the industry, attract institutional funds to enter the market, and promote the integration of stablecoins and legal currencies in payment, cross-border settlement and other scenarios; on the other hand, they also increase the industry entry threshold and compliance costs. Taking USDT issuer Tether as an example, its super high profit margin (in 2024, Tether has no more than 200 employees, but achieved a net profit of US$13.7 billion, and per capita profit exceeded US$68 million) is largely due to low compliance costs. In contrast, USDC issuer Circle has invested a lot of resources in compliance, resulting in high operating costs and relatively limited market share. The same high compliance costs also limit the stablecoin market to the game of "competition among giants", and new players have little chance.
Ye Ningyao, director of the Beijing Banking Law Research Association, also agreed with the increase in compliance costs. He said that the "mainstreaming" process of stablecoins will inevitably be accompanied by a structural increase in compliance costs. Under the Hong Kong framework, issuers not only face high capital requirements, but also need to bear technical investments such as reserve asset custody, independent audits, and real-time redemption systems. According to industry estimates, the annual operating costs of a compliant stablecoin issuer may reach HK$50 million to HK$80 million. Although the US "GENIUS Act" does not have a unified capital threshold, requirements such as anti-money laundering (AML) compliance and regular reporting have also pushed up operating costs, and small issuers may be squeezed out of the market. This "compliance premium" will lead to an increase in industry concentration, and traditional financial institutions (such as Standard Chartered Bank in Hong Kong and Fidelity in the United States) will gain competitive advantages with existing compliance infrastructure, while crypto-native companies will face transformation pressure.
Zhao Binghao pointed out that the asset reserves of stablecoins are mainly verified through audits. USDT has not yet adopted the Big Four audits, which also indirectly reflects the mainstream financial community's doubts about its transparency. This difference in audit mechanisms highlights the core issue of supervision: how to ensure that the issuer of stablecoins actually holds reserve assets equal to the amount issued.
Four dimensions "demystify" stablecoins, experts: the value of stablecoins may even return to zero
Stablecoins have risen rapidly with technological innovation, triggering heated discussions on monetary system reforms in all walks of life around the world. Some even regard it as a "new Bretton Woods system" that reshapes the international monetary order. However, it is still necessary to examine the nature and impact of stablecoins from a rational perspective. 21st Century Business Herald reporters will "demystify" stablecoins from four dimensions to restore their true position in the global monetary system.
First of all, stablecoins are a shadow of fiat currency, not a monetary revolution.
Zou Chuanwei, director of the Frontier Finance Research Center of the Shanghai Finance and Development Laboratory and chief economist of Wanxiang Blockchain, pointed out that the mainstream model of stablecoins does not create new currencies, but simply tokenizes bank deposits and invests reserve assets in low-risk assets such as U.S. bonds. In essence, it is a "blockchain translation" of the existing monetary system.
The aforementioned BIS report pointed out that stablecoins have defects in terms of singularity and elasticity, which also proves that stablecoins are not a "monetary revolution". Specifically, stablecoins lack the settlement function provided by the central bank, the exchange rate fluctuates, and they cannot fulfill the relevant principles of bank currency issuance, and they do not have the ability of the banking system to create money through lending activities. This shows that stablecoins have not fundamentally changed the basic mechanism of currency issuance and circulation, and have not made revolutionary changes to the traditional monetary system. It is just an innovative attempt based on technologies such as blockchain under the framework of the existing monetary system. Therefore, it is difficult for them to become the pillar of the monetary system.
Taking the elasticity of currency as an example, Zhao Binghao said that fiat currency relies on the credit of the central bank as a solid endorsement, while the stability of stablecoins depends on the reserve assets of the issuer. In extreme market environments, the value of stablecoins may even return to zero , and the collapse of UST is a typical example.
Secondly, stablecoins are not currencies that transcend sovereignty.
In other words, the moat of sovereign currencies is very strong, and stablecoins cannot penetrate this system, but we still need to guard against their potential impact on the sovereign currency system.
"As long as sovereign states still exist, the sovereign nature of currency will not change." Li Yang said that monetary sovereignty is an important part of national sovereignty. It is the supreme power of each country to issue and manage its own currency in its own country, as well as the basic right to independently implement its external monetary policy and equally participate in handling international monetary and financial affairs. Therefore, the launch of various digital assets, including stablecoins, does not mean the emergence of a new international monetary system that "transcends sovereignty."
The "integrity" defects of stablecoins mentioned in the BIS report are strong evidence that it is difficult for them to surpass sovereign currencies. As a digital bearer tool on a borderless public chain, stablecoins lack "know your customer" (KYC) standards and are easily used for illegal activities, making them unable to have a solid trust foundation and a complete guarantee mechanism like sovereign currencies. Sovereign currencies have advantages in preventing financial crimes because they have national credit endorsement and a complete regulatory system.
Yao Qing also believes that the US dollar stablecoin will support the international status of the US dollar for a long time in the future together with the SWIFT messaging system, Visa and MasterCard and other bank card organizations, rather than replacing the existing system. In essence, the US dollar stablecoin is still issued by private institutions based on US dollar reserves, with no national credit endorsement, nor formal international recognition and a complete governance structure.
However, Li Yang pointed out that no matter how stablecoins develop, when they are used for international payments, they cannot circumvent the "exchange" supervision between sovereign currencies. However, given that payment and settlement are basic functions of currency that cannot be replaced, the stablecoin payment system continues to grow. Although it cannot create new international currencies, it has effectively eroded the functions of existing sovereign currencies. This has had an impact on the existing monetary systems of various countries and even the international monetary system that cannot be ignored, and it is worth focusing on prevention.
Third, the role of stablecoins in absorbing U.S. debt is relatively limited.
After the relevant legislation was introduced in the United States, some opinions pointed out that the United States is trying to use stablecoins to ease the pressure of U.S. debt. Zou Chuanwei explained that although public reports show that the scale of U.S. Treasury bonds in USDT reserve assets exceeds 120 billion US dollars, even higher than Germany's holdings, the demand for U.S. debt created by the dollar stablecoin is difficult to effectively alleviate the U.S. debt problem.
First, according to the US "GENIUS Act" , the reserve assets of the US dollar stablecoin can only be invested in short-term treasury bonds that mature within 93 days, while long-term treasury bonds are the key to solving the US debt problem;
Second, compared with the total amount of US Treasury bonds exceeding 36 trillion US dollars , even if all the US dollar stablecoin reserve assets are used to purchase US Treasury bonds, the total amount is only 245.2 billion US dollars, which accounts for a very small proportion;
Third, if the issuer of the US dollar stablecoin holds a large amount of US Treasury bonds and allows users to redeem them flexibly , once a large-scale redemption wave occurs, the issuer may be forced to sell US Treasury bonds, which will in turn impact the stability of the US Treasury market.
It can be seen from this that the US dollar stablecoin faces the dilemma of an "impossible triangle" - the three goals of large-scale issuance, large-scale allocation of long-term US Treasury bonds as reserve assets, and flexible redemption by users cannot be achieved at the same time.
Fourth, the hedging function and investment properties of stablecoins have not been fully verified.
Although promoted as a "cross-border payment tool", the BIS study has poured "cold water" on it. The study points out that actual stablecoins are more of an entry tool into the DeFi and crypto markets. In addition, there is no conclusive evidence to support their "safe haven asset" function. Recent studies have shown that more than 90% of fiat-backed stablecoins also experienced capital outflows when faced with shocks from the crypto market and US monetary policy, indicating that they cannot provide effective risk mitigation during market turmoil.
In addition, Yao Qing said that although there have been forms such as algorithmic stablecoins and over-collateralized stablecoins in the development history of stablecoins, their essence is still a medium of exchange based on the characteristics of value storage and convenient circulation. This is essentially different from virtual currencies with investment attributes, and their functional positioning should be viewed rationally without exaggeration or myth.
Impact and Reconstruction: Possibilities and Challenges of a Multi-Currency System
Under the wave of blockchain technology, stablecoins have leapt from a niche application in the field of crypto assets to a key variable that stirs the global monetary system. When USDT circulates in cross-border payment scenarios with an average daily transaction volume of hundreds of billions of dollars, and when countries launch a new round of game around stablecoin legislation, the future form of currency is experiencing unprecedented impact and reconstruction.
Ye Ningyao said that the global stablecoin market is currently showing a multipolar development trend: the EU has passed the MiCA Act (also known as the Crypto Asset Market Regulation Act) to strengthen regulatory restrictions on non-euro stablecoins; Russia has innovatively launched the RUBC stablecoin, which is collateralized by gold and the US dollar. In the process of de-dollarization, the BRICS countries are exploring the establishment of a "common currency" mechanism, and some emerging economies are trying to use gold or commodities as collateral to issue stablecoins. These measures are all aimed at reducing the traditional dependence on the US dollar system.
However, the rapid development of stablecoins has also brought about a series of risks and regulatory challenges that cannot be ignored.
On June 25, Li Bo, deputy director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and former deputy governor of the central bank, said during the Summer Davos that although many countries have actively carried out regulatory experiments on digital currencies and stablecoins and strived to build an adaptive legal framework, this is only a starting point and further consensus is needed. He said that the attributes of stablecoins are currently vaguely defined - whether they are currencies or financial assets is not clear, which directly affects the corresponding legal and regulatory requirements; in addition, if they are identified as currencies, how to divide the currency levels and how to establish a supporting anti-money laundering mechanism are still under intense discussion.
Zhao Binghao pointed out to our reporter that currently all global stablecoins are issued by private institutions, and there has been no case of direct involvement of central banks. Taking the US market as an example, the vigorous development of private dollar stablecoins such as USDT and USDC has objectively strengthened the international status of the US dollar, which also explains why the Trump administration has not actively promoted the construction of central bank digital currency (CBDC). However, this market-oriented issuance model has significant regulatory blind spots - the Federal Reserve lacks effective control measures for the US dollar stablecoins circulating on the chain, and this out-of-control state may breed huge financial risks.
Zhao Binghao particularly emphasized the two major challenges currently facing stablecoin regulation:
First, there is a serious imbalance in cross-border and cross-chain regulatory mechanisms. Although major financial markets such as the United States and Hong Kong, China have established regulatory frameworks, the standards of various countries are not unified, creating space for regulatory arbitrage.
Second, the technical supervision capacity is obviously insufficient. Faced with the stablecoin system supported by blockchain technology, regulators are still using traditional supervision tools, resulting in a serious lack of technical penetration. A typical manifestation of this problem is that the issuer of mainstream stablecoins such as USDT can only technically freeze some on-chain assets (i.e. "blacklisting addresses"), while most regulatory operations still rely on the cooperation of public chain infrastructure to complete.
Yu Weiwen wrote that the anonymity and cross-border convenience of stablecoins breed anti-money laundering problems, and there are hidden dangers such as bank runs, deposit migration, systemic risk transmission and technical security. Lin Yingqi, deputy general manager of CICC Research Department and banking analyst, also told this reporter that the difficulty of stablecoin supervision lies mainly in customer identity identification (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML): At present, supervision mainly reviews customer information at the platform level, and identifies customer information in the exchange of digital currency and legal currency. However, the blockchain technology used by cryptocurrencies determines that when funds enter the blockchain, the mapping between on-chain data and real customer information is difficult to track, and on-chain fund transactions are difficult to monitor, which increases the difficulty of supervision.
From the regulatory perspective, Yu Weiwen said that the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, as a representative, has actively participated in the FSB's "Global Crypto-Asset Regulatory Framework" to promote cross-border regulatory cooperation; Hong Kong follows the principle of "same activities, same risks, same regulation", clarifies the qualification requirements of issuers through the "Stablecoin Ordinance", and uses the "Sandbox" mechanism to verify the business model in advance. Yu Weiwen also emphasized that the approval of stablecoin licenses needs to strictly control the number, focus on real application scenarios and market trust, and at the same time put forward strict requirements for compliance capabilities such as reserve management, anti-money laundering, and business sustainability.
Li Bo also revealed at the 2025 Summer Davos Forum that the IMF, the Financial Stability Board, the Basel Committee and other institutions will work together to develop relevant standards and guidelines to help relevant countries better implement central bank digital currencies and stablecoins.
In addition, due to the impact of stablecoins, emerging markets must also be wary of the risk of "digital dollarization". Yao Qing told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter that the US dollar stablecoin has become an important tool for cross-border payments and fund transfers with its advantages of speed, low cost and disintermediation, and is popular among individual and institutional users. In Latin America, Africa, Southeast Asia and other regions, a large number of residents hold and use US dollar stablecoins to avoid the risks of economic instability and currency depreciation in their own countries, which essentially forms a digital "dollarization" process. This trend not only strengthens the international dominance of the US dollar, but also has a certain substitution effect on the legal currency of countries whose legal currency value is not stable, which makes their monetary sovereignty face severe challenges.
Looking ahead, Li Yang believes that in the face of the wave of stablecoins, China needs to advance in two directions. The first is to firmly promote the internationalization of the RMB. Given that stablecoins are essentially still dependent on the sovereign currency system, continuously strengthening the international status of the RMB remains a core task. Past measures such as expanding the capacity of local currency swap agreements, optimizing the RMB cross-border payment system, improving the global clearing network, and increasing the use of the RMB in the "Belt and Road" economy and trade need to be firmly and deeply implemented.
Ye Ningyao also pointed out that offshore RMB stablecoins are showing unique development potential: relying on the regulatory framework established by Hong Kong's "Stablecoin Ordinance", technology giants such as Ant Group and Tencent are actively exploring the application of RMB stablecoins in cross-border trade scenarios, which provides an innovative path for the internationalization of RMB.
Regarding another line, Li Yang mentioned that it is necessary to face up to the fact that the integration and development trend of stablecoins, cryptocurrencies and traditional financial systems will be difficult to reverse. In recent years, the European Union, Japan, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Hong Kong, China, etc. have turned to a model that supports the integrated development of central bank digital currency experiments, stablecoins, and cryptocurrencies. This integration model helps to achieve the complementary development of the three, can comprehensively improve payment efficiency and reduce payment costs, reconstruct the global payment system, and drive the development of DeFi. However, it should be noted that in the process of promoting the development of stablecoins, it is also necessary to solve the problems of sovereign currency substitution, money laundering, user rights protection, and monetary policy out of control.
The development and rise of stablecoins is a continuous struggle between technological innovation and institutional constraints. It is neither a "monetary revolution" that subverts sovereign currencies nor a tool for reconstructing monetary hegemony, but a technological revolution that reconstructs the payment system - using blockchain to rewrite the rules of value transfer, but it is always limited by national monetary sovereignty.
In this technological innovation, the United States is trying to incorporate stablecoins into the "dollar system" through legislation, China is exploring RMB stablecoins through offshore pilots, and emerging markets must be wary of the risk of "digital dollarization". Looking ahead, the global financial and monetary system may not be dominated by the US dollar or a multi-equal pattern, but a complex ecosystem where sovereign currencies, central bank digital currencies, and compliant stablecoins coexist.
