The Battle of Stablecoins: Who Will Dominate the Next Generation of Financial Infrastructure?

In today's rapidly evolving yet controversial world of stablecoins, the real trends are often overshadowed by market noise. To unveil the actual context in this field, an English video program has emerged, focusing on global stablecoin developments. From a founder of a fintech company outright stating that "stablecoins are meaningless," to a payment giant investing heavily in building stablecoin infrastructure; from e-commerce platforms integrating stablecoin payments, to Chinese payment giants vying for stablecoin licenses in multiple locations.

Meanwhile, a Bitcoin sidechain project attracted nearly 3,000 wallets to inject $1 billion in stablecoin funds in a short period. Is this a brief speculative frenzy, or a precursor to a new financial order?

This article will delve into the divisions surrounding stablecoins: on one side, there is the cautious wait-and-see approach of fintech giants, while on the other side, Web3 companies and global users rapidly embrace the digital dollar. This is not only a battle of routes within the crypto industry but also a global struggle for dominance in the next generation of financial infrastructure.

###'s questioning of stablecoins

The co-founder of a fintech company has expressed strong skepticism towards stablecoins. He stated on social media: "In 15 years, I have not seen a single cryptocurrency use case that truly solves a real problem."

He believes that in major currency payments, stablecoins not only do not lower costs but instead increase transaction fees, especially during on-chain transactions and fiat exchanges, and cannot bring substantial improvements for large-scale B2B payments.

The founder believes that the fintech sector has achieved nearly instant, low-cost cross-border payments through the establishment of proprietary banking networks and foreign exchange bridges, and that stablecoins have not brought significant advantages. They may have applications in emerging markets and among unbanked populations, but overall, they are more about "regulatory arbitrage" rather than benefiting end users and businesses.

Rapid embrace by institutions

In stark contrast to the cautious attitude mentioned above, a group of tech giants and institutions are vigorously embracing stablecoins:

• A certain payment giant: acquired a wallet infrastructure startup and spent $1.1 billion to acquire a stablecoin infrastructure company, dedicated to building a complete ecosystem of stablecoins and crypto wallets. The company is launching stablecoin products aimed at the US, UK, and Europe, and plans to cover all its merchants by the end of the year. A certain e-commerce platform and a certain cryptocurrency exchange have also joined the camp, supporting merchants to accept USDC directly, and even incentivizing merchants to retain USDC instead of immediately converting to local fiat currency through cashback, thereby reducing exchange rate conversion costs.

• U.S. Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation: As the back-end clearinghouse for nearly all securities transactions in the U.S., this company has an annual trading volume of up to twenty trillion dollars and is piloting a dollar-backed stablecoin to modernize settlement. This signifies the potential for moving from T+2 to instant settlement, marking the first step towards putting stocks on the blockchain.

• A European bank: Launched a US dollar stablecoin compliant with MiCA regulations, custodied by a certain American bank, issued on Ethereum and a certain public chain, marking the entry of traditional European financial institutions into the stablecoin space.

• A Chinese payment giant: is preparing to apply for a stablecoin issuance license, aiming to cover digital asset regulatory frontiers such as Hong Kong, Singapore, and Luxembourg. In particular, Hong Kong is set to officially implement a stablecoin issuance licensing system in August, and the company intends to seize the market with a first-mover advantage. As a highly influential payment giant in China and abroad, the launch of its stablecoin will further promote innovations in cross-border payments, fund management, and settlement.

Market Demand Explosion: A Project Case

Although some fintech founders are cautious about the prospects of stablecoins, the other end of the market presents a completely different picture: retail investors and innovative experiments on emerging chains are advancing at an unprecedented pace.

In a recent token-related event organized by a certain project, the deposit amount reached up to $1 billion (the initial deposit limit was only $500 million, but due to extremely strong demand, the original deposit cap had to be doubled to meet market needs). It is reported that this event attracted around 3,000 wallets, with median deposits of $24,895 and $6,939 respectively. Among them, 58% of the funds came from USDC and 40% from USDT. Additionally, some users paid transaction fees of up to $100,000 to ensure transaction speed. It is worth noting that these deposits are not directly used for token sales, but rather to gain priority access for future token sales.

The high participation and rapid sellout of this event may be related to the institutional support the project received earlier, but some believe that certain investors may misunderstand the actual situation of the project. Nevertheless, industry insiders still hold a wait-and-see attitude towards the necessity of the project launching an independent chain, believing that there may be a certain degree of overheating speculation in the current market.

The significance of stablecoin: the struggle for control over financial infrastructure.

Currently, we are witnessing an important transformation regarding the future of financial infrastructure. Although there are still traditional companies like certain fintech firms that remain skeptical, an increasing number of financial giants are actively laying out strategies in the stablecoin sector, from payment giants to Chinese payment giants, from U.S. clearinghouses to European banks. This is not just a debate about cryptocurrency; it is a key battle that will determine the direction of the next generation of financial infrastructure. In this transformation, stablecoins are gradually evolving from a controversial concept into a core infrastructure that will reshape the global payment system.