Circle: What is the future of a Stable Coin with a Market Cap of 56 billion USDC?

Organizing: Golden Finance

On February 19, at the conference scene of Consensus HK 2025, Yam Ki Chan, Vice President of Cooperation and Business in the Asia-Pacific region of Circle, gave a speech entitled 'USDC as a platform for global prosperity'.

Jinse Caijing has organized the speech content as follows, to delight the readers.

Circle Vice President of APAC Partnership and Business Yam Ki Chan

Nice to see everyone. As someone born in Hong Kong, it's always great to come back to Hong Kong. I also want to shout out loudly to CoinDesk's Consensus conference, to the optimistic attitude of bringing industry elites together and reaching consensus. This is a fantastic event.

What future lies behind the USDC with a market value of 56 billion US dollars?

I first want to announce that the market cap of USDC has reached 56 billion US dollars! This is about a week ago historical high. It seems like everyone is talking about this. But what is behind the 56 billion US dollars high?

There are now over $23 trillion in on-chain transactions being completed via USDC, which is different from the situation before 2023. Currently, the USDC blockchain is also more than ever. USDC is being used in over 100 countries globally. Nearly 4 million wallets worldwide actually hold and use USDC. However, creating a truly stablecoin business involves many other aspects, which is a problem that every member of our team is thinking about.

So, what exactly makes 560 billion dollars possible?

USDC is the digital dollar on the Internet, with two notable advantages to pay attention to: first, the stability of USDC. USDC is the world's largest regulated dollar stablecoin, regulated in countries including the United States, Singapore, Europe, etc., and backed by a 1:1 reserve, providing users with the necessary trust. Secondly, settlement efficiency. USDC has the ability to settle dollars at close to real-time interest rates with low transfer costs. The combination of the two is what makes USDC unique.

Currently, we are also building payment protocols for the internet. This is not limited to USDC, but also involves a broader range of stablecoins. In addition, many people have asked me why Circle does not launch a Hong Kong dollar stablecoin or stablecoins for other currencies? Now, we believe the world will eventually move in this direction. We focus on the largest, regulated US dollar stablecoin, and we are also issuing the Euro stablecoin, EURC. In the future, we hope to see stablecoins for various currencies emerging globally. This is also the future of stablecoins.

The Three Major Uses of Stablecoins

Many people will ask, What is the use of stablecoins? I classify the uses into three categories.

First, around digital assets and capital markets. Second, around consumer payment solutions. Third, around cross-border payments.

In the field of digital assets and capital markets, whether it's traders, market makers, or other positions that need to enter and exit, whether it's BTC or other cryptocurrencies, real-time settlement of some transactions is required. We have cooperated with many giants in the financial field to enable them to use USDC, helping them and their partners to settle transactions through USDC.

In terms of consumer payments, including Hong Kong Telecom, Mastercard, Visa, and some other companies are using Web3 solutions for digital transformation and entering the next stage of financing. They are all settling in UDSC, and we are also pleased to see many companies in emerging markets, including Grab, using Web3-related services, or using USDC as a way to provide dollar savings and holdings for their users. Recently, we also announced a partnership with Lulu in the Middle East, and we are looking forward to working with them. In the current cases, it is more of the telecommunications companies, internet companies, and these companies are upgrading by building services on the blockchain. We are helping large companies transition from the traditional financial dimension to the blockchain dimension and providing them with some technical services. How to build, complete the transformation, and deal with compliance issues? How to handle travel rules? These are all very important issues.

In terms of cross-border payments. Cross-border payments may be the most exciting aspect of stablecoins. We have partnered with Money Gram, Stellar, and UNACR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) to provide assistance in US dollars to Ukrainian refugees who are experiencing war. These refugees can receive funds directly from the United Nations and can send and use the money on the Stellar network. In October last year, we announced a partnership with Tunes. Tunes transfers funds for many remittance companies and payment companies around the world. The question of how to use USDC and Stable Points to achieve faster business and faster payments is of transformative significance.

The bright future of regulation will rewrite the way cross-border payments are made

In the past few months, it would have been impossible to discuss regulatory issues without a change in the US regulatory attitude. Now, Congress has a clear regulatory bill on stablecoins.

If Trump's promises can be fulfilled, then within the first 100 days of his administration, a set of regulatory standards will be released. Currently, the United States is lagging behind in regulation. For example, jurisdictions such as Europe have already begun work through regulations. The European MICA Act will come into effect on July 1, 2024. Circle has become the first global stablecoin issuer to comply with the MICA Act. It can issue USDC and Euro stablecoins within this framework.

We announce the establishment of an office in Abu Dhabi in the Middle East. In addition, Japan also has regulations regarding stablecoins, and the FSA has actually issued guidelines for regulating stablecoins. Hong Kong is also working to introduce industry regulations, which are similar to the frameworks of the United States, Japan, and Europe.

How stablecoins are regulated and which stablecoins will be regulated in different jurisdictions are issues that need to be coordinated. The stablecoin market has just opened, and with the improvement of regulations, and as more companies create their networks, wallets, platforms, we will see more settlement transactions happening on the chain in the future.

Small, medium, and large companies will all hold treasury bonds on the chain through stablecoins, and they can invest when needed through stablecoins. As regulations become clearer, more and more partners will join the ranks. We will rewrite the way cross-border payments are made.

I am very excited about the work of artificial intelligence, so it is impossible not to mention artificial intelligence. The really interesting thing about artificial intelligence is that these AI agents are getting smarter day by day. For artificial intelligence agents, sending emails to pay bills for banking payments is very foolish, they are likely to settle on-chain through stablecoins. So I am super excited about what is about to happen.

I am very happy to be a participant in the summit. Thank you very much.