Onshore vs Offshore, Private vs Experimental Field: Tech Giants from China and the US Reshape Financial Order through Stablecoins.
Written by: 1912212.eth, Foresight News
[The rest of the translation follows the same professional and accurate approach, maintaining the original meaning while translating to English. Would you like me to continue with the full translation?]This layout not only reflects technological innovation but also represents a strategic game of digital currency dominance and global financial rule-making, revealing the deep-seated motivations of Chinese and American giants in preempting, maintaining, or challenging the existing monetary system in the stablecoin domain.
Wang Yongli, former vice president of the Bank of China, pointed out that the United States, through legislation, protects and supports crypto asset mining and trading, even making it a national strategic reserve, supporting the legal operation of USD stablecoins, and actively seizing the high ground in crypto assets and stablecoins. This move enhances the demand for U.S. Treasury bonds and the international influence of the U.S. dollar, with significant and far-reaching strategic significance. China needs to fully recognize and actively respond. Li Yang, academician of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and president of the National Financial and Development Laboratory, stated that on one hand, since any form of stablecoin cannot bypass the issue of monetary sovereignty, resolutely promoting RMB internationalization remains the core task of cultivating a strong currency (RMB). On the other hand, it must be recognized that the integration trend of stablecoins, cryptocurrencies, and the traditional financial system will be difficult to reverse. Stablecoins and cryptocurrencies will complement central bank digital currencies, comprehensively improving payment efficiency and reducing payment costs, and restructuring the global payment system.
As a "testing ground" for mainland China, Hong Kong's "Stablecoin Ordinance" has officially become law and will take effect on August 1st this year. Its primary purpose is to regulate stablecoin-related activities and establish a licensing system for regulated stablecoin activities in Hong Kong. Financial Secretary Christopher Hui stated that "after the Ordinance takes effect, the licensing system will provide appropriate regulations for related stablecoin activities, marking a milestone in promoting Hong Kong's sustainable stablecoin and digital asset ecosystem."
Overall, the U.S. strategy involves embracing U.S. dollar stablecoins issued by the private sector (such as USDC, PYUSD) and bringing them under regulation, aiming to leverage market forces and innovation to consolidate the dollar's hegemony in the global digital economy. China's strategy in the mainland focuses on the central bank-led digital RMB (CBDC). Allowing Ant Group and JD.com to apply for licenses in Hong Kong is more about using Hong Kong as a "testing ground" and "firewall" to explore offshore models of RMB internationalization and digital finance, serving international trade scenarios like the "Belt and Road Initiative" - essentially an "offshore exploration".
Regulatory Paths Gradually Clarify
Since Trump took office, the United States has been anticipated to be friendly to the crypto market. Government department heads are also crypto-friendly. Stablecoins have seen continuous developments. On June 17, 2025, the U.S. Senate passed the "Guiding and Establishing U.S. Stablecoin National Innovation Act" (Genius Act) with 68 votes to 30, marking the first approval of major cryptocurrency legislation. The act establishes a federal regulatory framework for USD-pegged stablecoins, requiring issuers to maintain 1:1 reserve assets, comply with anti-money laundering regulations, and disclose reserve details monthly, aiming to enhance market transparency and consumer protection while stimulating demand for U.S. short-term Treasury bonds and consolidating the dollar's global status. On June 24, Senator Hagerty, in an interview with KOL scottmelker, stated that Trump is prepared to sign the Genius Act, which may soon be on his desk.
David Sacks, White House Crypto and AI Czar, in a FOX interview, said the passage of the Genius Act is a major victory for the crypto community. Some crypto community members analyze that this act may drive the stablecoin market to $2 trillion by 2028.
Hong Kong passed the "Stablecoin Ordinance Draft" on May 21, 2025, establishing the world's first comprehensive regulatory framework for fiat stablecoins. Through the "value anchoring regulation" principle, it requires issuers to be licensed and maintain high-liquidity reserve assets, attracting companies like Ant Group and JD.com. The improved regulations in both regions reduce policy risks and significantly promote financial innovation and compliant development.
Competition Among Chinese and American Corporate Giants
In June, JD Group Chairman Liu Qiangdong stated that JD hopes to apply for stablecoin licenses in all major monetary countries, using these licenses to facilitate exchange between global enterprises, reducing cross-border payment costs by 90% and improving efficiency to within 10 seconds. JD expects to obtain a license in the early fourth quarter and simultaneously launch a JD stablecoin.
In the same month, Ant Group Vice President and Blockchain Business Director Bian Zhuoqun revealed that Ant Tech has initiated the application for a Hong Kong stablecoin license, having already communicated with regulators multiple times. Ant Tech has listed Hong Kong as its global headquarters and completed regulatory sandbox trials. JD, which has been active recently, had planned to issue a stablecoin pegged 1:1 to the Hong Kong dollar as early as last year. In May 2025, JD Coin Chain Technology CEO Liu Peng announced the progress of the JD stablecoin, stating that the first phase would be stablecoins pegged to the Hong Kong dollar and U.S. dollar, with test scenarios including cross-border payments, investment trading, and retail payments. Liu later mentioned that "JD's Hong Kong and Macau e-commerce will soon support stablecoin shopping."
Reserve assets will be custodied by Standard Chartered Bank and undergo on-chain audit by Deloitte, ensuring 100% reserve coverage. Its license application has expanded to markets like Singapore and Luxembourg, targeting "Belt and Road" countries to form a global compliance network.
In terms of business scenarios, JD stablecoin focuses on cross-border payments and supply chain finance. In cross-border payments, it collaborates with Visa to launch a linked card, reducing settlement costs from 6% with SWIFT to 0.1% and compressing transaction time from 3 days to 10 seconds, with a goal of capturing 10-15% of the global cross-border payment market by 2028. Additionally, JD is exploring an offshore RMB stablecoin (JD-CNH) to connect with "Belt and Road" trade settlement, aiming to replace the SWIFT system.
Chinese internet companies are embarking on an exploration path, but the ambitions of U.S. financial giants like Visa actually began as early as 2020, though they initially withdrew from Facebook's Libra (now Diem) project due to regulatory uncertainty.
With the gradual implementation of U.S. regulatory frameworks like the Genius Act, Visa has adjusted its strategy, turning to collaborate with regulated stablecoin issuers. In 2025, Visa officially joined the Global Dollar Network (USDG) stablecoin alliance initiated by blockchain company Paxos, becoming the first traditional financial institution to participate. This means Visa indirectly gains legal support for stablecoin issuance and settlement through alliance membership under a compliant framework. Additionally, Visa has partnered with African crypto exchange Yellow Card to promote stablecoin payments in the Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa (CEMEA) regions.
Visa's technical layout focuses on seamless integration of stablecoins with existing payment systems. In 2023, Visa was the first to support USDC stablecoin settlement, becoming the first global payment network to introduce stablecoins into its core clearing system. Its technical architecture connects with on-chain smart contracts through Visa Token Service, enabling stablecoin payments to be embedded in automated settlement, profit-sharing, and other business processes. For example, Visa's cross-border payment API now supports real-time stablecoin settlement, reducing traditional cross-border payment arrival time from days to seconds, with costs lowered to below 0.1%.
Ant's predecessor, PayPal, has long been laying out plans for stablecoins. Since its launch on the Ethereum mainnet in August 2023, PayPal USD (PYUSD) has quickly evolved from a point-to-point experiment to a multi-chain, enterprise-level payment tool. The stablecoin was developed by PayPal in collaboration with Paxos Trust Company and is 100% collateralized by US dollar deposits, short-term US Treasury bills, and similar cash equivalents; Paxos regularly issues reserve audit reports to ensure transparency and regulatory compliance. From the beginning, PayPal enabled seamless fund transfers between PayPal and Venmo balances and Ethereum-based wallets, truly integrating traditional payment channels with decentralized finance channels, providing near-instant settlement and global coverage.
In May 2024, PayPal announced the launch of PYUSD on the Solana blockchain, aiming to leverage Solana's sub-second finality and extremely low transaction fees for faster, lower-cost transfers. Major wallet and onramp providers like Crypto.com, Phantom, and Paxos were the first to integrate, helping users access PYUSD on the Solana chain.
This move not only expanded the stablecoin's application in retail payments and cross-border remittances but also attracted developers to integrate PYUSD into payment systems, DeFi protocols, and Web3 applications. By June 2025, the PYUSD issuance on the Solana network exceeded $300 million. In the future, PayPal plans to extend PYUSD support to more Layer 2 networks and public chains, continuously optimizing smart contract functionality to meet merchants' diverse needs.
Interestingly, Wall Street giants are not falling behind. In 2019, JPMorgan introduced JPM Coin for institutional clients, used for internal cross-border payments and clearing, with an average daily transaction volume of about $1 billion, highlighting its high-frequency application in institutional scenarios. However, JPM Coin is limited to Morgan's internal network and does not circulate on public chains.
In mid-June 2025, JPMorgan announced the launch of "JPMD" deposit tokens based on Coinbase's Layer 2 network Base. Unlike traditional stablecoins, JPMD represents actual bank deposits and plans to be included in federal deposit insurance, aiming to provide compliant, auditable digital deposit certificates for institutional clients while following strict KYC/AML processes to support near-real-time 24/7 settlement and liquidity management.
It's not difficult to see that these internet and financial monopoly giants are all entering the field, eyeing the new track of stablecoins.
Summary
In the future, the mission of stablecoins is to accelerate cross-border payment transformation, break the monopoly of traditional banks and SWIFT, achieve 7x24 hour real-time arrival and near-zero cost global fund flow, and become the core tool for remittances in developing countries and international trade settlement. Stablecoins will not only be a subset of cryptocurrencies but may also become a key force in reconstructing the global monetary order and financial infrastructure.
However, "Stablecoins are unlikely to completely replace traditional payment systems, but will gradually reconstruct value circulation paths with lower costs, stronger programmability, and global interconnectivity. In the short term, stablecoins will 'nested-replace' traditional payment systems in some scenarios, such as cross-border e-commerce, freelance settlement, and game advertising payments. In the medium to long term, stablecoins are expected to form a new generation of on-chain payment and clearing infrastructure, 'running in parallel' with traditional systems and even gradually replacing traditional payment systems in some scenarios. In the long run, stablecoins will become an important pole of global payment infrastructure," said Alex Zuo, Senior Vice President and Head of Stablecoin Business at Cobo, told Foresight News.
However, the risks faced by numerous companies entering the stablecoin track cannot be ignored. Liu Honglin, a lawyer from Shanghai Mankun Law Firm, told Foresight News that the issuance of stablecoins is a matter of governance structure, risk control boundaries, and regulatory dialogue.
First, the early structural planning must be clear. In Hong Kong, from the beginning, design an operational path that complies with the "Stablecoin Ordinance", including license application, reserve trust structure, information disclosure system, and director compliance review. The approach of "issue first, comply later" is not allowed, and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority explicitly prohibits unlicensed issuance.
Second, compliance budgets should be fully reserved. Stablecoins are not a light-asset project; reserve fund custody, audit report preparation, IT system security testing, daily operations, and legal compliance personnel allocation are all long-term expenses. It is recommended to establish a dedicated compliance budget pool and set up third-party risk control mechanisms, such as regular external reviews.
Third, a neutral corporate governance system must be established. Avoid structural defects such as absolute control by the parent company, lack of director independence, and absence of internal review processes for major matters. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority has clear precedents for rejecting "non-transparent beneficial owners" and "uninsulated governance".
For ordinary users, to avoid the lesson of the UST collapse, users need to not only focus on the project's mechanism design but also pay attention to whether its "redemption promise is credible". Although Hong Kong and the United States continue to introduce regulatory measures, retail investors still need to be cautious when choosing stablecoin asset allocations to avoid losses. "The core of stablecoins is not whether the technical means are innovative, and payment design can prevent systemic risks, but this does not mean that risks are eliminated," said Lawyer Liu Honglin candidly.
