On August 28, the Bitcoin Asia summit was held in Hong Kong, featuring lively discussions in multiple roundtables on related topics.
Among them, a roundtable titled "What Role Do Stablecoins Play in Asia's Financial Future?" attracted participants including Vincent Ge, Partner at Waterdrip Capital; Jeff Wen, Co-founder and CBO of Hayek Technology; macro analyst Phyrex Ni; and investor Qinbafrank. The guests shared their views on stablecoins and engaged in a lively discussion.
Regarding the current state of stablecoin development, Phyrex Ni believes stablecoins can be divided into four types: first, stablecoins used for trading, such as USDC; second, payment stablecoins, such as PYUSD issued by PayPal; third, stablecoins for fund transfers, which almost all mainstream stablecoins can achieve; and fourth, staking stablecoins, which generate related yields through on-chain staking. He also stated that mainstream stablecoins, based on their revenue models, are broadly divided into two types: stablecoins backed by real-world assets as reserves and staking stablecoins that generate yields through staking assets for subsidies. Particularly for the former, revenue partly comes from transaction fees and partly from yields generated by reserve assets, such as U.S. Treasury bonds and U.S. dollar cash. Additionally, regarding the application of stablecoins after U.S. stocks are on-chain, Phyrex Ni mentioned that, in essence, two currencies would be needed: one is fiat U.S. dollars, and the other is compliant stablecoins required for on-chain transactions. Based on this scenario, stablecoin issuers could potentially issue corresponding compliant stablecoins for trading in tokenized stocks or on-chain U.S. stocks.
Regarding the development and future prospects of stablecoins across various industries in Asia, Jeff Wen stated that the U.S. stablecoin "Clarity Act" does not replace the Federal Reserve's currency issuance rights but allows stablecoin issuers to compete freely based on the U.S. dollar. He believes that Taiwan, as a major region in global semiconductor chip manufacturing, could attempt to launch a U.S. dollar stablecoin related to semiconductor chip trade. He also mentioned that if application scenarios worth hundreds of billions of U.S. dollars can be found, Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan could all potentially issue related stablecoins.
Furthermore, regarding future areas to watch, Jeff Wen stated that the next phase would usher in an era of RWA (Real World Assets) based on stablecoin compliance and financial product compliance. He believes stablecoins can be viewed as RWA that bridges the physical and digital worlds. Jeff Wen predicts that the sequence of RWA asset implementation scenarios should start with standardized financial products, from fiat currencies like the U.S. dollar to assets such as U.S. Treasury bonds and stocks.
Regarding Hong Kong's unique advantages and potential application scenarios related to stablecoins, Qinbafrank stated that whoever controls the entry point for stablecoins will control the pricing power of future on-chain assets. As a financial free port, a window for China's opening-up, and an entry point for Belt and Road and BRICS trade, Hong Kong could attempt to launch a Hong Kong dollar stablecoin. In the future, some institutions could also attempt to launch offshore renminbi stablecoins in Hong Kong.
