2025 is the first year of global stablecoin Compliance.

Written by: Mask

A silent payment revolution is reshaping the global financial landscape.

When cross-border remittances are shortened from 3 days to 3 minutes, when Argentine workers receive their salaries in USD stablecoins via their mobile phones, and when convenience stores on the streets of Hong Kong start accepting digital Hong Kong dollars for settlement... we are witnessing a transformation of financial infrastructure driven by stablecoins. In 2025, with the implementation of the U.S. "Genius Act" and Hong Kong's "Stablecoin Regulation," global stablecoins will officially enter the "compliance year."

I. The Eve of the Outbreak: The Global Compliance Wave of Stablecoins

Regulatory thaw, moving from the gray area to the mainstream

In July 2025, the Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury of Hong Kong, Xu Zhengyu, announced that the "Stablecoin Regulation" will officially take effect on August 1, with the first batch of licenses limited to a "single-digit" number. Additionally, issuers are required to maintain a minimum paid-up capital of HKD 25 million, and reserve assets must be fully backed by high liquidity assets and managed in isolation.

Almost simultaneously, the "Genius Act" passed by the U.S. Senate clearly stipulates that stablecoins must be pegged 1:1 to the U.S. dollar or short-term U.S. Treasury bonds, prohibits uncollateralized algorithmic stablecoins, and grants holders priority in bankruptcy recovery.

The implementation of these two major bills marks the completion of the stablecoin regulatory puzzle for the two global financial centers. Stablecoins, which once operated in a regulatory gray area, are now officially incorporated into the national financial regulatory framework.

Market Landscape: A $260 billion Ecosystem Dominated by Two Giants

By 2025, the global stablecoin market has entered a new stage of development. As of mid-June, the stablecoin market size exceeded $260 billion, accounting for 8% of the entire cryptocurrency assets. The trading volume of stablecoins in 2024 is approximately $37 trillion, far exceeding the trading volume of Bitcoin at $19 trillion during the same period. Two major giants dominate the market:

•USDT (Tether): Market cap 157.6 billion USD, accounting for 60%

-•USDC: Market capitalization 61.7 billion USD, accounting for 23%

Together, they account for over 80% of the market share.

The highly centralized pattern behind it is the extension of the dollar's hegemony in the digital financial realm—currently, 99% of stablecoins are pegged to the dollar, far exceeding the dollar's 50% share in global payments. This also marks the transformation of stablecoins from merely being a "connector" for crypto assets to a new infrastructure for global payments.

2. Reshaping Finance: Three Practical Scenarios for Stablecoins

Cross-border payments: A revolution of 3 minutes vs 3 days

In Mexico, cross-border remittances received through stablecoins in 2023 reached 63.3 billion USD, accounting for half of its total remittance volume. The fintech company Bitso handled 10% of the USD-MXN remittance transactions, reducing the fees from the traditional banks' 8%-12% to below 3%, and shortening the delivery time from several days to minutes.

Essential Transformation: The traditional SWIFT system relies on multi-tiered bank intermediaries for settlement, while stablecoins enable peer-to-peer transactions through blockchain, eliminating intermediaries and achieving "remittances like sending emails."

DeFi Financial Engine: The Core Fuel of Collateralized Lending

In the field of decentralized finance (DeFi), stablecoins have become the "blood" that keeps the system running:

On the lending platform Aave, USDC and USDT account for 90% of the total lending volume.

• The total value locked (TVL) in DeFi reached 94.1 billion USD in 2024, with stablecoins accounting for over 60%.

Key advantages: Cryptocurrency prices are highly volatile, while stablecoins provide a stable value collateral and pricing unit for DeFi, enabling on-chain lending and derivatives trading.

Real-world assets on the blockchain: RWA's "Stablecoin Channel"

BlackRock has launched a USDC-based BUIDL fund, tokenizing US Treasuries; short-term Treasury tokens (STBT) are circulating on-chain through the stablecoin USDV.

Innovative Logic: Stablecoins become the bridge connecting traditional assets and blockchain. The "Malù Vineyard" in Shanghai raised 10 million by issuing digital tokens, allowing investors to exchange tokens for grape pickup cards—agricultural assets have entered the public investment landscape in a fragmented form for the first time.

The application scenarios of stablecoins have expanded from cryptocurrency trading to areas such as cross-border payments, supply chain finance, and real asset tokenization (RWA), with traditional financial giants accelerating their布局.

PayPal announced the expansion of its USD stablecoin PYUSD to the Stellar blockchain. Through this network, PYUSD can provide real-time working capital for small and medium-sized enterprises to meet operational needs such as paying suppliers and managing inventory.

Circle has partnered with payment giant Fiserv to integrate USDC infrastructure into its financial services ecosystem, allowing thousands of banks connected to Fiserv to directly use stablecoin tools without the need to build their own crypto systems.

3. Reefs and Storms: The Three Survival Challenges of Stablecoins

The Ghost of the Decoupling Event: A Crisis of Trust in Technology

In March 2023, USDC experienced a brief freeze of its reserves due to the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, causing its price to plummet to $0.87; in 2022, the algorithmic stablecoin UST collapsed, resulting in the evaporation of $40 billion in market value, prompting a thorough reflection within the industry on the uncollateralized model.

Core Vulnerability:

•Smart contract risks (e.g., USDR de-pegging due to code vulnerabilities)

•Lack of transparency in reserve assets (Tether has long faced audit questions)

• Over-reliance on the credit of centralized issuers

Global Regulatory Game: The Covert War of Monetary Sovereignty

The attitudes of various countries towards stablecoins reflect a deeper sovereign game:

•United States: Mandatory peg to the US dollar, restrictions on the entry of foreign stablecoins.

•EU: Strict control of non-euro stablecoin circulation, with a daily trading limit of 5 million euros.

•Emerging Markets: Nigeria is experiencing a "local currency substitution" phenomenon, forced to weigh the balance between innovation and monetary sovereignty 4,9

Focus of the contradiction: Stablecoins may weaken the transmission of central bank monetary policy, especially when 99% of stablecoins are pegged to the dollar, which effectively represents the expansion of the digital hegemony of the dollar.

The Alternative Threat of CBDC: The Counterattack of the National Team

Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC) are advancing rapidly.

• China’s "Digital Renminbi" has completed cross-border testing with the central banks of Thailand and the UAE, reducing transaction time to 6-9 seconds.

•Saudi Arabia joins the mBridge cross-border payment platform, reducing costs by 50%

Competitive Logic: CBDC is backed by national credit, which provides a natural advantage in security and anti-money laundering compliance, potentially squeezing the cross-border payment space for stablecoins.

IV. The Road Ahead: A Rebalance of Compliance and Innovation

Hong Kong Experimental Field: A New Path for the Internationalization of the Renminbi

In the Hong Kong Monetary Authority's sandbox program, 5 institutions including Ant Group, JD Technology, and Standard Chartered Bank are testing the issuance of stablecoins. It is particularly noteworthy that:

• Offshore Renminbi stablecoin: Avoiding capital controls by anchoring to the offshore Renminbi (CNH).

•Multi-currency stablecoins: such as mixed tokens issued by Yuan Coin Technology anchored to Hong Kong dollars, Renminbi, and US dollars.

Strategic Value: Hong Kong, with its sound regulations and status as a financial center, is becoming an "innovative firewall" for the RMB stablecoin, providing an indirect path for the internationalization of the RMB.

Technological Evolution: From Payment Tool to Financial OS

The new generation of stablecoins is breaking through the simple payment function:

•Dynamic reserve management: for example, MakerDAO's DAI adjusts collateral ratios through algorithms.

•RWA Integration: Tokenizing the income rights of physical assets such as charging piles and photovoltaic power stations, distributing dividends with stablecoins.

Ultimate vision: Stablecoins may evolve into an open financial operating system, automatically executing complex operations such as trade settlement, supply chain financing, and derivative hedging on-chain.

Conclusion: Moving forward amidst fervor and skepticism

"Out of the responsibilities of regulators, I also want to cool down the situation so that everyone can view stablecoins more objectively and calmly." This reminder from Kevin Yau, the President of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, is the best footnote for the year 2025 as the year of stablecoins.

When technological innovation collides with financial regulation, when the hegemony of the US dollar meets the awakening of monetary sovereignty, the journey of stablecoins is destined to be full of gamesmanship. But it cannot be denied: it has torn open a gap in efficiency for the global payment system, providing a low-cost dollar channel for the 3 billion unbanked people, and has turned the ideal of "free flow of value" into reality.

This silent revolution has just begun.