Circle: What is the future of stablecoins behind USDC’s $56 billion market capitalization

Compiled by: Golden Finance

On February 19, at the Consensus HK 2025 conference, Yam Ki Chan, Vice President of Cooperation and Business at Circle Asia Pacific, delivered a speech titled "USDC as a Platform for Global Prosperity".

Golden Finance compiled the speech as follows for readers.

Yam Ki Chan, Vice President, Cooperation and Business, Circle, Asia Pacific

It's great to see everyone. As a Hong Kong-born person, it is always good to return to Hong Kong. I also want to speak out about CoinDesk's Consensus Conference and the optimism of bringing industry elites together and reaching consensus. This was a great event.

What is the future of stablecoins behind USDC's $56 billion market value?

I will first announce that USDC 's market value has reached US$56 billion! This was an all-time high about a week ago. It seems everyone is talking about it. But what is behind the high of $56 billion?

There are now more than $23 trillion of on-chain transactions completed through USDC, which is different from what was before 2023. Currently, USDC has more blockchains than ever before. USDC is used in more than 100 countries around the world. Nearly 4 million wallets worldwide actually hold and use USDC. But there are many other aspects involved in creating a real stablecoin business, which are questions that every member of our team is thinking about.

So, what exactly made $56 billion possible?

USDC is a digital dollar on the Internet and has two advantages to pay attention to: first, the stability of USDC. USDC is the world's largest regulated dollar stablecoin, with a regulatory scope including the United States, Singapore, Europe and other places, and is supported by a 1:1 reserve. This provides the user with the necessary level of trust. The second is settlement efficiency . USDC has the ability to settle USD close to instant interest rates, and the transfer cost is very low. The combination of the two is the uniqueness of USDC.

At present, we are also building payment protocols for the Internet. This is not only limited to USDC, but also involves a broader level of stablecoin. In addition, many people asked me why Circle does not launch stablecoins in Hong Kong dollar stablecoins or other currencies? Now, we believe that the world will eventually move in this direction. We focus on the largest and regulated dollar stablecoins, and we are also issuing the euro stablecoin EURC, and we also hope to see more stablecoins in different currencies appear around the world in the future. This is also the future of stablecoins.

Three uses of stablecoins

Many people will ask, what is the purpose of stablecoins? I classify the uses into three.

First, it revolves around digital assets and capital markets. The second revolves around consumer payment solutions. The third revolves around cross- border payments.

In terms of digital assets and capital markets, whether it is traders, market makers, or other positions that need to enter and exit, whether it is BTC or other cryptocurrencies, some transactions need to be settled in real time. We have partnered with many giants in the financial sector to enable them to use USDC and help them and their partners settle through USDC.

In terms of consumer payments, some companies including Hong Kong Telecom, Mastercard, Visa, etc. are using Web3 solutions for digital transformation and entering the next stage of financing. They are all using UDSC for settlement, and we are also happy to see that many companies, including Grab, use Web3-related services in emerging markets, or use USDC as a way to provide their users with USD savings and USD holdings. Way. Recently, we also announced a partnership with Lulu in the Middle East and we look forward to working with them. In the current case, more are telecommunications companies and network companies, which are upgrading by building services on blockchain. We are helping large companies move from traditional financial dimensions to blockchain dimensions and provide them with some technical services. How to build, how to complete transformation, and how to view compliance issues? How to deal with travel rules? These are all very important contents.

In terms of cross-border payments. Cross-border payments are probably the most exciting content of stablecoins. We have established partnerships with Money Gram, Stellar and UNACR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) to provide US dollars in aid to Ukrainian refugees who are experiencing war. These refugees can receive payments directly from the United Nations and are able to send and use the money on Stella's network. Last October, we announced a partnership with Tunes. Tunes transfers funds to many remittance companies around the world as well as payment companies around the world. How to use USDC and Stable Points for faster commerce and faster payments is a very transformative question.

The bright prospect of regulation will rewrite cross-border payment

methods

In the past few months, it would be impossible to talk about regulation without a shift in U.S. regulatory attitude, and now Congress has a clear regulatory bill on stablecoins.

If Trump's promise can be fulfilled, then within 100 days of his administration, a regulatory standard will be released. At present, the regulation in the United States has lagged behind. For example, jurisdictions such as Europe have already carried out their work through regulations. The MICA bill in Europe comes into effect on July 1, 2024. Circle became the first global stablecoin issuer to comply with the MICA Act. USDC and Euro stablecoins can be issued under this framework.

We announced that we will set up an office in Abu Dhabi, the Middle East. In addition, Japan also has regulations on stablecoins, and the FSA has actually issued guidelines on well-regulated stablecoins. Hong Kong is also working hard to introduce industry bills, which have similarities with the frameworks of the United States, Japan and Europe.

How to regulate stablecoins and what kind of stablecoins will be regulated in different jurisdictions are issues that require coordination. The stablecoin market has just begun. With the improvement of supervision and as more companies create their networks, wallets, and platforms, we will see more settlement transactions happening on the chain in the future.

Small, medium and large companies will all hold Treasury bills on the chain through stablecoins, and they can invest when needed through stablecoins. As regulatory regulations become clearer, more and more partners will join the ranks. We will rewrite the cross-border payment method.

I'm very excited about the work of AI, so it's impossible not to mention AI. What’s really interesting about artificial intelligence is that these AI agents are getting smarter day by day. It is very stupid for AI agents to send emails to accounts payable to make bank payments, and they will likely settle on the chain through stablecoins. So I was super excited about what was going to happen.

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