Compiled by: Jinse Finance
On February 19, at the Consensus HK 2025 conference, Yam Ki Chan, Vice President of Cooperation and Business in Asia Pacific at Circle, gave a speech entitled "USDC as a Platform for Global Prosperity".
Jinse Finance has compiled the content of the speech as follows for readers.
Yam Ki Chan, Vice President of Cooperation and Business in Asia Pacific at Circle
It's great to see you all. As someone who was born in Hong Kong, it's always good to go back to Hong Kong. I also want to give a shout out to CoinDesk's Consensus conference and the optimism of bringing industry elites together and reaching consensus. It's a great event.
I'd first like to announce that USDC's market cap has reached $56 billion!This was an all-time high about a week ago. It seems like everyone is talking about it. But what's behind the $56 billion high?
There are now more than $23 trillion in on-chain transactions done through USDC, which is different from what it was before 2023. USDC is also currently on more blockchains than ever before. USDC is used in more than 100 countries around the world. There are nearly 4 million wallets around the world that actually hold and use USDC. But there are many other aspects involved in creating a real stablecoin business, which is what every member of our team is thinking about.
So, what makes $56 billion possible?
USDC is the digital dollar on the Internet, and there are two advantages worth noting: First, USDC's stability. USDC is the world's largest regulated dollar stablecoin, regulated in the United States, Singapore, Europe and other places, and backed by 1:1 reserves. This provides users with the necessary trust. The second is settlement efficiency. USDC has the ability to settle dollars at close to the instant interest rate, and the transfer cost is very low. The combination of the two is what makes USDC unique.
We are also building payment protocols for the Internet. This is not limited to USDC, but also involves a broader stablecoin level. In addition, many people have asked me why Circle does not launch a Hong Kong dollar stablecoin or a stablecoin in other currencies? Now, we believe that the world will eventually move in this direction. We focus on the largest, regulated US dollar stablecoin. We are also issuing the euro stablecoin EURC. In the future, we hope to see more stablecoins in different currencies around the world. This is also the future of stablecoins.
Many people will ask, What are the uses 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 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 reached cooperation with many giants in the financial field 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 very happy to see many companies including Grab using Web3 related services in emerging markets, or using USDC as a way to provide USD savings and USD holdings for their users. Recently, we also announced a partnership with Lulu in the Middle East, and we look forward to working with them. In the current case, it is more telecommunications companies, Internet companies, which are upgrading by building services on the blockchain. We are helping large companies to achieve the transformation from the traditional financial dimension to the blockchain dimension and provide them with some technical services. How to build, how to complete the transformation, how to look at compliance issues? How to deal with the travel rule? These are all very important things.
In terms of cross-border payments. Cross-border payments are probably the most exciting thing about stablecoins. We have a partnership with Money Gram, Stellar, and UNACR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) to provide aid dollars to Ukrainian refugees who are going through war. These refugees can receive money directly from the United Nations and be able to send and use that money on Stella's network. Last October, we announced a partnership with Tunes. Tunes moves money for many remittance companies around the world and payment companies around the world. How to use USDC and Stable Points to achieve faster commerce and faster payments is a very transformative issue.
In the past few months, it would be impossible to talk about regulation without a change in the US regulatory attitude. Now, Congress has a clear regulatory bill on stablecoins.
If Trump's promise is fulfilled, there will be a regulatory standard within his first 100 days in office. At present, US regulation is lagging behind. Jurisdictions such as Europe are already working through regulations. Europe's MICA Act will take effect on July 1, 2024. Circle has become 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 in 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 on introducing industry bills, which are similar to the frameworks in the United States, Japan, and Europe.
How to regulate stablecoins and what kind of stablecoins will be regulated in different jurisdictions are all issues that need to be coordinated. The stablecoin market has just opened up. As the regulation improves 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 hold treasury bonds on the chain through stablecoins, and they can invest in stablecoins when they need to. As the regulations become clear, more and more partners will join the ranks. We will rewrite the way cross-border payments are made.
I am very excited about my work on artificial intelligence, so it is impossible not to mention artificial intelligence. What's really interesting about AI is that these AI agents are getting smarter by the day. It would be really stupid for an AI agent to send an email to accounts payable to make a bank payment, they'll probably settle it on-chain through a stablecoin. So I'm super excited about what's coming.
I'm really excited to be a participant in the summit. Thank you so much.
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