Warum ist Hongkong der beste Ort für die Emission von „Stablecoins“ in China?

Long before the rise of cryptocurrencies, Hong Kong already had the institutional foundation for a "stablecoin-like" Hong Kong dollar issuance system. Now, by digitizing and putting it on the blockchain, it can smoothly enter the main battlefield of the global financial technology revolution.

As the "Stablecoin Regulations" are about to come into force in Hong Kong on August 1, 2025, the global discussion about "stablecoins" has been heating up. Stablecoins are no longer just a hot topic within the "crypto circle"; they are becoming one of the focal points of international finance, technological transformation, and even geopolitical games.

Many people are starting to wonder: What exactly are stablecoins? What are the differences between stablecoins and traditional currencies and crypto assets? How can they change our existing financial system? More importantly, why does Hong Kong have unique advantages in the development of stablecoins?

01 Stablecoins: The "Wetland" between Fiat Currencies and Cryptocurrencies

As the name suggests, stablecoins are a type of cryptocurrency that aims to achieve a stable value. They achieve a relatively stable coin value by pegging to a low-volatility asset (such as the US dollar, US Treasury bonds, the euro, or gold).

Existing cryptocurrencies are highly volatile and cannot be used as a currency for daily payments. Therefore, compared with cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, stablecoins are more suitable as tools for payment, value storage, and cross-border settlement.

If fiat currencies are the land on Earth and Bitcoin is the ocean, then stablecoins are like the wetland connecting the two.

Fiat currencies are issued and backed by sovereign countries, featuring stable coin values, legal protection, and strong regulation. However, these features also make fiat currencies inefficient in international payments, with high handling fees and difficulty in international settlement. On the other hand, Bitcoin represents a way of free circulation and rapid settlement in a decentralized scenario, but its coin value fluctuates violently and it has strong anonymity, which leads to a lack of basic conditions for wide application in mainstream economic activities.

As an intermediary, stablecoins have the advantages of both: they are pegged to real assets, so their value is stable. They are also issued and circulated based on the blockchain network, with high transaction efficiency and low transaction costs, which makes them one of the key elements of future digital financial infrastructure.

Therefore, stablecoins are the "wetland" between fiat currencies and cryptocurrencies. They can both inherit the stability and order of the traditional financial world and connect to the innovation and convenience of the digital asset world, which has far-reaching significance for the diversity, integrity, and sustainability of the financial structure.

02 The US "Open Plot" and the New Global Order

The international situation and strategic significance of stablecoins do not stop at the technical level.

From a macro perspective, the US promotion of the development of US dollar stablecoins is not just for financial technology innovation; it is also an "open plot" - behind it hides the attempt to attract global users to join the US dollar-based digital asset system under the trend of deglobalization, reconstruct a global financial order, and ultimately resolve the US debt crisis and consolidate the status of the US dollar.

In essence, stablecoins are a risk-sharing mechanism for the US to handle its huge national debt.

Currently, the total US national debt has exceeded $35 trillion. Traditional methods such as increasing taxes, issuing more national debt, or relying on the Federal Reserve to print money all carry huge systemic risks.

In contrast, promoting the wide circulation of US dollar stablecoins globally can spread the risk of US dollar debt to users in other countries and regions without directly increasing the domestic inflation pressure.

This logic is actually not complicated: when global users exchange their local currencies for US dollar stablecoins and participate in cross-border trade and payment settlement, they are, to some extent, taking on the credit risk of the US dollar. If global users exchange the Chinese yuan, the euro, or even the currencies of African countries for US dollar stablecoins and conduct transactions on the blockchain network, and these stablecoins are controlled by US-funded institutions, then who will ultimately pay for the huge US debt?

Therefore, although stablecoins seem to be just a derivative product of the crypto finance, they have actually become a new chess piece in international games. It can even be said that they are a strategic chess piece laid by the US in its attempt to reshape the global financial "discourse power".

03 China's Choice

As the international background continues to evolve, China is also facing an important choice.

As the world's largest goods trading country, China has a natural strategic need to optimize the efficiency and cost of cross-border settlement. The rise of stablecoins provides China with a practical path to lower the threshold of foreign trade payments and enhance financial independence.

In the traditional cross-border payment system, funds usually need to pass through the SWIFT system and multiple intermediary banks, often with a long cycle, high costs, and subject to Western financial rules.

Stablecoins, relying on blockchain technology, can achieve peer-to-peer real-time settlement, greatly improving transaction efficiency, especially suitable for scenarios such as "Global South" countries, small and medium-sized foreign trade enterprises, and supply chain finance.

Stablecoins can improve the flexibility and efficiency of trade settlement without changing the country's monetary policy. For an export-oriented country like China, such a tool is actually very important.

Actually, in Yiwu, the "world's supermarket", on March 22, 2023, the "Work Plan for Deeply Promoting the Digital RMB Pilot in the Yiwu Small Commodity Market" was launched. With "Yi Payment" as the platform and the underlying technical support of the digital currency bridge and umbrella wallets, the optimization of cross-border RMB and foreign exchange services has been piloted, providing cross-border RMB payment services for Yiwu merchants and accumulating experience in the application of digital RMB in cross-border scenarios.

This regional pilot has also long shown the official policy inclination in the exploration of cross-border RMB and digital currencies.

04 Why Hong Kong?

In the global trend of promoting the development of stablecoins, Hong Kong plays a particularly crucial role and has unique advantages.

Hong Kong is not only located at the intersection of the East and the West, being an international financial, shipping, and trading center, but has also been upgraded to a global digital asset innovation center. Hong Kong has both policy space, a talent and technology foundation, and international market resources, making it an ideal place to promote the innovation and pilot implementation of stablecoins.

It is worth noting that long before the rise of cryptocurrencies, Hong Kong already had the institutional foundation for a "stablecoin-like" system - the Hong Kong dollar issuance system.

As is well known, the issuance of the Hong Kong dollar is different from that of the RMB. The Hong Kong dollar is issued by multiple commercial banks after depositing an equivalent amount of US dollar reserves.

This currency board system is essentially a "US dollar-pegged" stablecoin framework, which has long laid the foundation for the stability of the Hong Kong financial system.

The issuance of the Hong Kong dollar is like a paper stablecoin. Now, by digitizing and putting it on the blockchain, it can smoothly enter the main battlefield of the global financial technology revolution.

The official implementation of the "Stablecoin Regulations" will mark that Hong Kong is at the forefront of the world in terms of financial regulatory compliance. Compared with places such as Singapore and the UAE, Hong Kong has obvious advantages in terms of legal transparency, technological ecosystem, and Chinese capital background, and is very likely to become the core hub for the development of stablecoins in Asia.

In the longer term, the innovation of stablecoins in Hong Kong not only serves the local market but may also become a bridge to promote the internationalization of the "digital RMB", driving China to play a more active role in the global financial system.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Alpha Workshop Research Institute". Author: Zheng Fang. Republished by 36Kr with authorization.