Mobile Payment Network News: "In response to the defect of large fluctuations in cryptocurrency prices, some commercial institutions have launched so-called "stable coins" to try to anchor them with sovereign currencies or related assets. Maintain currency stability. Some commercial institutions plan to launch global stablecoins, which will bring many risks and challenges to the international monetary system, payment and clearing system, currency, cross-border capital flow management, etc. ”

In July 2021, the People's Bank of China's Digital RMB R&D Working Group issued the "White Paper on R&D Progress of Digital RMB" has such a description of the development of stablecoins. Cryptocurrencies, especially global stablecoins, are developing rapidly, posing challenges to the rights of minting in countries around the world, which has also become a basic background for the development of digital RMB.

Shortly after, in September 2021, the People's Bank of China, the Ministry of Public Security, the Supreme People's Court, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange and other ten departments jointly issued the "On Further Prevention and Disposal of Virtual Currencies" Notice on Trading Speculation Risks", which characterizes crypto-digital currency-related businesses as illegal financial activities.

At that time, many people believed that the confrontation between the digital RMB and the stablecoin had ended, at least in the mainland. However, time has changed, global geographic changes have been drastically, small-scale trade has made rapid progress, and digital payment industry has undergone tremendous changes. The battle between digital RMB and stablecoins has just begun.

The rise of stablecoins

Stablecoins were originally a currency form that connects to Web3, fiat currency exchange Only after stablecoins can virtual assets be traded more conveniently.

Stablecoin payment based on blockchain technology has the advantages of fast settlement speed, low cost and transparency, which makes payment practitioners with a traditional payment perspective discover Its payment value in the real world. More and more stablecoin payments are being used in goods trade and retail payments, which is a part of traditional payment giants.

Q1 2021, Visa announced its cryptocurrency plan, planning to work with wallets and exchanges to enable Visa users to purchase crypto assets and allow users to purchase using fiat currency. Cryptocurrency may cash in fiat currency. In November 2021, Mastercard cooperated with three cryptocurrency service providers to develop crypto payment cards. Mastercard expands its "Engage" program to help businesses bring cryptocurrency cards to the market.

With the support of two major international card organizations, payment companies including Block (formerly Square), Stripe, PayPal, Nuvei and other payment companies began to actively participate in stablecoin payment performance, and carried out actual business actions to participate in the development of stablecoin.

In recent years, some or regions have also shown a more positive attitude towards the development of the cryptocurrency market.

Recently, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) stated that stablecoins have the potential to become a widely adopted payment method. As long as there are regulatory regulations to prevent crypto assets from deviating from their pegged value, stablecoins have great potential.

In addition, Hong Kong is actively promoting the formulation of the "Stablecoin Bill", which is expected to be released in 2025, which is an recognition and regulation of stablecoin payments. < /p>

On December 30, 2024, the EU's Crypto Assets Market (MiCA) officially came into effect, and the euro stablecoin has been recognized.

From the perspective of market financing, relevant research reports show that in 2024, cryptocurrency companies in Southeast Asia raised US$325 million in financing, an overall increase of 20%.

< p style="text-align: left;">As a global commodity factory, overseas companies have also felt the impact of stablecoin payment. When many Party A requests stablecoin payment, completing stablecoin settlement overseas has also become a The new normal. In addition, the mobile payment network learned that the regulatory departments in the southeast coastal areas with developed economic and trade have a relatively open attitude towards stablecoin formats. The atmosphere is relatively less tense on the premise of benefiting the development of physical economic and trade.

However, for stablecoins, the overall environment of the mainland is still strictly controlled.

The restricted area for stablecoins

"Do not do any stablecoin acceptance business related to the RMB. "An industry insider who closely observes the development of the stablecoin market revealed to the mobile payment network.

202In May 3, the team of CNHC Group (later renamed Trust Reserve) of the offshore RMB 1:1 team lost contact since the afternoon of May 29. At that time, multiple sources revealed that the team had He was taken away by the police and detained, and some employees' families have received notice.

According to official information, Trust Reserve's products include offshore RMB stablecoin CNHC and Hong Kong dollar stablecoin HKDC. People familiar with the matter said that the company's stablecoin business has not actually been promoted on a large scale, but the company has other cross-border payment business, and perhaps the case is affected by the payment business.

This incident caused an uproar in the industry, which also shows that the acceptance business of stablecoins and RMB is a restricted area in the mainland.

In December 2024, multiple authoritative media reported an illegal business case involving stablecoins. Three young men born in the 1995s used virtual currencies to provide cross-border exchange and payment services to earn exchange rate differences, realizing the value conversion of foreign exchange and RMB, which is a disguised buying and selling of foreign exchange and constitutes the crime of illegal business operations. The three were sentenced to five years to one year and six months in prison for illegal business operations, and each was fined.

This case also clearly defines the regulatory red line for stablecoins to not accept RMB.

In addition, recently, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange issued the "Management Measures for Bank Foreign Exchange Risk Trading Reports (Trial)", which included illegal cross-border financial activities of virtual currencies in foreign exchange risks Among the transactions, those included include false trade, false investment and financing, underground money houses, cross-border gambling, and fraud in export tax rebates.

If the bank finds or has reasonable reasons to suspect that the bank's domestic, overseas institutions and individual customers have these foreign exchange risk transactions, it shall monitor the foreign exchange risk transaction information and submit it to Forex risk trading report.

The National Procurator General Meeting held on January 13 clearly stated that the procuratorate will increase its efforts to punish money laundering crimes and crack down on the crime of illegally transferring assets abroad using virtual currency in accordance with the law. .

The mainland has become a restricted area for stablecoins. The digital RMB has developed rapidly in recent years, but the competition with stablecoins has just begun.

Cross-border exploration of digital RMB

The survey data in 2022 shows that 105 and regions around the world are now exploring their own central bank digital currency CBDC, of ​​which 10 and regions have officially implemented their own central bank digital currencies, and most of them are small

In 2023, the 2022 central bank digital currency and crypto industry survey report released by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) showed that it is expected that by 2030, it may There are 15 retail and 9 wholesale CBDCs open for circulation.

This shows that the research and development and issuance of CBDCs worldwide are slow, and developed and large economies in CBDCs More cautious.

The research progress of digital RMB is far ahead of the world.

Official data shows that as of the end of July 2024, the digital RMB App has opened a total of 180 million personal wallets, and the cumulative transaction amount in the pilot areas is 7.3 trillion yuan.

The use of digital RMB is already large enough, but due to the lack of a mature profit mechanism, the sustainability of the industry is still being tested. Especially in the mainland, payment services such as WeChat and Alipay have covered all aspects of people's lives, and the use of digital RMB is The rate is still not optimistic. Cross-border payment has become an important direction for the expansion of the digital RMB.

In October 2024, after four years of iterative development With the joint efforts of multiple parties, the multilateral central bank digital currency bridge (hereinafter referred to as "currency bridge") project involving digital RMB has developed to a stage where all participating central banks and monetary authorities can independently advance, and can successfully innovate from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) The center "graduated".

Before this, on June 6, 2024, the Currency Bridge project entered the minimum feasibility product (MVP) stage, with all participants' judicial The currency bridge participants in the jurisdiction can conduct real transactions in an orderly manner according to the corresponding procedures based on actual conditions.

At present, the application of stablecoins in the field of cross-border payments It is developing rapidly, which will have a certain impact on the development of cross-border payments of CBDC.

The "G20 Cross-border Payment Roadmap" released in 2020 shows that Three important technical directions for improving cross-border payments in the future are to consider new multilateral cross-border payment platforms and deployments, and promote the improvement of global stablecoins.To strengthen the exploration and research of CBDC.

In layman's terms, these three paths are to build new SWIFT, stablecoin cross-border payment, and CBDC cross-border payment. At present, stablecoin payment is standing out.

From the overall data, according to a data released by the overseas cryptocurrency trading agency HashKey Group, the number of quarterly stablecoin transfers has increased by 17 in the past four years. Time. On July 17, 2024 alone, the total trading volume of the global stablecoin market reached US$87 billion, accounting for 91.7% of the trading volume of the entire cryptocurrency market, of which the largest trading volume stablecoin was USDT, reaching 83.3%.

From the specific scenario, PayPal allows Xoom to carry out cross-border stablecoin payment services, Nuvei provides stablecoin payment solutions for Latin American merchants, and Stripe allows to use its platform. Merchants accept cryptocurrency payments. This series of business actions of payment companies reveal at all levels that stablecoins are penetrating into all aspects of retail business and entering people's daily lives.

As the leader in CBDC pilot, the digital RMB is still exploring the process of minimizing business with the help of the currency bridge system. Even if cross-border enterprises can directly collect and pay cross-border through currency bridges in the future, they may also face concerns about the intensity of supervision.

Of course, stablecoins are also facing compliance challenges now, and how to be accepted by countries or regions is also a big problem. The good thing is that Singapore, Hong Kong, the EU and After Trump comes to power, the United States will legislate stablecoins to correct its name.

It is worth mentioning that more than 99% of the stablecoin market are anchored to the US dollar, which is a large "reservoir" of US debt, which is also the United States An important reason for being friendly to stablecoins. From this perspective, it is better to say that the digital RMB is fighting against stablecoins, it is better to say that the US dollar system behind it.

The new bottle of old wine is changing rapidly around the world.