The Rise of Stablecoins and the New Landscape of Blockchain Payments

Stablecoins, as tokenized representations of fiat currency circulating on the blockchain, have become an important application in the crypto market. By the end of 2024, the total market capitalization of stablecoins running parallel to traditional financial infrastructure is expected to surpass $200 billion. With the rapid development of stablecoins over the past five years and their increasing integration into the global economy, the advantages of blockchain as a financial infrastructure will inevitably be further explored and utilized by the traditional financial world.

A certain payment giant believes that stablecoins are a promising payment innovation that can provide more people with a safe, reliable, and convenient payment method. At the same time, as one of the earliest and most experienced blockchain payment companies in the market, its tokens have already undergone a value reassessment in the market.

This article aims to outline the development trends of stablecoins, analyze the logic behind the revaluation of a well-known payment project token, and compare it with another long-established payment project to explore how to capture value in this trend.

The Development Trends of Stablecoins

A recent report on the cryptocurrency industry released by a well-known investment institution pointed out that stablecoins have found product-market fit over the past year, becoming one of the most obvious "killer applications" in the Web3.0 space.

Stablecoins simplify the process of value transfer, enabling rapid global value circulation. Their quarterly trading volume has already surpassed that of a certain payment giant by more than twice, settling hundreds of billions of dollars in assets annually. In November 2024 alone, 28.5 million independent stablecoin users conducted over 600 million transactions, fully demonstrating their practicality. At the same time, stablecoin users are almost everywhere in the world, providing users with a safe, low-cost, and inflation-resistant way to save and spend.

A well-known startup incubator recently stated: Although there are controversies regarding the practicality of Blockchain technology, stablecoins will evidently become an important component of future currency. Currently, nearly 30% of global remittances are conducted through stablecoins, and traditional financial institutions are also beginning to provide platforms for banks to issue stablecoins. In addition, a certain payment technology company has acquired a stablecoin startup for 1 billion USD, which will attract more investors' attention and capital into this field.

A certain payment giant also pointed out in its top ten payment trend predictions for 2025 that the maturation of Blockchain and digital assets in recent years has proven the transformative potential of this technology in enhancing global financial and business systems. Cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, and tokenized assets have moved from concept to commercialization, particularly in applications related to real-world assets. By 2025, Blockchain technology is expected to play a significant role in improving speed, security, and efficiency, especially in the B2B and commercial payment sectors.

The Rise of a Renowned Payment Project and Its Token

Whether it is cryptocurrency investment institutions, traditional payment networks, or banking systems, they all recognize that value transfer based on Blockchain is a reasonable trend for the future development of financial technology, and payment is bound to be the first application field.

A well-known blockchain payment company primarily provides financial service solutions based on blockchain technology, aiming to increase the speed of global financial transactions and reduce costs. Its main product services include cross-border payments and remittances facilitated through its payment network, as well as the recently launched stablecoin.

The company's technology and services primarily rely on an independent distributed ledger that offers low transaction costs and high performance for recording and verifying transactions. This ledger was developed by the company in 2012, focusing on providing banking solutions for traditional financial institutions. Its native token is classified as a payment cryptocurrency, serving as a medium of payment for transaction fees on the ledger, providing a way to use a distributed network instead of centralized storage and value transfer.

Recently, the value of the project's token has undergone reassessment, mainly due to:

1. Expectations for changes in the regulatory environment: The market anticipates that the government may adopt a more favorable stance on cryptocurrency regulation, and the appointment of individuals who support cryptocurrency to key positions has boosted market confidence.

2. Positive progress in regulatory litigation: The company has achieved partial victories in its lawsuits with regulatory authorities, with the judge ruling that its tokens are not considered securities when sold to retail investors on exchanges, which is a significant positive development.

3. Increased ETF and Institutional Investment: Some companies have launched trust products for this token and applied to convert multi-currency funds that include this token into ETFs, increasing the attractiveness of institutional investment.

4. Enhanced ledger scalability: The company announced that it will introduce advanced programmability, including smart contracts, to its ledger. This will be achieved by introducing native smart contract functionality and sidechains, enhancing the developer ecosystem.

5. Launch of stablecoin: The company announced the launch of an enterprise-grade stablecoin pegged 1:1 to the US dollar, aimed at enhancing institutional liquidity, trust, and compliance within its ecosystem.

Looking for the Next Potential Project

In this context, how can we capture the value of similar projects?

Currently, the blockchain payment projects with successfully issued tokens mainly focus on two categories: one is relatively independent payment protocol applications; the other is projects that use the underlying blockchain ledger as a payment settlement network. Market experience shows that the value of payment networks is greater and the ecological scalability is stronger. Therefore, we turn our attention to another potential project.

The project initially stood out with its "privacy computing" technological characteristics. After accumulating sufficient technology, it began to apply its technological advantages in areas such as payments, providing financial-grade system stability and performance, compliance digital asset management supported by cryptography, and multi-scenario privacy-preserving payment clearing solutions.

From the perspective of project ownership, this project clearly belongs to the type that uses the underlying Blockchain ledger as a payment settlement network, serving the entire Web3.0 ecosystem.

The project's native coin is primarily used for the governance of the decentralized network, to pay for the costs of using computing resources and data services on the network, and to incentivize network participants, including node operators and data providers, to maintain and promote the normal operation and development of the network.

The project has also launched an open payment clearing operating system based on its network, with its payment core based on tokenized currency. It ensures that the "currency" of Web 3.0 is self-minted by users and safely completes controlled value transfers through three levels: value locking, payment logic, and authorization mechanisms.

How to Capture Payment Value?

Blockchain provides the technical background conditions for the complete unification of information flow and capital flow in value exchange. However, as of the current development of Web3.0, the payment architecture based on blockchain is still at the stage proposed in the early Bitcoin white paper, which centers around peer-to-peer transfer as the core settlement rule. A set of clearing and settlement standards capable of addressing various complex payment scenarios and multi-party participation has yet to be formed.

Although global stablecoin-based payments have become a reality with great potential in commercial applications, the simple logic of peer-to-peer transfers currently struggles to support the rich scenarios of stablecoin payments. At the same time, due to the lack of standard clearing rules on the blockchain, payment transactions still need to detach from the blockchain ledger and return to the traditional payment clearing system.

Therefore, this project is not just a simple peer-to-peer transfer replica built solely on its own scenario channel advantages like most crypto payment projects. The project attempts to leverage its network as the "master ledger" and application platform for future global cross-border payment settlements, by establishing a set of clearing rule standards on the Blockchain to address the distribution of interests among multiple payment participants and complex payment scenarios. Its open payment clearing system is precisely the carrier of this set of clearing rule standards.

In short, the ultimate goal of this project is to build a "payment network for the Web3 era," and a certain well-known payment network happens to be the highest valued entity in the entire global payment ecosystem.

The project compensates for the lack of standardized clearing rules on the Blockchain through its open payment clearing system, and attracts the participation of acquirers, wallet institutions, consumers, and merchants by creating a win-win digital currency payment network, achieving the construction of rich payment scenarios. As the ecological network is gradually built, the network effect will ultimately emerge, and the final value will be reflected in the project and its token.

Shaping Open Financial Ecosystem and Payment Landscape

The establishment of a digital currency payment system relies not only on the emergence and large-scale adoption of trading mediums such as stablecoins but also on a large payment network. What this project aims to build is a large open payment clearing network based on Blockchain. Through an innovative payment clearing system framework, it aims to reshape global payments in a Web3.0 manner.

Through an open payment ecosystem, the system can reduce the originally high cross-border payment fees by at least 60%. Merchants and consumers can hold digital assets in a non-custodial manner and rely on acquirer institutions, wallet institutions, and tokenized currency payment scenario standards to complete payments and value exchanges. Each participant in the payment process assumes different roles to complete their tasks and earn profits.

This system is not only a payment settlement platform on the Blockchain, but also the foundation of an open financial ecosystem. As an open operating system, it can adapt to different application scenarios and needs, making it easy to integrate new technologies and functions.

At the same time, the system is dedicated to building a bridge between Web 2.0 and Web 3.0, breaking down the barriers between traditional financial systems and emerging financial technologies. This means that both traditional financial institutions and emerging blockchain projects can find their suitable position in this ecosystem, enabling the free flow of funds and seamless transmission of value.

Currently, the payment solutions of this system cover stablecoin issuance, cross-border remittances, digital currency acquiring, cross-border trade, etc. Anyone can assemble the final payment services on this ecosystem through the underlying capabilities of calling the Blockchain provided.

Breaking Points of the Future

By building a "payment network for the Web3 era", this project is able to leave the value on the transaction chain to network participants, forming an incentive system, rather than returning to the traditional clearing system, which is divided among various intermediaries. At the same time, the complex payment scenarios constructed by its open payment clearing system can perfectly integrate with Web 2.0 applications and payment scenarios, achieving cost reduction and efficiency improvement for applications, as well as a better user experience.

This project does not limit its focus to digital currencies and Web3.0 on the blockchain. In the long run, all on-chain native innovations up to today are a phased manifestation and experience of this long-term trend, with the fundamental breakthrough coming from the iterative upgrades of interbank financial infrastructure driven by a large number of practical business needs from Web2.0.

Therefore, the project is turning its attention to the richer Web 2.0 market, which is the key to the widespread adoption of the Web 3.0 ecosystem and is the fundamental breakthrough for crypto payments!

The founder of the project believes that: "The biggest market opportunity in the current and next phase is the full migration of core teams and applications from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0, similar to the migration of Internet web applications to mobile Internet apps ten years ago. Due to limitations in technology and infrastructure capabilities, the vast majority of core applications from the Web 2.0 era cannot be directly and completely migrated onto the blockchain, but can only leverage the characteristics of cryptographic technology and incentive mechanisms to hand over services such as payment, settlement, trading, custody, and verification of assets/funds to public chains and their ecosystems to handle.

Therefore, the core demand has shifted to fiat currency deposits and withdrawals, as well as the receipt/transfers of digital currency. This means that the upcoming competition among public chains will not primarily come from on-chain native scenarios, but rather from the migration of transactions and user acquisition from the original internet outside the chain. The only channel for non-Web3.0 native users to enter is still through the applications/services they are familiar with, and it is highly likely to be via a B2B2C path.

In the Web 2.0 era, the number of retail payment transactions processed globally each year exceeds 20 trillion. For us, seizing the opportunity of traditional retail gradually moving towards the comprehensive use of digital currency as a new payment medium is essential, aligning with the transition of data ownership and currency ownership from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0.