The Hong Kong government plans to submit a "Stablecoin Issuer Regulatory Regime" bill to the Legislative Council this year. Currently, the local monetary authority is using the "Stablecoin Issuer Sandbox" to allow potential issuers to test their business plans and application scenarios.
Against this backdrop, several Hong Kong media reported today (4th) that Jeremy Allaire, the co-founder of Circle, the issuer of the second-largest stablecoin USDC, intends to hire more employees in Hong Kong to establish a business, and is currently waiting for the new stablecoin regulations to be introduced, and will consider applying for a license after understanding the requirements.
Circle's Asia-Pacific Vice President: Hong Kong has the opportunity to become an international stablecoin center
At the same time, Chan Yam-kei, Circle's Asia-Pacific Vice President, told the Sing Tao Daily that Hong Kong has a greater advantage in developing stablecoins, including the ability to settle US dollars in a single day, being the largest capital market in the Asia-Pacific region, and being backed by the mainland market. He believes that Hong Kong has the opportunity to develop into an international stablecoin center.
When asked whether Hong Kong's stablecoin regulation is starting late, Chan Yam-kei said that the development pace of other places does not mean that Hong Kong is lagging behind. He believes that Hong Kong's characteristics, such as "one country, two systems", the pegging of the currency to the US dollar, and the relatively strong freedom of financial policy, are particularly advantageous, especially as Japan and Singapore are difficult to replace Hong Kong in communicating with the Chinese market. He believes that the Hong Kong version of stablecoins will have considerable market demand.
Finally, Chan Yam-kei expects that by 2025-2026, the world's major financial centers will have regulated stablecoin legislation, which may be issued by government-backed or private enterprises, and will gradually interconnect with stablecoins in other regions.
The potential of stablecoins has not been fully realized
At the recently concluded
Binance Blockchain Week Dubai 2024, Circle co-founder Jeremy Allaire and Binance's Global Head of Media and Content Jessica Walker had an in-depth discussion on the future development, application potential, and role of stablecoins in the global financial system.
When asked what he thinks the peak of stablecoins will look like, Allaire responded:
> In my view, the development of stablecoins is a bit like the growth process of the Internet. In the early 1990s, we had electronic communication technology, but it wasn't until we could use large-scale applications like WhatsApp that we really reached the "peak". Similarly, in the 1990s we could stream videos on the Internet, but the experience was poor, and it gradually improved until today's high-quality videos.
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> The potential of stablecoins has not been fully realized. The current market size is only about $150 billion, while the total legal digital currency in the world has reached about $130 trillion. In comparison, $150 billion is negligible.
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> Through stablecoins, we are entering an era where value storage and transfer can be completed almost instantly. As for when the peak of stablecoins will be reached, I cannot say for sure, but I think it may take a few decades, and perhaps within
10 years, stablecoins can occupy 5% to 10% of the digital currency market, which I believe is achievable.
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> More importantly, we have never had a currency like stablecoins that has programmability and composability. In the future, it will bring unknown new utilities.
