PANews reported on July 19 that according to Caixin, Guan Tao, global chief economist at China Merchants Bank, said in an online seminar of the China Macroeconomic Forum (CMF) that the US dollar stablecoin is not a legal tender in the United States, lacks sovereign credit guarantee, and one can adopt a "wait-and-see" attitude towards stablecoins. There is no need to rush or "mythologize" or "idolize" stablecoins, and one should maintain strategic determination in developing digital currencies and promoting the internationalization of the renminbi. Guan Tao believes that China already has a form of "quasi-stablecoin" assets. For example, the Hong Kong dollar is issued by three local issuing banks according to the linked exchange rate rule of 1 USD: 7.8 HKD, but unlike many stablecoins, Hong Kong dollars issued by different issuing banks are interchangeable and undifferentiated. Additionally, customer funds of third-party payment platforms like WeChat and Alipay are fully entrusted to the People's Bank of China, which is similar to a 1:1 stablecoin issuance, and payment settlements still use renminbi in reality.
Guan Tao further pointed out that as stablecoins pegged to legal tender are increasingly viewed as "proxy currencies" and incorporated into regulation, their original advantages will actually be weakened. If stablecoins are viewed as genuine currency, then currency as a universal equivalent will inevitably move towards oligopolistic monopoly, making it difficult for most stablecoin issuers to survive or make money.
