Deng Tong, Golden Finance
What is the hottest track in 2025? It must be stablecoins-stablecoins are not only an important infrastructure for DeFi, but also a bridge between traditional finance and the crypto world. The development of China, the United States, and Europe in the field of stablecoins is particularly worthy of attention. From the introduction of bills to the entry of traditional financial giants, the development prospects of the stablecoin field seem to be advancing by leaps and bounds.
This article sorts out the progress made by China, the United States, and Europe in the field of stablecoins, including regulatory bills, giants involved in stablecoins, etc. Help readers clarify the development trend of stablecoins and present a more comprehensive picture of the development of the stablecoin track.
1. Sorting out the stablecoin bills of China, the United States, and Europe
1. Hong Kong's "Stablecoin Bill"
On May 21, 2025, the Legislative Council of Hong Kong formally passed the "Stablecoin Bill" in the third reading. This means that Hong Kong will officially implement stablecoin supervision. Anyone who issues a fiat stablecoin in Hong Kong, or a fiat stablecoin in Hong Kong or abroad that claims to be pegged to the value of the Hong Kong dollar, must apply for a license from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. According to the current progress, the crypto industry may see the birth of a compliant Hong Kong stablecoin by the end of 2025.
The main contents of the bill include: implementing a licensing system for stablecoin issuers, requiring issuers to obtain a license from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority before issuing fiat stablecoins or stablecoins that claim to be pegged to the Hong Kong dollar in Hong Kong; specific requirements are put forward for the reserve asset management, redemption mechanism, and issuer's financial resources, appropriate personnel and risk management; at the same time, it also clarifies the scope of regulated stablecoin activities, and stipulates consumer protection measures and the functions and powers of the HKMA.
The significance of the "Stablecoin Bill": Enhance Hong Kong's status as a fintech center; promote financial innovation; enhance market transparency and investor confidence; align with international supervision; and promote the development of fintech in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
For more details, please click on the Golden Finance article "Hong Kong's Compliant Stablecoin is Coming: A Quick Look at Its History and Main Contents"
2. The United States' GENIUS Act
On June 17, 2025, the U.S. Senate passed the landmark GENIUS Act, which promoted the U.S. federal government's regulatory efforts on stablecoins and put pressure on the House of Representatives to plan the next stage of the country's regulatory efforts on digital assets. This is another major progress in the field of stablecoins this year, following the passage of the Hong Kong Stablecoin Act.
The main contents of the bill include: prohibiting any non-"approved payment stablecoin issuer" from issuing payment stablecoins in the United States; defining "payment stablecoins" as digital assets that maintain a fixed value through legal tender or other security reserve support; imposing federal standards on institutions approved to issue payment stablecoins, including full backing reserve requirements, reserve segregation, monthly certification, and capital and liquidity requirements, as well as prohibiting re-mortgage; allowing nationally regulated payment stablecoin issuers to issue stablecoins, provided that the applicable regulatory system is substantially similar to the federal system; giving federal banking institutions enforcement power over approved payment stablecoins, similar to the power of Section 8 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act over insured depository institutions and their holding companies and institutional affiliates; setting customer protection standards for those who provide custody services for approved payment stablecoins, including supervision and regulation, fund segregation, hybrid prohibition standards, and monthly audit reports on legal reserves; prohibiting federal banking institutions, NCUA, and SEC from requiring custody assets to be treated as liabilities. The bill also amended the federal securities law to clearly stipulate that payment stablecoins are not securities.
The significance of the GENIUS Act: providing regulatory clarity; leading the formulation of the next generation of global financial system rules; strengthening the global financial status of the US dollar, etc.
For specific content, please click on the Golden Finance article "GENIUS Act Passed by the US Senate What is the impact on the crypto industry"
3. Europe's "Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation" (MiCA) Act
On June 30, 2024, the "Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation" (MiCA) came into effect. The MiCA Act aims to regulate the issuance and use of stablecoins through a unified regulatory framework, thereby promoting the healthy development of the stablecoin market and investor protection. In short, the MiCA Stablecoin Act aims to provide a clear legal framework for stablecoins, ensure their transparency, stability and security, and guard against potential risks.
The main contents of the bill include: transparency and disclosure requirements for the issuance, provision to the public and trading of crypto assets on trading platforms; authorization and supervision requirements for crypto asset service providers, asset reference token issuers and electronic money token issuers, as well as their operation, organization and governance requirements; protection requirements for holders of crypto assets during issuance, provision to the public and trading; protection requirements for customers of crypto asset service providers; measures taken to prevent insider trading, illegal disclosure of internal information and market manipulation to ensure the integrity of the crypto asset market.
The significance of the "Crypto Asset Market Regulation": unifying the European market; offshore companies will be restricted, and EU companies will benefit; MiCA promotes institutional participation, and European banks accelerate their layout, etc.
For details, please click: "European MiCA Act 10,000 Words Research Report: Comprehensive Interpretation of the Far-reaching Impact on the Web3 Industry, DeFi, Stablecoins and ICO Projects"
Second, what companies are involved in the field of stablecoins in China, the United States and Europe?
1. China's giants involved in the field of stablecoins
On July 24, 2024, JD.com announced that it would issue a cryptocurrency stablecoin pegged 1:1 to the Hong Kong dollar (HKD) in Hong Kong. According to the official website of JD Coin Chain Technology (Hong Kong), a subsidiary of JD Technology Group, the stablecoin is issued based on a public blockchain, and its reserves are composed of highly liquid and credible assets. These assets will be safely stored in independent accounts of licensed financial institutions, and the integrity of the reserves will be verified through regular disclosures and audit reports. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority announced the list of participants in the "sandbox" for stablecoin issuers on July 18, 2024, including JD Coin Chain Technology (Hong Kong).
JD Coin Chain Technology CEO Liu Peng previously revealed that it will provide mobile and PC application products for retail and institutions, and the test scenarios mainly include cross-border payments, investment transactions, retail payments, etc.
On June 17, 2025, Liu Qiangdong, Chairman of the Board of Directors of JD.com Group, stated in a sharing session that JD.com hopes to apply for stablecoin licenses in all major currency countries in the world, and then use the stablecoin licenses to realize foreign exchange between global companies, reducing global cross-border payment costs by 90% and increasing efficiency to within 10 seconds. "It takes an average of 2 to 4 days for companies to remit money, and the cost is quite high. After we have completed the B-side payment, we will penetrate into the C-side payment. We hope that one day everyone can use JD stablecoin to pay when they consume around the world." For more information, please click "JD's stablecoin ambition is not just cross-border payment"
On June 12, 2025, Ant International and Ant Digits, subsidiaries of Ant Group, both plan to apply for stablecoin licenses in Hong Kong, China. This move marks that another large company has joined the stablecoin layout camp. Ant International responded that it will submit an application as soon as possible after the Hong Kong "Stablecoin Ordinance" takes effect on August 1 and the relevant channels are opened. Ant International is accelerating investment and expanding cooperation in global asset management, and putting its AI, blockchain and stablecoin innovations into real and reliable large-scale applications".
Bian Zhuoqun, president of Ant Digital's blockchain business, revealed that Ant Digital has started applying for a Hong Kong stablecoin license and has had multiple rounds of communication with regulators. It is understood that Ant Digital has listed Hong Kong as its global headquarters this year and has completed the pilot test of the regulatory sandbox in Hong Kong.
This means that if the applications of the above two Ant companies are approved by regulators, it means that another Chinese technology giant will deploy compliant stablecoin business in Hong Kong.
With its deep accumulation in the field of financial technology and a broad user base, Ant Group is expected to play an important role in cross-border payments, digital financial services and other fields once it successfully issues stablecoins in Hong Kong, and promote the innovative development of the stablecoin market in Hong Kong and even the world.
For more content, please click 《After Circle, Ant Enters Stablecoin》
On February 17, 2025, Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong), Animoca Brands and Hong Kong Telecom (HKT) announced a joint venture to jointly develop a stablecoin pegged to the Hong Kong dollar. The collaboration will apply for a license from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) and plans to leverage Standard Chartered's experience in stablecoin issuance and the HKMA's work on tokenized currency projects. The joint venture will focus on developing stablecoin applications for local and cross-border payments. The move comes as Hong Kong continues to consolidate its position as a digital asset hub, competing with Singapore in the region. The city has approved Bitcoin and Ethereum exchange-traded funds and implemented a strict licensing framework for cryptocurrency exchanges.
In July 2024, after the Hong Kong Monetary Authority announced the first batch of stablecoin issuers' "sandbox" list, Xiaomi's Tianxing Bank announced a stablecoin cooperation with JD.com's JD Coin Chain Technology, which triggered the market's imagination of Internet giants' layout of Web3.
2. American giants involved in the field of stablecoins
On June 4, 2025, Circle was listed on the New York Stock Exchange. This was also the first listing of a stablecoin issuer. On the same day, Circle The stock price soared 168%. As the second largest stablecoin issuer by market value, Circle is seen as a core player in the cryptocurrency's move toward mainstream payments and regulated finance. Since its listing on June 5, the company's stock price has accumulated more than 543%, soaring from the issue price of $31 at the time of the IPO to $199.59 at the close of Wednesday. Circle's growth strategy revolves around expanding its stablecoin network, focusing on building global products that make USDC easy to access and use, and establishing partnerships with financial and technology giants.
Circle's business model is unique and is essentially "interest-free debt arbitrage." It provides 1:1 guarantee for USDC by holding US dollar cash and short-term Treasury bonds, and earns income from the guaranteed assets. In an environment where the Federal Reserve maintains high interest rates, the annualized yield of USDC reserves exceeds 5%, bringing Circle about $210 million in interest income in the first quarter of 2025 alone.
For more content, click: 《Circle's listing ignites the market, and stablecoins become a new consensus between institutions and retail investors》
The USDT issued by Tether is the first mainstream stablecoin and the largest stablecoin by market value. As of June 2025, its market value exceeds 150 billion US dollars, accounting for nearly two-thirds of the global stablecoin market share. However, the transparency of Tether, the issuer of USDT, has been questioned for many years. Despite this, USDT still occupies an important position in the market. It is widely used in crypto asset transactions, solving the problem that most crypto asset exchanges cannot use legal currency for deposits and withdrawals due to low compliance and inability to obtain support from the commercial banking system, and has become an important trading medium in the field of crypto assets.
However, with the gradual strengthening of supervision, Tether is also facing increasing compliance pressure, and its future development in the stablecoin market is full of variables. For example, the GENIUS Act will weaken Tether. Long-term dominance in the field of stablecoins. According to Tether's latest quarterly reserve report (as of March 31, 2025), only 85% of USDT's reserves meet the compliance standards of the GENIUS Act at most, and fail to meet the 1:1 full collateral ratio required for payment of stablecoins.
In addition, Tether's auditor BDO Italia is not a US registered accounting firm, and its reserve report does not meet the audit standards set by the US Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB). Even if Tether publishes monthly reports, its format cannot meet the requirements of the GENIUS Act. Once GENIUS becomes law, USDT will be excluded from the real world financial system.
For more content, please click: 《Can the dominance of stablecoin giant Tether withstand the test of the US Stablecoin Act? 》
On March 25, 2025, World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a decentralized financial enterprise supported by Trump, announced the launch of USD1, a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar. USD1 is 100% backed by short-term US government treasuries, US dollar deposits and other cash equivalents. It was initially minted on the Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain blockchains, and plans to expand to other protocols in the future, committed to maintaining a 1:1 transaction with the US dollar.
On August 7, 2023, payment giant PayPal launched the US dollar-denominated stablecoin PayPal USD (PYUSD). PYUSD has attracted much attention since its launch. It is fully backed by US dollar deposits, short-term US Treasuries and similar cash equivalents, and can achieve a 1:1 exchange rate with the US dollar. Exchange. PayPal CEO Dan Schulman said that the transition to digital currency requires a stable tool, and PYUSD has this feature.
On June 13, 2025, the Wall Street Journal reported that Walmart and Amazon are exploring the issuance of their own stablecoins in the US market, or using them for payment and settlement in their own merchant ecosystems. According to sources, this move can transfer a large number of cash and card transactions out of the traditional financial system, reduce billions of dollars in fees, and speed up payments.
On June 18, 2025, Bloomberg reported that JPMorgan Chase & Co. will launch a project called JPMD The pilot of a token representing the dollar deposits of the world's largest bank shows that financial institutions are further deepening their layout in the field of digital assets. The pilot issuance of deposit tokens JPMD will be carried out on a blockchain related to Coinbase.
According to Naveen Mallela, global co-head of Kinexys, the blockchain division of JPMorgan Chase, in an interview, the bank will conduct a transaction in the next few days to transfer a certain amount of JPMD from the bank's digital wallet to Coinbase Global Inc., the largest cryptocurrency trading platform in the United States.
3. European giants involved in the field of stablecoins
On June 10, 2025, SG-FORGE (hereinafter referred to as "SG"), the cryptocurrency subsidiary of Societe Generale, announced plans to issue a publicly tradable US dollar stablecoin, and trading is expected to start in July. As one of the largest commercial banking groups in France, Societe Generale's move has attracted much attention. However, this is not the first time SG has issued a stablecoin. It launched a euro stablecoin in 2023, but its adoption was limited. After the launch of the US dollar stablecoin, SG will have both the euro and the US dollar, the two most important international currency stablecoins, which will enable it to provide customers with a more complete "fiat currency-digital asset" bridge service, meet complex needs such as cross-currency transactions, settlements, and hedging, and enhance the comprehensive attractiveness and stickiness of its digital asset platform.
In June 2025, it was reported that Deutsche Bank was exploring innovative ways to incorporate stablecoin technology into its business. Sabih Behzad, head of digital assets and currency transformation at the bank, revealed that the bank is considering launching its own stablecoin or establishing an alliance within the financial industry. Deutsche Bank is considering creating a tokenized deposit system to simplify payment processes and improve transaction efficiency. The bank is also evaluating whether to position itself as a reserve manager for digital assets or issue proprietary digital tokens.
On May 29, 2025, according to Bloomberg, Banco Santander SA) plans to expand its digital asset business, with early plans including launching stablecoins and providing cryptocurrency services to its retail customers at Openbank. Sources revealed that the stablecoin plan is still in its early stages and Openbank has applied for a license to provide retail cryptocurrency services under the new EU regulatory framework.
Fintech giant Revolut announced it would enter the stablecoin market after obtaining a UK banking license in July 2024. A company spokesperson said: It hopes to expand its cryptocurrency products, take a compliance-first approach, and become a safe haven for the entire cryptocurrency community.
Source: Golden Finance, Ai Ying, Wall Street News, Bloomberg, Securities Times, Lianhe Zaobao, Sina Finance, etc.
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