Asian banks seek stablecoins such as USDT and USDC to prevent deposit outflows

According to Gate News bot and CoinDesk, Asian banks are increasingly viewing stablecoins such as USDT and USDC as defensive tools to prevent deposit flight and losses in trading income. Behind the scenes, stablecoins have played a significant role in the region's financial channels.

Amy Zhang, the head of Fireblocks in Asia, stated in a recent interview that major banks in South Korea, Japan, and Hong Kong are actively exploring local currency stablecoins to mitigate these threats.

"If I am not a bank of Circle or Tether, will I lose deposits?" Zhang said. "This is a huge risk for banks."

In South Korea, eight major banks, including the National Bank and Shinhan Bank, are forming a consortium that plans to launch a Korean won stablecoin by 2026. This is a direct response to the surge in the use of USDT and USDC in local cross-border transactions.

Japanese banking giants Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), and Mizuho Bank are trialing a yen-pegged stablecoin to streamline trade financing processes and reduce reliance on traditional cross-border channels. Hong Kong's East Asia Bank has also recently trialed its own USD and HKD stablecoin settlement network.

Payment service providers (PSPs) are actively promoting the adoption of stablecoins, moving away from expensive traditional banking channels.

"A year ago, PSP was still asking whether they should launch a stablecoin," Zhang said, "Now they say, 'I want to transfer a billion customer traffic; I need a better wallet.'"

Fireblocks processed over $3 trillion in digital assets last year, with its report stating that stablecoins currently account for about half of its trading volume. Mr. Zhang pointed out that the usage rate among Asian e-commerce giants is continuously increasing.

The Visa Analytics dashboard shows that the trading volume of stablecoins increased by 30% over the weekend, highlighting their role in retail and gig usage.

Zhang stated that Tether's USDT, with its liquidity and ease of access advantages, dominates the circulation of stablecoins in emerging Asian markets, while USDC has gained momentum in tightly regulated financial centers such as Singapore and Hong Kong.

As financial institutions in the region defensively adopt stablecoins, enterprise users pragmatically operate stablecoins, the quiet transformation of Asia's cross-border financial infrastructure may become the next headline in the history of stablecoin development.