The Sino-American Path of Stablecoins: Hong Kong's B-end Breakthrough and America's Mainstream Conspiracy

Written by: ChandlerZ, Foresight News

On both sides of the Pacific, a narrative about the future of stablecoins is unfolding in strikingly different forms.

On the other hand, there is the prudent layout of industrial giants. Recently, the boom of stablecoins in the mainland has also continued to rise, and Governor Pan Gongsheng of People's Bank of China attended the 2025 Lujiazui Forum to mention stablecoins for the first time, saying that emerging technologies such as blockchain and distributed ledger have promoted the vigorous development of central bank digital currencies and stablecoins, realizing payment and settlement, reshaping the traditional payment system from the bottom, greatly shortening the cross-border payment chain, and posing huge challenges to financial supervision. In Hong Kong, China, the "Stablecoin Act" has been confirmed to officially take effect on August 1, and on the eve of Hong Kong's licensing, many banking institutions, technology giants, and fintech companies are also accelerating their efforts to seize the crypto market, and have repeatedly voiced their plans to apply for stablecoin licenses:

On June 12, Ant Group's two companies, Ant International and Ant Digital Technology, announced the initiation of a stablecoin license application. Subsequently, relevant individuals stated that LianLian Digital is also actively exploring the possibility of applying for relevant licenses in the aforementioned regions. Currently, LianLian Digital has established a dedicated team responsible for promoting stablecoin-related projects and conducting use case studies.

On June 16, Yuta Logistics Technology announced that it is actively researching relevant regulatory details and plans to apply for a stablecoin issuance license after the stablecoin regulations in Hong Kong come into effect. The company plans to launch its own stablecoin "RHKD" and also intends to issue a digital token "RBTC," which will be pegged to Bitcoin as the underlying asset. Customers can exchange "RBTC" for Hong Kong dollars or US dollars. The company expects that the token will be supported by 100% Bitcoin reserves (achieving a 1:1 Bitcoin exchange).

On June 17, Liu Qiangdong, Chairman of the Board of JD Group, stated that JD hopes to apply for stablecoin licenses in all major currency countries worldwide, and then use the stablecoin licenses to facilitate foreign exchange between global enterprises, reducing cross-border payment costs by 90% and improving efficiency to within 10 seconds. At the same time, JD expects to obtain the license in early Q4 of this year and launch JD's stablecoin.

On June 18, Commodity City, an A-share listed company, said, "The company operates the world's largest small commodity trading market, and naturally has a large number of high-frequency cross-border trade settlement scenarios. Innovative payment tools such as stablecoins have the potential to provide more efficient and low-cost cross-border payment solutions for global merchants, especially micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, in line with our purpose of serving physical trade. We welcome and support the positive developments in Hong Kong's regulatory framework for stablecoins, and Yiwu Pay, the company's cross-border payment platform, will continue to monitor the progress of the relevant regulations, and will actively evaluate and submit relevant applications as soon as the regulations are clear and the path is smooth."

According to a report by Delphi Digital, the supply of stablecoins has surpassed 250 billion USD for the first time. Among them, yield-bearing stablecoins have grown rapidly, with Ethena reaching nearly 6 billion USD since its launch; Tether and Circle still dominate the market, accounting for a combined 86% of the circulating supply; the diversity of issuers has increased, with more than 10 stablecoins having a circulation of over 100 million USD; over 120 billion USD of U.S. Treasury bonds are locked within stablecoins, creating a liquidity pool outside the traditional markets.

The above case not only reflects the differences in strategic choices between the two regions but also reveals two parallel development models in the global stablecoin arena at a deeper level. A core question thus emerges: will it be the grand narrative driven by legislation, or the scenario penetration driven by the industry, that will ultimately dominate this structural transformation concerning the future digital financial infrastructure?

Two paths: top-down mainstream compliance and bottom-up industry penetration.

The different development paths of stablecoins in the United States and Hong Kong are rooted in their distinct market environments and the strategic starting points of the participants. Taking Circle and JD Coin Chain as examples, the former represents a top-down approach seeking mainstream compliance in a prolonged battle, while the latter represents a bottom-up approach driven by industrial scenarios for B-end breakthroughs.

The American path represented by the former is a mainstream conspiracy aimed at gaining the right to speak on the chain. As a Crypto Native, Circle's long-term strategic goal has always been clear, which is to break away from the fringe label of the crypto world and enter the heart of the traditional financial system. But the process has not been easy. Circle had been contemplating listing on the traditional financial market, but in 2022, the SPAC merger plan collapsed due to significant market conditions and regulatory uncertainties. This major setback just confirms that in the United States, without a clear policy framework, stablecoins are difficult to be accepted by the mainstream. The fundamental turning point was the clarity of the U.S. macro policy environment, especially driven by crypto-friendly policy guidance and regulatory developments such as the GENIUS Act, which allowed Circle to gain the right position to pave the way for its eventual landing on the capital markets.

In stark contrast to this, the Hong Kong path represented by the latter, that is, a new type of breakthrough based on the B-side. JD Coin Technology (Hong Kong) was incorporated in Hong Kong in March 2024. In July, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) announced a list of stablecoin issuers' "sandbox" participants, including JD Chain. According to its official website, JD.com will issue a cryptocurrency stablecoin in Hong Kong that is pegged 1:1 to the Hong Kong dollar. JD Stablecoin is a public chain-based stablecoin pegged 1:1 to the Hong Kong Dollar (HKD), which will be issued on the public blockchain, and its reserves are made up of highly liquid and credible assets that are securely held in segregated accounts of licensed financial institutions, and the integrity of the reserves is rigorously verified through regular disclosures and audit reports. JD.com is not a newcomer in the payment field, but in the last round of mobile payment wars around the C-end, it failed to establish an independent payment ecosystem comparable to Alibaba and Tencent. Therefore, JD.com's entry into the stablecoin is not a catch-up with the old battlefield, but a natural extension based on JD.com's advantages in the field of technology and supply chain. It chooses to avoid the C-end retail payment, which has become a red ocean, and directly cuts into the area where it has structural advantages: B-end cross-border trade and supply chain finance. The logical starting point of this path is not to seek full liberalization of top-level legislation, but to use the specific institutional space provided by Hong Kong as an international financial centre and regulatory sandbox to solve specific business problems.

Two strategies: B-end new battlefield VS on-chain currency track

Different starting points determine two completely different market strategies.

In a recent interview, Liu Peng, CEO of JD Coin Chain Technology, stated that as of early June 2025, the company has primarily conducted tests on the HKD stablecoin and will later test other fiat stablecoins. Based on market demand, both stablecoins are expected to be issued simultaneously. Unlike the first phase, which mainly focused on testing product functionality and technical details, the second phase emphasizes testing the use of stablecoins in three practical scenarios: cross-border payments, investment trading, and retail payments.

In the cross-border payment scenario, the JD Coin blockchain plan aims to expand its user base through both direct customer acquisition and indirect customer acquisition (such as collaborating with compliant wholesalers). In the investment trading scenario, discussions are currently underway with global compliant exchanges to launch JD stablecoin in different regions. The first retail implementation will be at JD's global sales site for Hong Kong and Macau, where users will be able to use the stablecoin for shopping in JD's self-operated e-commerce environment.

JD's strategy can be seen as a scalpel tactic, with its core focus on deepening the B-end, prioritizing scenarios. Liu Peng clearly pointed out that the target users of JD's stablecoin are not crypto investors, but a large number of实体企业 and cross-border trade participants. Its core value proposition is not speculation, but rather solving long-standing pain points in traditional cross-border payments through blockchain technology, such as high costs, low efficiency, and lack of transparency in processes. This is achieved by customizing payment solutions for JD's global sales and international logistics inherent ecosystems.

In contrast, Circle's strategy is to preempt the protocol high ground and make standards king. Its ultimate goal, as Bernstein analysts have noted, is to evolve into a monetary orbit of the Internet. This means that Circle is not looking to solve a problem in a specific scenario, but to become a general-purpose, low-level digital cash protocol. By legislating to establish its legal status, Circle hopes that USDC will be seamlessly integrated by all banks, payment companies, fintech platforms, and business applications. This is a typical horizontal platform-based, protocol-driven logic that aims to occupy an indispensable core position in the global digital financial system by establishing foundational standards to maximize network effects.

Two strategies point to two different business outcomes.

The future vision of JD.com is to first build a highly closed-loop on-chain trade empire. By integrating stablecoin payments with data flows from its international logistics, overseas warehousing, and order systems, it theoretically can achieve an unprecedented, efficient, and transparent global supply chain financial ecosystem. However, its more strategically valuable long-term vision points towards offshore RMB stablecoins. Leveraging Hong Kong's institutional advantages as the world's largest offshore RMB hub, once policy approval is obtained, issuing CNH stablecoins will not only bring immense business imaginative space to JD.com but also give it the opportunity to play a key role in the financial infrastructure of RMB internationalization.

The endgame of Circle is closely linked to consolidating the hegemony of the US dollar in the global digital economy. The goal is to become the de facto private sector version of the digital dollar, a core component of a new generation of financial infrastructure. It's worth noting, however, that in the midst of a frenzy in the market, Cathie Wood's Ark Invest has begun to opt to cash out at a time when CRCL's share price is at a record high. According to the transaction disclosure, ARK sold a total of 642,766 Circle shares through its three core funds in two days, with a total value of about $96.5 million, accounting for 14% of its initial position. BlackRock, another major institutional shareholder, has not yet reported any reductions, while the reductions by Circle's internal executive team are part of the regular post-IPO prospectus.

This does not entirely negate Circle's long-term value, but it at least suggests that, in the eyes of the most optimistic investors, the stock price may have fully or even excessively reflected the favorable policy in the short term, necessitating tactical reductions to manage risk exposure. After the legislation is passed, the real business implementation and market competition challenges may just be beginning.

Different paths lead to the same destination? A monetary war that defines the future.

Overall, JD and Circle represent two paradigms in the development of stablecoins. JD's model is pragmatic, starting from solving specific business problems, with the advantage of having a solid business foundation and clear application scenarios. Circle's model, on the other hand, is idealistic, starting from building a grand financial vision, with the advantage of gaining leading legislative support and strong capital backing.

Of course, there are still many issues to be resolved: Can the B-end barriers constructed around the industry core in the JD model effectively resist the top-down dimensionality reduction attacks from general protocols like Circle? And when Circle's grand narrative truly delves into the real economy, must it also, like JD, tackle specific industry application scenarios one by one?