The Current Global Financial System and the Rise of Stablecoins
The global financial system is undergoing profound transformation. Stablecoins, as emerging payment tools, are reshaping the payment landscape with their advantages of instant settlement, low costs, and global reach. This report analyzes the key participants, core infrastructure, and future development trends of the stablecoin ecosystem from both technical and business perspectives.
(Background: Sam Altman’s World Wallet plans to integrate Visa functionalities to create a “mini digital bank” for stablecoin payments)
(Context: What “fatal details” are hidden in the new U.S. stablecoin regulatory rules?)
Introduction
The global financial system is in the midst of a significant wave of transformation. Traditional payment networks are facing comprehensive challenges from emerging alternatives—stablecoins—due to outdated infrastructure, lengthy settlement cycles, and high costs. These digital assets are rapidly innovating the models for cross-border value transfer, the formalization of corporate transactions, and the means by which individuals access financial services.
In recent years, stablecoins have continued to develop, becoming an important underlying architecture for global payments. Major fintech companies, payment processors, and sovereign entities are gradually integrating stablecoins into consumer applications and corporate cash flows. At the same time, a range of emerging financial tools, from payment gateways to deposit and withdrawal channels to programmable yield products, have greatly enhanced the convenience of using stablecoins.
This report provides an in-depth analysis of the stablecoin ecosystem from both technical and business perspectives. It examines the key participants shaping this field, the core infrastructure supporting stablecoin transactions, and the dynamic demands driving their applications. Additionally, it explores how stablecoins give rise to new financial application scenarios and the challenges they face in being widely integrated into the global economy.
1. Why Choose Stablecoin Payments?
To explore the impact of stablecoins, it is essential to examine traditional payment solutions. These traditional systems encompass cash, checks, debit cards, credit cards, international wire transfers (SWIFT), automated clearing houses (ACH), and peer-to-peer payments. Although they have become part of daily life, many payment channels, such as ACH and SWIFT, have existed since the 1970s. Despite being groundbreaking at the time, most of these global payment infrastructures have now become outdated and highly fragmented. Overall, these payment methods suffer from high costs, friction, lengthy processing times, inability to achieve round-the-clock settlement, and complex backend processing. Additionally, they often bundle unnecessary extra services such as identity verification, lending, compliance, fraud protection, and bank integration, which incur additional fees.
Stablecoin payments effectively address these pain points. Compared to traditional payment methods, utilizing blockchain for payment settlement greatly simplifies the payment process, reduces intermediaries, and enables instant visibility of cash flows, shortening settlement times and lowering costs.
The main advantages of stablecoin payments can be summarized as follows:
- Instant Settlement: Transactions are completed almost instantaneously, eliminating delays inherent in traditional banking systems.
- Security and Reliability: The immutable ledger of blockchain ensures the security and transparency of transactions, providing protection for users.
- Cost Reduction: The removal of intermediaries significantly lowers transaction fees, saving costs for users.
- Global Coverage: Decentralized platforms can reach markets underserved by traditional financial services (including unbanked populations), achieving financial inclusion.
2. The Landscape of Stablecoin Payments Industry
The stablecoin payments industry can be divided into four layers of technology stack:
1. Layer One: Application Layer
The application layer is primarily composed of various payment service providers (PSPs) that integrate multiple independent deposit and withdrawal payment institutions into a unified aggregation platform. These platforms provide users with convenient access to stablecoins, offer tools for developers working in the application layer, and provide credit card services for Web3 users.