Written by: Nancy, PANews
Stablecoins have become a hot topic in the global financial circle, with the founder of a cross-border payment unicorn being 'annoyed' by investors and directly firing back at stablecoins.
Recently, a tweet from Airwallex CEO ignited public opinion in the crypto community unexpectedly. In this statement, this traditional finance elite questioned the value of stablecoins in terms of forex costs, clearing efficiency, and practical applications in mainstream markets, revealing a reserved and skeptical attitude toward this emerging payment tool.
Surprisingly, this statement was quickly rebutted by various parties within the crypto community. From the efficiency of on-chain settlements to payment freedoms in emerging markets, and the compliance process for stablecoins, the comments section has clearly turned into a battleground for the old and new payment systems.
This is not only a collision of viewpoints but also reveals a financial underlying logic reconstruction that is accelerating. Today, stablecoins are no longer marginal tools in the crypto space but are substantively penetrating the core scenarios of traditional finance, reshaping cost structures and clearing mechanisms, and shaking the vested interests of intermediary institutions.
Airwallex CEO publicly questions the value of stablecoins, facing multiple rebuttals.
On June 8, Airwallex co-founder and CEO Jack Zhang publicly expressed profound doubts about the value of stablecoins.
Investors always ask me about stablecoins and how they can reduce forex fees; but if you're remitting from dollars to euros, and the recipient still needs to deposit in euros into a bank account, I see no way stablecoins can lower costs—because the process of converting stablecoins to the target fiat currency often incurs higher costs than traditional interbank forex rates,” Jack Zhang stated in a tweet.
Jack Zhang further stated that he has never truly understood the cryptocurrency space; compared to technologies like AI, he has yet to see a single practical use case for cryptocurrencies in the past 15 years. In his view, this purely financial product has not created any real value for society, merely a zero-sum game. Even with the lower volatility of stablecoins, he does not believe they help B2B transactions unless they involve some very niche currencies, which already have extremely low liquidity.
Jack Zhang believes that in trading among G10 currencies, the existing financial system (like bank transfers) is already efficient enough, with costs close to free and real-time. The off-ramping costs from stablecoins to the receiving currency are far higher than interbank forex transactions. Stablecoins may provide regulatory arbitrage opportunities in emerging markets like Latin America or Africa, but their advantages in mainstream currency trading are not obvious.
In response, Simon Taylor, strategy director at crypto compliance platform Sardine, argued that Jack's understanding of stablecoins is limited to surface-level cost comparisons, ignoring their fundamental significance. The value of stablecoins does not lie in reducing off-ramping or last-mile costs. Stablecoins are not only cheaper but also better. As it stands, stablecoins are not a major transformation of financial infrastructure; they are merely another option. He believes that the upcoming U.S. regulations will be a turning point for stablecoins as a financial track.
Richard Liu, co-founder of Huma Finance, emphasized that if viewed solely from the perspective of optimizing existing forex flows, stablecoins indeed do not help much. However, he pointed out sharply, 'Don't fool yourself into thinking you've already minimized forex costs; your clients still suffer from high fees and entry barriers, and these issues are rooted in the very system you rely on—a dated and predatory banking infrastructure. Blockbuster once thought its cost structure was optimized, but its business model was built on a flawed foundation: logistics. We all know how that story ended. Stablecoins will drive the next wave of global payment waves, not as a tweak to traditional financial tracks, but as a new paradigm built on a wholly different architecture. Its rise does not depend on the participation of existing institutions, including Airwallex.'
Matt Sorg, the technical lead at the Solana Foundation, shared the progress of stablecoins in practical applications, stating that some euro stablecoins are now being gradually adopted. Converting from dollar stablecoins to euro stablecoins incurs only a few basis points of fees on-chain. Stablecoin issuers are establishing low-cost pathways from euro stablecoins to fiat bank accounts. Although there are still some costly intermediaries in this process, there are also cheaper options, as long as you know whom to approach. Essentially, different participants are addressing the cost issue at every stage.
You can easily achieve this by issuing your own stablecoin. The revenue from stablecoins is enough for you to easily subsidize zero-fee deposit and withdrawal services while also earning extra profits. Moreover, the crypto economy has essentially formed a parallel system. Once the dollar is in digital form, you can use and consume it more broadly in the crypto space. Many merchants are indeed willing to accept USDC or USDT. Eventually, you may not even need to convert it back to fiat. Furthermore, transaction fees within this parallel system are also lower,' suggested Stijn Paumen, co-founder and CEO of Helio.
Helio CEO Mert also shared personal experiences, stating that his poor experiences using the Airwallex API for cross-border transfers motivated him to delve into cryptocurrency, indirectly supporting the potential of stablecoins as an alternative solution.
When we offer a stablecoin yield of 4% annually (risk-free), users will increasingly have less motivation to convert their funds back to fiat currency. This will raise demand for the dollar and weaken demand for the euro. The more the euro depreciates, the more people will prefer to hold dollars—ultimately creating a downward spiral until everyone chooses to use only dollars. In the end, the euro will only become something Europeans have to buy to pay taxes.
Nic Carter, founding partner at Castle Island Ventures, directly criticized Jack for having a shallow understanding of stablecoins, lacking basic curiosity and comprehension.
Under the full-on assault from the crypto community, Jack Zhang's latest response stated that stablecoin wallets could serve as an alternative payment method and enhance liquidity in emerging markets. While it does have its place in the financial market, he does not believe it has any disruptive significance at any level.
From the regulatory fringe to the mainstream stage, the 'cheese' of traditional finance is being lost.
Jack Zhang's doubts reflect the general confusion and instinctive wariness of traditional finance practitioners towards the crypto world. To them, stablecoins are neither traditional currencies nor can they be classified as clear assets; they appear more like a mid-layer tool wandering at the regulatory edge. However, this seemingly marginalized financial tool is accelerating its entry into the mainstream financial view and even beginning to shake the 'cheese' that the traditional financial system relies on.
It is well known that the core value of stablecoins lies not only in their price anchoring mechanism but also in the financial structural changes they bring about. They possess characteristics such as on-chain instant clearing, global circulation, and programming logic support, and they naturally embed a dimensionality reduction attack on the existing financial 'accounts - banks - clearing network' system.
By examining cross-border payments, we can clearly see the impact stablecoins have on the old system. In the traditional financial system, cross-border remittances must navigate multiple national bank systems, clearing networks, and forex markets, often taking days, incurring high costs, and suffering from a lack of transparency. In contrast, stablecoins achieve real-time settlement and full-chain transparency through on-chain peer-to-peer transfers and smart contract clearing. This not only enhances efficiency but also serves as a paradigm shift: funds no longer rely on a banking network backed by national sovereignty but are instead held and transferred directly through on-chain addresses in an open network.
More importantly, stablecoins break the geographical limitations and threshold shackles of financial services. Because of the compliance costs, risk control restrictions, and commercial viability of traditional banks, over 1 billion people worldwide still cannot access financial services. Stablecoins enable users to gain rights for savings, payments, cross-border transactions, and participation in global financial activities through the combination of 'smartphone + digital wallet + internet,' achieving true decentralized financial inclusion. For example, in regions like Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia, more and more users are starting to use USDT and USDC for daily savings, salary settlements, goods payments, and small cross-border remittances. This is not the 'regulatory arbitrage' that Jack speaks of, but a true reflection of a new financial order taking root in marginal areas.
It is precisely for this reason that stablecoins pose a fundamental impact on traditional fintech companies.
Taking Airwallex as an example, its business model is built on connecting the existing financial network, constructing payment paths through bank accounts, the Swift network, clearinghouses, and the forex market. In contrast, stablecoins bypass this network logic, fundamentally breaking the reliance on bank accounts, clearinghouses, and forex networks. This means that stablecoins are gradually compressing the profit margins of fintech companies, and once the global compliance framework for stablecoins is established, this impact will become systematic and irreversible.
At the same time, the global trend of stablecoin compliance is gradually making them legitimate competitors in the traditional financial sector, with the U.S., Hong Kong, Singapore, and the UAE all accelerating the establishment of stablecoin regulatory standards. For instance, the U.S. is advancing the GENIUS bill to formalize stablecoins; Hong Kong's stablecoin regulation will take effect on August 1, marking a milestone in promoting the sustainable development of Hong Kong's stablecoin and digital asset ecosystem. In this process, crypto-native compliance enterprises like Circle have gained a first-mover advantage, while traditional institutions have been sluggish due to rigid internal structures and lack of technology.
Even more noteworthy is that the core user demographic of stablecoins is rapidly becoming younger. Generation Z and millennials are growing up in a digital-native environment, inherently accepting and resonating with on-chain wallets, stablecoin payments, and smart contract operations. This intrinsic digital behavior is increasingly undermining the moats of these institutions.
However, more and more traditional financial and tech giants are proactively embracing stablecoins. For example, Deutsche Bank is researching stablecoins and tokenized deposits and considering issuing tokens or joining industry initiatives; large tech companies like Apple, X, and Airbnb are in touch with crypto firms to explore stablecoin payment integration solutions; Uber is considering using stablecoins to reduce cross-border payment costs and actively evaluating their application potential; payment company Stripe is considering collaborating with banks to promote the development of stablecoin payments; and Spain's Santander Bank plans to launch stablecoins and expand cryptocurrency services... These market dynamics also indicate that stablecoins could become a core variable in reshaping the financial structure.
Overall, the debate sparked by Airwallex's questioning of stablecoins showcases the increasingly fierce competition and ideological clash between traditional finance and crypto finance. It cannot be ignored that, with the advancement of compliance processes and proactive exploration by mainstream institutions, stablecoins are gradually evolving from marginal tools into an important force in mainstream finance.
