As the walls of traditional finance are shattered by the cannon fire of CBDCs, banking giants are tearing off their suits, charging into the stablecoin casino with trillions in ammunition—this time, they don't want to be the referees, they just want to be the house!
Recently, the central bank of South Korea's central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot project was reported by the media as a 'complete failure', with numerous system vulnerabilities, even fundamental transfers can get stuck. On the other hand, Wall Street and bank capital in Asia are like sharks smelling blood, frantically pouring funds into the stablecoin race. This plot is akin to: while the regular army is still in the trenches repairing guns, the mercenaries are already rolling over the battlefield in tanks!
Why can't CBDCs operate smoothly?
Technical failure scene: During the test of the Korean CBDC, simulating 3,000 people transferring funds caused the system to crash—this level is even worse than some second-tier exchanges. Central banks always want to use 'centralized old thinking' to manage blockchain, resulting in something like making an elephant dance ballet; the more complex the moves, the harder the fall.
Banks are secretly undermining: large banks superficially cooperate with central bank tests, but behind the scenes, they are betting all their resources on stablecoins. For instance, JPMorgan's JPM Coin has already handled hundreds of billions in institutional cross-border payments, while the Korean CBDC is still in the laboratory as a potted plant.
Why are banks going all in on stablecoins?
Case study: Last year, a certain bank in Hong Kong collaborated with a coin issuance institution to complete the USD bond settlement for a real estate company using stablecoins in 48 hours, with transaction fees only 1/10 of traditional channels. This efficiency directly makes the SWIFT system look like an old ox pulling a cart.
Real motivation: Banks have discovered that stablecoins are the 'wolves in sheep's clothing'—both compliant (backed by USD) and capable of consuming the liquidity of the cryptocurrency market. Now Goldman Sachs and HSBC are secretly building 'stablecoin liquidity pools', essentially turning depositors' savings into on-chain ammunition.
"Don't be fooled by the news of CBDCs! Central Bank Digital Currency is a KPI for bureaucrats, while stablecoins are the money printers for bankers."
Look at the market values of USDT and USDC, which have inflated by 370% to reach 130 billion USD in two years, all backed by traditional institutions:
BlackRock is supporting USDC, aiming to siphon ETF client cash using stablecoins;
Singapore's DBS Bank directly issues 'digital bonds', settling with stablecoins for an annualized return of 8%—this is clearly snatching DeFi's playbook to attract its own wealth management clients!
The key battleground in the next three years:
Regulatory arbitrage: Banks will use the identity of 'compliant stablecoins' to tokenize bonds, stocks, and even real estate (for example, UBS is testing the waters);
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