On July 10, a study session of the Party Committee focused on cryptocurrencies and stablecoins stirred considerable ripples in the financial circle. After the meeting, rumors emerged such as 'cryptocurrencies will be fully liberalized' and 'stablecoins should be benchmarked against Bitcoin,' causing market fluctuations.
So, what important signals did this meeting convey? This article provides an in-depth analysis.
Focusing on three major scenarios to boost the real economy.
This meeting emphasizes the need to focus on exploring the applications of 'cross-border payments, supply chain finance, and asset digitalization,' directly addressing the urgent needs of physical enterprises.
In the cross-border payment scenario, the main difficulties lie in low payment efficiency and compliance regulatory restrictions. According to data from the Kunming Daily, traditional cross-border trade takes an average of 2 days, with fees as high as 5%-7%, resulting in lengthy processes and potential currency exchange risks. Additionally, due to varying compliance requirements among countries, enterprises must invest significant human, material, and financial resources to cope.
It is reported that the Shanghai Free Trade Zone plans to adopt a dual-chain collaborative design of 'trade chain (certificate document hash) + financial chain (processing settlement).' This model can not only automatically execute foreign exchange verification and verify in real-time through smart contracts but also effectively avoid related policy risks.
The issues in supply chain finance scenarios are mostly concentrated in data fragmentation and technical bottlenecks. The head of Huaxia Bank pointed out that the cost of authenticity verification accounts for 15% of the financing amount, and credit for suppliers below the second tier cannot be transmitted. Additionally, domestic supply chain finance's smart contracts are generally rigid and difficult to adapt to complex scenarios. Since the beginning of 2025, disputes caused by smart contract defects have accounted for 12% of the total orders.
The method led by state-owned enterprises (such as SAIC and Baowu), converting core enterprises' accounts payable into on-chain tokens, may become the key to breaking the deadlock. At that time, small and medium-sized enterprises can achieve T+0 financing with tokens, shortening the financing cycle from 30-60 days to real-time, addressing the issue of high financing costs caused by fragmented data.
In the asset digitalization scenario, the ambiguity of legal confirmation boundaries and the lack of liquidity are pressing issues that need to be addressed. For example, assets such as real estate and intellectual property lack on-chain confirmation standards, and the project valuation system has yet to be perfected. Most physical enterprises have high-quality assets such as infrastructure, land, and real estate, but due to regulatory restrictions, these assets have long lacked liquidity, making it difficult to release their value.
The 'COSCO Shipping Technology Project' piloted in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone offers insights; its fusion model of 'asset tokenization + REITs valuation' provides a reliable confirmation standard for RWA projects, compressing buyer premiums to within 5%.
With the continued advancement of stablecoin layout by the Shanghai SASAC, we have reason to expect greater potential in three major scenarios:
· Importers submit trade documents through the free trade zone's 'single window,' after which the system automatically verifies the authenticity of the documents and triggers foreign exchange settlement, effectively reducing exchange rate fluctuation risks.
· Enterprises will put accounts receivable on the chain for confirmation, converting them into standardized, traceable, and verifiable digital assets, enhancing financing efficiency.
· Converting physical assets into divisible, tradable digital rights certificates reduces investment thresholds, ensures automatic compliance clearing, and revitalizes enterprises' 'sleeping capital.'
Insist on the deep integration of chain technology and ecology.
The three major scenarios mentioned in the meeting are not new concepts, but have long been laid out. However, reviewing relevant pilot projects, there have been both successes and failures. The core issue enterprises urgently need to consider is how to find a sustainable path to break the deadlock.
Successful case 1: Guotai Junan's blockchain carbon finance management system.
The enterprise transformed its original trade system by implementing automatic confirmation and circulation of carbon assets through smart contracts, increasing the scale of carbon repurchase assets to 100 million yuan. The key to its success lies in deeply coupling blockchain technology with carbon trading rules, addressing the traditional carbon market's liquidity issues.
Successful case 2: The cooperation between Ant Chain and Hainan Huatie.
The project achieves cross-border asset circulation by putting engineering machinery data on the chain, and through ecological integration capabilities, the equipment rental rate increased to 85%.
Failed case 1: Lakara's 'Cross-Border Payment通.'
Lakara's 'Cross-Border Payment通' applied its self-developed blockchain clearing system, but its cross-border payment business still relied on traditional POS hardware revenue and failed to establish data interoperability with logistics and e-commerce platforms. When Ant Chain achieved full-chain visibility by integrating Cainiao logistics data, Lakara's market share plummeted from 18% in 2023 to 9% in 2025, with a 47% drop in profits from cross-border payment business.
Failed case 2: The smart warehouse of a state-controlled fund platform in an eastern province.
Although the project also relies on asset tokenization, issuing ABS for the same batch of cold chain equipment to multiple financial institutions led to a 30% repetition of underlying asset pledges, ultimately halted by the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission.
Additionally, a representative example is the COSCO Shipping Technology 'Ship Vision Treasure' project. In the early stages of the project, due to the lack of data interface connections with ports, freight forwarders, and insurance providers, the value of data could not be verified. During a certain typhoon event in 2023, the failure to synchronize ship maintenance records in real-time resulted in a direct loss of 230 million yuan, causing the project to stall. Subsequently, the COSCO Shipping Technology 'Ship Vision Treasure' project 'actively sought change' and effectively pushed forward the assetization of shipping data based on IoT + blockchain, completing cross-border trade settlements under the RDA (real data assets) framework, ultimately enhancing the transparency and traceability of cross-border trade.
Analysis shows that failed projects often suffer from common issues of 'technical self-indulgence, data fragmentation, and regulatory disconnect.' Enterprises cannot operate in isolation; they must pay attention to the connections between upstream, midstream, and downstream in the industry, and build mutually cooperative diversified business models within the scenario ecosystem to enhance competitiveness.
Dual-track settlement: the key to breaking the payment bottleneck.
Whether enhancing transaction efficiency, optimizing scenario applications, or improving the confirmation system, all rely on the core support of the payment link. Hence, the 'stablecoin real-time settlement + digital RMB final clearing' dual-track model becomes the key solution proposed at the meeting.
Why establish a dual-track system? What is its underlying operational logic? What benefits does this bring to the future development of landing scenarios?
Firstly, the emergence of stablecoins complements the disadvantages of digital RMB, breaking through the limitations of a single currency system through a mechanism of 'sovereign credit + market efficiency.'
Cross-border settlement of digital RMB relies on inter-central bank cooperation mechanisms, and the process is lengthy (e.g., 'digital currency bridge' requires reconciliation among multiple central banks). Stablecoins based on private chain technology can achieve cross-border micro-payments with seconds-level arrival, costing only 1% of traditional trade route fees.
Secondly, the dual-track model is conducive to achieving risk isolation and functional synergy. The digital RMB relies on a centralized system from the central bank to handle large-scale compliant cross-border payments (such as public settlements in the free trade zone). Compliant stablecoins operate based on alliance chain technology, achieving small, high-frequency on-chain circulation through smart contracts (such as cross-border e-commerce settlements). The dual-layer operating structure ensures the controllability of monetary sovereignty; isolating the main account of the digital RMB from the stablecoin sub-accounts also enhances security.
In the past, when Chinese enterprises remitted 5,000 yuan to the United States (which ultimately arrived in US dollars), they had to go through steps such as 'payment bank review → agent bank renminbi → dollar exchange → SWIFT sends MT103 message → intermediary bank clearing → receiving bank posting,' taking about 2 working days, with a relatively cumbersome process.
Today, the dual-track model is like an international high-speed rail. Domestic enterprises can convert stablecoins and make one-click payments, with efficient transmission based on the 'dual-track' to various countries, where 'settlement gates' uniformly allocate settlements, eliminating traditional intermediary processes. Enterprises can also flexibly choose settlement tools; digital RMB meets domestic procurement needs, while stablecoins support on-chain transactions with emerging markets abroad, satisfying global trade needs without the need to open multiple national accounts, truly achieving the goal of 'multi-dimensional reduction of settlement costs.'
The dual-track model not only provides low-cost settlement solutions for import and export enterprises but also opens up 'zero-threshold' channels for external communication for small and medium-sized enterprises. The savings can be invested in promotion, product optimization, and other areas, further enhancing the enterprise's hard power.
Conclusion:
The core of the Shanghai SASAC meeting lies in: embracing innovation under prudent regulation and focusing on pain point scenarios to seek breakthroughs. By prioritizing cross-border payments, supply chain finance, and asset digitalization, and innovatively proposing a dual-track payment model of 'stablecoin real-time settlement + digital RMB final clearing,' it aims to inject efficiency and vitality into the real economy. The key value of this model lies in its integration of market efficiency and sovereign credit protection.
At the same time, the conference outlined a clear path for related enterprises: the vitality of technology lies in its deep integration into the ecosystem, breaking down data barriers, and achieving seamless collaboration between technology and business scenarios is key to success or failure.
In summary, Shanghai's cutting-edge practices not only serve itself but also provide a highly valuable 'Shanghai sample' for the digital transformation of the real economy and the innovation of cross-border financial infrastructure nationwide.