The chairman of Mega International Commercial Bank compared stablecoins to EasyCards, conveying the arrogance of traditional financial regulators who underestimate blockchain technology, and causing Taiwan to miss the strategic foresight for next-generation financial infrastructure. This article reveals how this 'cognitive warfare' is pushing Taiwan to the margins of the global digital economy. (Background: Bloomberg Opinion: Hong Kong taxis demonstrate a perfect case of 'stablecoins in daily life') (Background Supplement: Deloitte Survey: 99% of CFOs will adopt cryptocurrency long-term, with stablecoins and Bitcoin receiving significant attention) The original letter is provided by Eric Jiang, who has served in Taiwan's public banks for over 15 years and is currently the head of blockchain and compliance for a foreign bank. This article has been edited and translated by the editorial team of Blocktempo and does not represent Blocktempo's position. When a chairman of a financial holding company, who manages assets worth trillions, compares a global financial instrument with a market value of over $260 billion and daily trading volumes reaching hundreds of billions of dollars to a traffic card held by everyone, this is not just an inaccurate comment, but a wake-up call. It warns us that Taiwan's leadership is still anchored in the harbor of the previous era when facing the wave of next-generation financial infrastructure. More importantly, this chairman and the associated conservative representatives are still exchanging opinions with virtual asset and financial technology discussion groups and officials from the Financial Supervisory Commission, which is affecting the progress of one of Taiwan's potentially most important financial bills in recent years, the 'Stablecoin Act'. Recently, Mr. Dong Ruibin, chairman of Mega International Commercial Bank, bluntly stated that stablecoins lack practicality for consumers and asserted that there is no space for them to survive in Taiwan. This statement comes from a significant figure in the financial industry who often interacts with Taiwan's regulatory bodies and central bank. His influence on regulations and supervision cannot be underestimated. However, this seemingly pragmatic metaphor commits a fundamental 'category error,' a cognitive misalignment that equates rockets with motorcycles in commentary. This thinking also seems to reflect the fundamental reason why Taiwan currently appears to be making 'progress' in virtual asset regulations while actually staying in place and may become our biggest stumbling block in participating in the global digital economy. Is the EasyCard a digital stablecoin? A fundamental misunderstanding of financial technology Comparing stablecoins to EasyCards commits the most basic 'category error.' It not only misses the forest for the trees but also equates a spaceship ready to explore a new continent with a shuttle that can only circle around various docks. The EasyCard is essentially a 'limited balance payment tool.' Its core function is small, near-end value transfer, changing our 'payment action' from taking out cash to card sensing. Its usage is limited to within Taiwan, and its system is centralized, requiring every transaction to be cleared through the EasyCard Company and partner banks. The profit model for issuing card manufacturers is based on the average balance held by customers multiplied by the number of customers, to obtain short-term funds for project investment or financial arbitrage. Its risk lies in the credit of the issuing institution, making the core of regulation to ensure the safety of 'stored value,' such as requiring banks to trust and use funds specifically for this purpose. By 2025, there are expected to be approximately 194 million electronic stored value cards circulating in Taiwan, with about 13.8 million active cards, forming a mature and large local payment ecosystem, but compared to stablecoins, that is all there is. Stablecoins, fundamentally, are not 'limited balance payment tools'; they are 'programmable financial infrastructures.' Their birth is to create a low-volatility, high-liquidity 'value medium' on a global blockchain network. They change not the action of paying, but the 'nature and flow of value.' The flow of stablecoins is peer-to-peer, available 24/7, crossing borders. They bypass the numerous layers of traditional banking clearing networks (such as SWIFT). The core difference lies in 'programmability'—developers can build various automated financial applications on top of stablecoins, such as instant cross-border payroll settlements, automated payments in supply chain finance, automated claims in insurance, seamless trading in decentralized exchanges (DEXs), and the realization of automated arbitrage, among others. Those needing liquidity obtain stablecoins from issuers, while stablecoins achieve large-scale reserve guarantees and profitability through investments in short-term treasury bills and short-term commodities, which is entirely different from the profit model of small-value EasyCard issuers, differing entirely in customer-to-cash flow generation and risk. According to data, the global stablecoin market's total market value exceeded $267 billion in 2025, with daily on-chain real payment volumes reaching $20 to $30 billion. Payment giants such as Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal are actively laying out stablecoin settlement networks. This is a completely different species from EasyCards in terms of scale, level, and application potential. Chairman Dong Ruibin's judgment of stablecoins as 'interest-free,' 'less convenient than credit cards,' and 'unlikely to become popular in Taiwan' is akin to a self-proclaimed military expert criticizing an F-35 fighter jet for 'lacking a cup holder' and 'having too little rear seat space,' entirely misplacing the evaluation criteria. His belief that Taiwanese consumers do not need stablecoins stems from a long-term arrogance and detachment created in an ivory tower. In reality, USDT has long been the mainstream in Taiwan's underground trading, already integrated into public life. However, Taiwan's regulations later prohibited private trading of USDT to combat fraud, leaving no legal channel for offline transactions. Whether this involves constitutional issues needs to be studied and clarified by the legal system, and we will not discuss it too much here. However, it can be seen that the bureaucrats drafting the laws are quite detached from the lives of the public. Even more overlooked is how Taiwan's industry and economy will be disrupted by this entirely new global financial underlying agreement. Just because you do not need it, or you think Taiwan does not need it, does not mean that foreign investors and tourists coming to Taiwan do not need it. As China accelerates the deployment of stablecoin legislation through Hong Kong and South Korea's Lee Jae-myung and Trump, such arguments of 'Taiwan does not need it' and 'EasyCard is better and earlier' are merely an old theory of flaunting credentials, fundamentally unable to align with the world. The border disappears in the world of stablecoins: Taiwan is losing 'currency discourse power.' Dong Ruibin's second blind spot is his extremely inward-looking perspective of 'domestic consumers.' He accurately analyzes the conflict of interest between issuers and users (issuers can earn interest on reserve assets) but completely overlooks the global power shift triggered by stablecoins: from 'sovereign currency' to a 'supra-sovereign currency network' dominated by tech companies or decentralized protocols. Ironically, Dong Ruibin himself mentioned that China and Hong Kong are actively developing stablecoins to compete for 'currency discourse power.' This observation may be correct, but he failed to apply this insight to himself and think about Taiwan's position in this game. As global digital trade, cross-border e-commerce, and remote work become increasingly prevalent, businesses and individuals are seeking the lowest friction and highest efficiency settlement tools. If a Taiwanese software company has employees or clients across Europe, America, and Southeast Asia, what it needs most is a channel that can receive US dollars or euros instantly and at low cost. This channel will not be the traditional wire transfer, which is costly and time-consuming, or even the EasyCard, but is very likely to be USDC or EURC stablecoins based on Ethereum or Solana networks. As this trading model becomes the norm, a new form of 'digital dollarization' is emerging.

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