In the past few years, when people talked about stablecoins, it was more about whose dollar was more 'fragrant': whose backing was stronger, whose on-chain liquidity was deeper, and whose interest rates were better. But this year, from what Azu has observed, there is a more obvious change—the focus of the narrative has shifted from 'what coin to issue' to 'who is building the underlying operating system for these coins.' And Plasma, this new mainnet, is a typical project that 'doesn't want to be a bank but is helping everyone rewrite the underlying settlement logic of the dollar.'
First, let's take a look at the market. Plasma is a Layer 1 blockchain specifically designed for stablecoins, with a very clear route: it does not pursue 'anything can be computed,' but rather centers all computing power and protocol details around stablecoin payments. It is based on PlasmaBFT (derived from HotStuff consensus), with block times within a few seconds, and throughput capable of supporting global-level high-frequency transfers; more crucially, it treats stablecoins like USD₮0 as 'default assets' from the design level, including zero-fee USDT transfers, customizable gas tokens, and confidential payments under compliance, all written into the chain's rules.
The rhythm of the mainnet launch is also very aggressive. The official and partners planned approximately $2 billion worth of USDT₀ liquidity as a starting point before the TGE, treating it as both Gas and a valuation unit; as incentives and collaborations progressed, the supply of USDT₀ has now been pushed to around $5 billion, directly becoming the 'unified currency layer' for AMM, lending, and payments in the Plasma ecosystem. This completely reverses the traditional public chain model of 'first having tokens and then slowly waiting for money to come in', resembling a situation where the dollar flow is first supported to a certain scale before applications and yields are added on top.
From the perspective of on-chain rules, Plasma has made moves in two areas. First, it has shattered the default formula of 'Gas = native token'. Through the Paymaster and custom Gas token mechanism, users can complete transfers and contract interactions by holding only USDT₀, with the protocol handling the fee settlement for you, meaning new users no longer need to acquire a bunch of native tokens before transferring their first funds. Second, it has included 'confidential payments but auditable' as a goal in its roadmap, reserving space for finer-grained privacy design for certain compliance scenarios while maintaining EVM compatibility. These two points combined are crucial rule rewrites for stablecoins to genuinely move towards high-frequency payments—attempting to bridge the gap from tool usage thresholds to regulatory experiences, all in an effort to align with the real world.
Looking at the XPL token itself, it is clear that it is not just born for 'listing on exchanges'. On one hand, according to Binance's announcement, the total supply of XPL is 10 billion tokens, with an inflation open-ended limit, but there is an approximate 'halving' release curve: a maximum issuance of 5% in the first year, followed by a decrease of 0.5% per year, converging around 3%. At the time of listing, only 18% was in circulation, with subsequent gradual releases through staking, security incentives, and ecological incentives. On the other hand, Binance has specifically allocated 1% of the total supply (100 million XPL) as rewards for Plasma USDT on-chain yield products, and set aside 0.75% for HODLer Airdrop, along with subsequent rounds of marketing allocations, effectively tying the early TVL growth and user education all under the main line of XPL.
In other words, the 'transfer' and 'release' of stablecoins on chain have been divided into two layers of incentive structures by Plasma: the underlying layer is USDT₀ as fuel and liquidity skeleton, while the upper layer is XPL as security and ecological incentive chips. The more USDT you lock in, participate in lending, market-making, and bridging, the more XPL you can earn; conversely, XPL can also participate in staking and governance, contributing to the security of the chain. Some third-party platforms have even offered close to 20% nominal staking yields on XPL to attract early holders to participate in network security, which is essentially a typical PoS startup model of 'high inflation trading time for network effects'.
Launching on-chain is not as simple as issuing tokens to pump the market; this time, the six-month incentive plan jointly developed by Plasma and Merkl is definitely worth discussing separately. The official budget for XPL incentives was handed over to a professional incentive hub like Merkl for distribution, spreading rewards across an entire blue-chip DeFi chain: deployments on Plasma like Aave, Uniswap, Curve, Balancer, Euler, and Fluid are all included in the rewards pool. At the same time, in the governance discussions of the Uniswap community, a budget of up to $5 million for XPL was specifically proposed to target several key pools for incentives, such as XPL/USD₮0, ETH/USD₮0, weETH/USD₮0, and XAUT/USD₮0. The purpose of this design is very clear: to prioritize linking 'USD-mainstream assets' trading and interest rate curves, rather than first trying to deepen a bunch of meme coins.
If we say that the chain itself is writing the 'liquidation kernel', then Plasma One is writing the 'USD frontend'. This application, officially defined as a 'stablecoin-native new bank', has achieved a valuation of approximately $373 million, focusing on one thing: allowing stablecoin holders to deposit, spend, transfer, and earn all in one App. It is open to over 150 countries and regions, and users can spend with the Plasma One card in all Visa-supported scenarios, receiving up to 4% cashback; at the same time, the card is linked to a USD account that automatically earns interest, targeting an annualized rate in the range of 10%, combining the 'yield account' and 'daily consumption account' directly.
Interestingly, Plasma One does not intend to dominate alone; it is starting to disassemble this 'new bank for stablecoins' architecture into components for external authorization. In the introduction on Binance Square, Plasma One is divided into three pillars: payment and card, automated yield accounts, and zero-fee on-chain transfers. After being opened to the public, other wallets, trading platforms, and payment companies can directly access this infrastructure, allowing them to develop a combination of 'USD accounts + cards + on-chain yields' in their own products, without having to start from scratch discussing issuing institutions, compliance, and clearing banks. The logic behind this is to make stablecoins a 'financial module' that can be infinitely embedded, rather than assets that only exist in exchanges and DeFi interfaces.
From the perspective of ecological distribution, Plasma is currently clearly supporting three types of roles. The first type is CEX and entry points, a typical example being the on-chain USDT yield product launched in cooperation with Binance Earn, where the initial locked amount of $250 million was quickly snatched up, and later an airdrop of 100 million XPL was distributed to users based on holding snapshots, effectively using centralized distribution to carry out a cold start education of on-chain infrastructure. The second type is on-chain protocols and liquidity providers, ranging from lending protocols like Aave to AMMs like Uniswap/Balancer, and even to protocols like Maple that focus on institutional loans, all of which have established reward pathways based on XPL. The third type consists of wallets and payment partners, such as Bitget Wallet, treating the Plasma mainnet as a solid layer for directly transferring USDT₀ and XPL, giving stablecoin users originally distributed across multiple chains an opportunity to operate uniformly on a dedicated network.
Many people will ask: this 'zero fee + high yield + large volume' model sounds attractive, but is it sustainable? Azu's view is a bit more conservative. Plasma treats stablecoins as network fuel and settlement resources, and in the short term, it can indeed push the TVL from hundreds of millions to billions through inflation subsidies and large-scale incentives, but in the long term, it relies on three conditions: first, whether the inflation of XPL can gradually be reduced to the level just needed for network security and ecological development, so that holders do not turn into 'short-term traders looking to profit just once'; second, whether on-chain yields can gradually shift from subsidies to genuine business needs, such as institutional lending rates and cross-border settlement fee differentials, rather than forever relying on project parties to inject money into the pool; third, the regulatory environment's attitude towards stablecoins, especially USDT, cannot change drastically, otherwise the entire chain will be affected by 'upstream policies'.
For different types of users, the practical impact of these rule changes varies. For ordinary investors who want to make their USDT work more efficiently, Plasma currently offers a new path that is 'frontend, yield, and incentives': by using familiar interfaces like Binance Earn to direct funds to on-chain USDT₀ yield products, while also getting an extra XPL airdrop, but you need to understand the lock-up period, yield calculation methods, and the platform's credit risks; you can't just focus on the phrase '1% total airdrop'. For seasoned players accustomed to on-chain operations, what deserves attention about Plasma is the user experience that no longer requires you to buy a bunch of native tokens before making transactions, as well as the comprehensive yield curve after layering XPL incentives on protocols like Aave and Uniswap—however, it's recommended to start by using only a small portion of your USDT for testing, to experience the liquidation speed, bridging experience, and ecological depth before considering long-term liquidity migration.
If you are on the product or institutional business side, this wave of transformation is even more worth sitting down and calculating carefully. Plasma actually provides a 'USD internet interface': you can completely treat it as a module that can be embedded in an App, allowing your users to open a 'Plasma USD account' in their wallets, backed by zero-fee transfers, on-chain yields, and potential card payment capabilities. For cross-border e-commerce, remote team payroll, and global SaaS, if these types of modules mature, they can significantly simplify the cost of dialogue with banks. However, the threshold is not low; you need to evaluate factors including chain security, the strength and reputation of compliance partners, and the ability to bear the concentration risk of USDT, etc., which are not suitable for 'trying for two days today and going all in next week'.
Azu's own conclusion is that Plasma has grasped precisely the hardest part of the evolution of stablecoins—the challenge is not issuing tokens, nor creating one isolated financial product after another, but rather attempting to combine a 'USD on-chain version' bank account, liquidation network, and payment network into a single infrastructure. In this system, USDT₀ acts as fuel and accounting unit, XPL provides security and incentives, while Plasma One and various partners handle frontend distribution, repackaging the USD scenarios that were originally scattered across CEXs, wallets, and on-chain protocols. How far this path can ultimately go still needs time to validate, but what can be confirmed is: whoever turns this 'USD operating system' into a de facto standard will gain a higher voice in the next round of global capital flows.
