Software once devoured the world, and now stablecoins are devouring blockchain.

This time, it is not Base, nor L2, but Circle and Stripe nearly simultaneously choosing to build their own stablecoin Layer 1, completely reconstructing around stablecoins from the underlying mechanism to Gas tokens, freeing themselves from reliance on existing public chains.

💡 As banks lose their position, stablecoins pursue it together

Superficially, Circle's Arc and Stripe's Tempo are competitors to Tron and Ethereum; in reality, they are targeting the global clearing rights of the 'post-central bank—banking system', while traditional Visa and SWIFT can no longer meet the speed and efficiency required for the global circulation of stablecoins.

The history of card organizations tells us: integration is necessary to master the entire link of issuance, distribution, and collection. The first card organization, Diners Club, entered from restaurant accounting in 1950, and loyalty programs and credit systems became prototypes, eventually merging with the banking industry and breaking through regional limitations to go global. Now, stablecoin public chains are replicating this model, except their 'credit card network' is on-chain.

After the Genius Act, the operating logic of the US dollar has been rewritten—commercial banks are no longer the only creators of credit, and Tether, Circle, and others' holdings of US Treasury bonds have exceeded those of many national entities. Stablecoins connecting directly to government bonds not only impact banks but also put card organizations and cross-border payment systems at risk of survival.

In the past, users, merchants, issuers, acquirers, and card organizations were completely different roles; on a programmable blockchain, these roles can all be reduced to 'users'. Whether it is an institutional privacy vault, a corporate confidential transfer, or an individual's convenient payment, it is essentially just a different way of calling code.

Stablecoin L1 directly eliminates the necessity of intermediaries; all functionalities can be completed with just users, stablecoins, and L1, even including the compliance checks required by regulators.

🏗 Technological Innovation Leading Organizational Change

Now, rebuilding an on-chain version of Visa and distributing profits to users is no longer a fantasy.

Taking Circle as an example, before Arc, its product line was already quite extensive, and Arc integrates these functions under a unified architecture:

  • USDC/EURC/USYC: Anchored to USD, EUR, and yield-bearing stablecoins respectively

  • CPN (Cross-Border Payment Network): Similar to an on-chain version of SWIFT

  • Mint: Stablecoin Minting Entry

  • Wallet: Unified Asset Management for Users and Institutions

  • CCTP: Cross-Chain Standard

  • Gateway: Abstract Interaction Layer, Shielding Underlying Chain Details

  • Paymaster: Allows Any Token to Pay Gas

  • Arc: Native PoS (Actually DPoS) Stablecoin L1

Theoretically, Arc can reach 3000 TPS, sub-second confirmation, Gas as low as below 1U, and has built-in privacy transfer and vault modes, clearly designed to accommodate large-scale enterprise funds on-chain. Its architecture also reserves expansion interfaces for assets like RWA, is compatible with EVM, and has features like MEV protection and foreign exchange engines.

⏳ The Biggest Enemy of Stablecoin L1: Time

Visa took 50 years to build a global network, the USDT Alliance took 8 years, and Tether launched USDT 11 years ago. Stablecoin L1 needs to shorten its cycle, commonly adopting a strategy of separating 'talk' and 'action':

  • Do: First satisfy retail usage → Then open up distribution channels → Ultimately promote institutional adoption

  • Say: Highlight institutional compliance → Simultaneously popularize to the public

Although compliance is the entry point, history proves that the user base is the prerequisite for institutional adoption. The earliest large-scale users of USDT came from ordinary people in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and only now have they entered the institutional system.

📈 Market Gap for Yield-bearing Stablecoins

Under strict regulation, most stablecoins cannot pay interest directly to users. However, mechanisms like on-chain circular lending, such as USDe, have achieved issuance amounts of tens of billions of dollars in a short period, proving the enormous driving force of yield for user adoption. Revenue distribution outside the compliance framework will be the competitive arena for each player.