Liu Peng revealed that the testing progress of the JD Coinlink in the "sandbox" is going smoothly, with plans to launch stablecoins pegged to the Hong Kong dollar and other currencies.

Source: Bloomberg Businessweek / Chinese Edition

Written by: Yin Chen

Edited by: Deng Yongjun

In early June this year, Liu Peng, CEO of JD Coinlink Technology (referred to as "JD Coinlink"), was interviewed by Bloomberg Businessweek / Chinese Edition. During the interview, he emphasized that stablecoins are not equivalent to cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, but are similar to mobile payments, both serving as "payment tools." As a veteran in the payment industry, Liu Peng was a core member involved in the design and promotion of "WeChat Pay." He later took charge of payment operations at large enterprises like Huawei. Now, Liu Peng says he senses a similar "feeling" to the explosive growth of mobile payments—he believes that payment-oriented stablecoins will serve as new financial infrastructure in the Web 3 era, playing a "disruptive" positive role in scenarios such as international trade.

Decentralization, low transfer costs, and transparent traceable transactions… Stablecoins pegged to fiat currencies are leveraging their many advantages to move from the crypto world into a broader traditional financial system. On May 30, Hong Kong officially published the "Stablecoin Ordinance," marking that this international financial center will clarify regulations on stablecoin activities related to Hong Kong and the Hong Kong dollar through a licensing system. As early as December 2023, Hong Kong announced it would implement a licensing system for fiat stablecoin issuers; by July 2024, three institutions, including JD Coinlink, entered the stablecoin issuer sandbox (referred to as "sandbox") launched by the Monetary Authority, where they will conduct stablecoin-related testing.

Liu Peng revealed that JD Coinlink's scenario testing in the "sandbox" is progressing smoothly, with plans to launch stablecoins pegged to the Hong Kong dollar and other currencies.

JD Coinlink was registered in Hong Kong in March 2024 and is a subsidiary of JD Technology Group, which is part of JD Group (9618.HK), a leading e-commerce company in mainland China. Although it has been established in Hong Kong for a short time, Liu Peng believes that one of JD Coinlink's first-mover advantages is having a "cold start" scenario from zero to one, namely the JD e-commerce ecosystem. The group has not disclosed the specific number of third-party merchants on the platform, but Liu Peng mentioned during the Hong Kong FinTech Week in October 2024 that if compliant stablecoins are issued, "the vast number of merchants on the JD platform" can use stablecoins to improve efficiency in upstream and downstream settlements and manage funds more flexibly overseas.

In fact, in a market where USDT and USDC account for over 80% of the dollar stablecoin share, stablecoins issued by licensed issuers in Hong Kong need to find other attractions, including use cases, in addition to their "compliance" advantages. Among them, cross-border payments are undoubtedly a place where many stablecoin issuers "show their skills." At the same time, retail payments also have positive significance in enhancing the market penetration and brand building of stablecoins.

Starting from August 1 this year, the "Stablecoin Ordinance" will officially take effect. Globally, regions such as Singapore, the European Union, and the United States have successively brought payment-oriented stablecoins under regulation, making this existing stablecoin market, currently valued at approximately $250 billion, increasingly hot.

Looking ahead, will compliant stablecoins drive a shift in payment paradigms, evolving mobile payments from "offline to online" to "online to on-chain"? Can rapidly legislating Hong Kong leverage stablecoins to consolidate and enhance its key position in international trade? In an era where stablecoins pegged to multiple currencies coexist, how will the global payment and financial systems change?

In May this year, what is the latest progress of JD stablecoin's self-testing in the "sandbox" during the second phase?

As of early June, we mainly conducted tests on the Hong Kong dollar stablecoin, and we will soon test other fiat stablecoins. Based on market demand, we expect both stablecoins to be issued simultaneously. Unlike the first phase, which mainly tested product functionality and technical details, the second phase focuses on testing the use of stablecoins in three practical scenarios: cross-border payments, investment transactions, and retail payments.

In the cross-border payment scenario, we plan to expand our user base through both direct customer acquisition and indirect customer acquisition (e.g., collaborating with compliant wholesalers). In the investment transaction scenario, we are negotiating partnerships with global compliant exchanges to launch JD stablecoins in different regions. The first retail application will be on JD's global sales platform for Hong Kong and Macau, where users can be the first to use stablecoins for shopping in JD's self-operated e-commerce scenarios.

When does JD Coinlink expect to receive the stablecoin issuer license and launch the stablecoin on compliant exchanges? What are your thoughts on the initial issuance scale?

The specific timeline depends on regulation. We expect to receive the license in early Q4 of this year and simultaneously launch the JD stablecoin. The JD stablecoin will be issued on a public chain, and at that time, anyone can publicly access data such as issuance volume.

The most notable application scenario for stablecoins currently is cross-border payments, where a large number of transactions use USDT and USDC. How can compliant stablecoins issued in Hong Kong establish a foothold in this market?

First, "compliance" itself is the core competitiveness. As regulations are implemented and business progresses, the market's understanding will gradually mature. As a newly issued compliant stablecoin, the goal of JD stablecoin is not to compete in crypto-native or investment transaction scenarios, but to explore new "battlefields," namely connecting the traditional cross-border trade settlement market. This market has a large number of physical enterprises, cross-border trade participants, and payment technology companies, all of which need safe, compliant, and transparent audit-able stablecoin services. Therefore, both in product design and customer acquisition methods, we will have certain targeted strategies. We expect that international trade in regions such as Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, Africa, South America, and Europe may be the first to use stablecoins issued in Hong Kong for payment settlements.

Many fintech companies have achieved cost reduction and efficiency improvement in cross-border payments through blockchain technology and localized strategies. Recently, founders of leading cross-border payment companies have raised doubts, arguing that stablecoins have limited value in cross-border transactions involving G10 currencies. What is your view on such opinions?

Stablecoins are a system engineering project, not determined solely by a single product. The competitiveness of compliant stablecoins lies not only in low costs, high efficiency, and good user experience but also in a stable custody mechanism, secure clearing and settlement channels, and credible operational logic to protect the rights of holders. As a stablecoin issuer, we are also willing to collaborate with cross-border payment companies to build a stablecoin ecosystem together.

Within the JD ecosystem, which segments will adopt stablecoins first? Outside of JD's existing ecosystem, how will you enhance the market acceptance of JD stablecoins?

The payment settlement scenario on JD's global sales platform for Hong Kong and Macau will be the first to use JD stablecoins. Outside of the JD ecosystem, given the differences in scenario characteristics, transaction timeliness, and fund settlement logic across industries, we plan to tailor stablecoin payment solutions for different industries. Currently, JD stablecoins will reduce transfer times from several days to seconds, with costs at least halved compared to traditional transfers, and on-chain fund turnover will also be faster. These advantages are expected to attract participants in international trade to adopt JD stablecoins.

Speaking of fund turnover, we are curious about how supply chain finance services related to cross-border payments will evolve in the era of stablecoin payments?

Stablecoin issuers can only issue stablecoins and cannot engage in pledging, lending, or paying interest. Therefore, for supply chain finance services, we will explore cooperation with licensed institutions that have the relevant qualifications. From a solution design perspective, we are sorting out the scenarios of JD's international logistics. Theoretically, with authorization from all parties, small and medium-sized enterprises going abroad can put (overseas) warehouse order data on-chain and use stablecoins for payment and financing, significantly improving the efficiency of the entire process. Of course, everything must comply with relevant laws and regulations.

Regarding payments, how do you see the differences and similarities between current stablecoin payments and mobile payments you studied years ago?

Many people misunderstand payment-oriented stablecoins as being the same as cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum; the two are completely different. The essence of Web 3 stablecoins is the same as that of Web 2 mobile payments—they are both payment tools aimed at reducing costs and improving efficiency through advanced technology and business models, enhancing user experience, and promoting inclusive finance. Just as mobile payments propelled the rapid development of the mobile internet industry, will payment-oriented stablecoins, as the infrastructure of Web 3, play a similar role?

On a technical level, unlike the centralization of mobile payments, stablecoins are based on a decentralized technical architecture; in terms of product structure, stablecoins also have an issuance system that products like "WeChat Pay" do not. Because of this, the regulation of stablecoins is relatively complex; it cannot rely solely on compliance in a single region but must coordinate global compliance implementation.

Especially in mainland China, where mobile payments have almost "replaced" cash, where might the "critical point" between stablecoins and traditional financial infrastructure lie?

In just five years, mobile payments have surpassed cash in terms of transaction volume, user coverage, and scenario penetration. One core driving factor is the low-cost proliferation of QR codes. The significant reduction in payment settlement costs, from setting up expensive POS machines to printing a few QR code stickers, has driven small and micro merchants to fully adopt mobile payments. While it may be too absolute to say that stablecoins can 100% replace the current financial infrastructure, many physical financial service scenarios will indeed undergo significant changes. From a B2B perspective, large transactions may be the first to adopt stablecoins, especially in cross-border payment scenarios where friction costs are high, exchange rate fluctuations are significant, and time is lengthy; from a B2C perspective, to fully stimulate users' motivation to use stablecoin payments, it may require a phenomenon-level product and application like "WeChat Red Envelopes" in "WeChat Pay."

As a practitioner, how do you think the ecosystem of the stablecoin industry in Hong Kong should be improved?

The key is to establish a risk-based, pragmatic, and flexible open ecosystem in accordance with the requirements of the "Stablecoin Ordinance," where regulators, issuers, wholesalers, scenario providers, users, and investors need to cooperate with each other. Fund settlement is both the final link of all businesses and the beginning of commerce. We need to seize this breakthrough point, leveraging Hong Kong's role as an international financial center and trade center to expand the circulation and usage of stablecoins issued in Hong Kong across multiple regions, further establishing Hong Kong as an international stablecoin settlement hub.

Hong Kong is not only a global trade center but also an offshore RMB hub. Will there be plans to issue offshore RMB stablecoins here?

In terms of product technology, the differences between issuing offshore RMB stablecoins and Hong Kong dollar stablecoins are not significant. Moreover, potential application scenarios for offshore RMB stablecoins already exist, such as the Belt and Road Initiative. JD Coinlink has always supported and promoted the future issuance of offshore RMB stablecoins, but we need to consider not only the business logic but also comprehensive considerations from legal and compliance perspectives. Ultimately, whether offshore RMB stablecoins can be issued still depends on mainland regulations.

免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到support@aicoin.com，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。