Welcome to another edition of The Weekly Stable, the essential source of stablecoin news coverage for global fintech professionals, brought to you by This Week in Fintech.

This week we cover:

• China’s stablecoin strategy via Hong Kong
• Key takeaways from our StableCon Salon panel on Private Credit
• Product launches, partnerships and regulatory news from Ant International, Japan Post Bank, Jupiter, Keyrails, M0, Ondo Finance, Rain, Reflect Money, Utila and more.

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🏆 Top Stories

Hong Kong Opens Stablecoin Licensing, But High Bar Slows Entry

Hong Kong launched its first stablecoin licensing regime on Aug 1, drawing 77 applicants including Bank of China, Standard Chartered, JD.com, and Ant Group. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) will approve only a “handful” in early 2026, requiring HK$25M ($3.2M) in capital, liquid reserve assets, and strict KYC checks. Shares of Bank of China Hong Kong rose 6.7% on license rumors.

Why it matters: 

Hong Kong is positioning itself as China’s crypto testbed and Asia’s first jurisdiction with a central-bank-run stablecoin regime. But progress will be cautious.

• Institutional tilt: Rules mirror bank standards, favoring large incumbents over startups.
• Offshore RMB ambitions: Success with HKD- or USD-backed tokens could pave the way for a yuan stablecoin, but only after HK’s pilot proves safe.
• Regulatory caution from Beijing: Former PBOC governor Zhou Xiaochuan warned that stablecoins could fuel speculation, fraud, and systemic instability, arguing China’s QR/NFC payments are already efficient.
• Compliance over speed: The high bar deters small players but builds resilience and trust, in contrast to the faster U.S. rollout under the GENIUS Act.
• Market signal: 77 applicants show demand, but scarcity of licenses will make early approvals significant.

China’s strategy is emerging as “prudent experimentation”: Hong Kong licenses a few well-capitalized issuers while Beijing debates whether stablecoins are even necessary. This conservative tradeoff is consistent with Beijing’s cautious approach to financial regulation. At the same time, it highlights how rapid U.S. adoption is forcing global players to engage with stablecoins, if only to ensure they are not left behind in what could prove a strategically important financial technology.

Stablecoins & Private Credit: Key Takeaways from StableCon Salon

It was great seeing everybody at the StableCon Salon in New York last night, powered by Avalanche. This month’s theme was “The New Engine of Private Credit: Stablecoins and On-Chain Finance.”

I had the pleasure of moderating a panel with Lily Yarborough (Valinor), Farooq M. (Rain), Juan Montero (Fence), and Morgan Krupetsky (Ava Labs), where we explored how stablecoins are reshaping private credit, from programmatic capital flows to new ways of distributing credit, and what that means for efficiency, access, and innovation in global markets.

Here were some of the key takeaways:

Opportunities

• Programmable money: Stablecoins allow repayments, interest, and settlement to be automated, reducing friction and unlocking new forms of credit facilities.
• Composability of products: On-chain rails let you stitch together lending, payments, and collateral in ways that don’t exist in TradFi, enabling entirely new borrower and investor experiences.
• Efficiency gains: Daily or even intraday funding cycles are now possible versus legacy weekly/biweekly settlement, improving liquidity and reducing operational overhead.

Barriers

• Onboarding capital: Moving money into private credit pools remains cumbersome, with exchanges and banks still treating flows as speculative rather than productive lending activity.
• Privacy and compliance: Institutions need confidence they can transact on-chain without exposing sensitive borrower or deal data, while still meeting audit and regulatory requirements.
• Data standards: The market lacks shared frameworks for credit history and defaults, making underwriting fragmented and exposing protocols to risk.

Adoption Path

• Near-term wins: Faster settlement, liquidity access, and lower operational costs are already resonating with borrowers and lenders.
• Medium-term unlocks: Privacy-preserving infrastructure and standardized data sharing will be critical for scaling institutional participation.
• How to sell it: Institutions respond to practical value, cheaper, faster, more flexible credit flows, rather than ideology, making product-market fit more tangible.

It was a great crowd, and I’m looking forward to connecting with people at more events in the future.

If you’re building or investing in private credit I’d love to chat. Find my details here.

Read on for a round up of this week’s news:

🚀 Product Announcements & Partnerships

Japan Post Bank ($1.3T deposits) to launch tokenized yen in 2026 (read more)

Ant International Completes Real-Time FX Blockchain Settlement in Asia Through Kinexys by J.P. Morgan (read more)

Energy giant PetroChina tests stablecoins to speed up cross-border oil trade (read more)

Ondo Finance launches tokenized US stocks for non-US investors (read more)

Jupiter partners with Fluid to Lend, a money market on Solana (read more)

Ethena’s USDe stablecoin surges to $12 billion supply, fueled by leveraged yield loops on Pendle and Aave (read more)

Keyrails enables non custodial access to tokenized U.S. Treasuries and AAA-rated CLOs (read more)

Stablecoins and AI Could Drive Post-Trade Shakeup, Citi Survey (read more)

💸 Fundraises and M&A

Crypto industry on pace to break 2021 fundraising record (read more)

Rain Raises $58M Series B Led By Sapphire Ventures (read more)

M0 Raises $40M Series B led by Polychain and Ribbit Capital (read more)

Reflect Money raises $3.75M, led by a16z Crypto, to build yield-bearing stablecoin infra on Solana (read more)

Utila 'triples' valuation with $22M Series A extension round (read more)

⚖️ Regulatory Developments

Former China central bank chief challenges need for stablecoin adoption (read more)

Stablecoins are going to replace failed currencies, says former CFTC chairman (read more)

Yen-Backed Stablecoin Can’t Come at a Better Time As Top Economists and Bankers Expect Bank of Japan to Raise Rates (read more)

China’s incubating crypto in Hong Kong but the city’s strict rules are frustrating entry (read more)

US Federal Reserve to hold conference with focus on stablecoins, tokenization (read more)

📖 Reads of the Week

In Situating Stablecoins in the Payments Landscape, Nic Carter, Partner at Castle Island Ventures, provides a range of helpful charts that articular how he positions stablecoins within global payments taxonomies, arguing they are “the platypus of payments” by combining properties of cash, wires, and card networks.

Bitso Business surveyed more than 1,300 to produce their new report: Stablecoins Landscape in Latin America (first half of 2025), revealing continued rapid growth in the use of stablecoins by businesses in the region.