TOKEN2049 Roundtable: Stablecoins and the Trillion-Dollar Payment Shift

ChainCatcher live report, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino, Paxos founder and CEO Charles Cascarilla, and Dragonfly general partner Rob Hadick jointly attended the TOKEN 2049 conference to share insights on the "Stablecoin and the Billion-Dollar Payment Transformation" roundtable.

Paolo Ardoino stated that USDT has 500 million users in emerging markets, with 35% using it as a savings account. 60-70% of USDT transactions involve only stablecoins themselves, indicating that it has moved beyond being merely a cryptocurrency and has become an independent form of currency. In regions with unstable currencies such as Turkey, Argentina, and Vietnam, where local currencies depreciate by as much as 50-60% annually, stablecoins provide financial stability for billions who cannot access dollars.

Charles Cascarilla pointed out that the industry has undergone a critical transformation in the past 18 months: high inflation has prompted stablecoins to start being used outside the crypto space; the U.S. government's attitude has shifted from regulatory resistance to embrace; the passage of the GENIUS Act has established a clear legal framework and set global standards. "Eight years ago, everyone was asking what the business model of stablecoins was; now every institution transferring dollars across borders is thinking about how to use it."

Rob Hadick revealed that about 10% of remittances from the U.S. to India and from the U.S. to Mexico have used stablecoins, and this $200 trillion market is eight times the size of the crypto market. "Small and medium-sized enterprises are poorly served by traditional banks; they need frictionless capital flow." Dragonfly's investment strategy focuses on companies that excel in the "last mile"—those that solve compliance issues and directly face consumers, rather than merely acting as an API aggregation intermediary.

Finally, Paolo mentioned that profits are expected to reach $30 billion in 2024, with even higher projections for 2025. There are financing plans in place, but the funding is not due to a lack of money.

The most notable initiative is the African power project: aiming to establish a decentralized power system by 2030-2031, setting up solar charging stations in villages (equipped with 300 rechargeable batteries), with a $3 monthly subscription allowing for 4 battery swaps. Currently, 500 stations have been built, serving 500,000 users, with plans to expand to 100,000-150,000 stations. "From space, Africa's nights will no longer be dark, creating a vast economy around USDT." Other areas of expansion include peer-to-peer AI, telecommunications, and social media. Paolo clearly stated that there are currently no IPO plans.