What happens when stablecoins stop being a convenience tool and become the backbone of global financial infrastructure? That was the central tension driving this panel at HSC Asset Management's Hong Kong 2026 conference — a gathering that brought together builders, capital market regulators, and infrastructure providers to debate exactly how far, and how fast, stablecoins can go.
Stablecoins aren't simply "digital dollars" riding on blockchain rails but are increasingly being treated as programmable monetary infrastructure. Fragmented banking rails, high remittance corridors between Southeast Asian markets, and populations with deep mobile-first financial habits create conditions where stablecoins compete with the status quo on cost, security and speed.
Alongside representatives from MakeBanc, ICMA, Stable, Hypernative and Chainlink, UR's Chief Product Officer, Ng Ying Zhong, discussed how developing a new money layer was centred on the shaping of new banking infrastructure onchain. The adoption of this infrastructure hinges on how trust is built between businesses and its users rather than solely unique, innovative features.
And that's what UR, a regulated and open financial platform that anyone can build on, brings to the table. It bridges the worlds of digital assets and traditional finance by issuing retail and corporate users personal IBANs, cards, and all that consumers can think of between stablecoins and the rest of the DeFi world.
The End of One-to-One PSP Relationships
Banking infrastructure built on blockchain allows businesses and users to connect with multiple platforms and services with just a single account layer. The growing adoption of such a layer will gradually eliminate overreliance on a single Payment Service Provider (PSP), which is common in traditional banking-as-a-service (BaaS) models. Bringing the banking stack onchain allows consumers to hold on to their onchain financial identity and access financial services provided by all these different players permissionlessly — be it exchanges, wallets or other fintech platforms.
The bet here is on a portable, sovereign financial identity: your money follows you across every platform and jurisdiction rather than being locked into each platform's walled garden. Fundamentally, we're looking at different architecture that transforms the way most people currently manage accounts across multiple banks and apps. Rather than re-onboarding and re-verifying at each institution, your on-chain identity is the credential — and regulation is what makes it trusted everywhere.
Stablecoin Adoption: Corporations Will Push the Frontier
99% of users from UR and other platforms use USDC and USDT. Supporting a diverse range of stablecoins is the long-term goal, but the use of USDC and USDT dominates as regulatory trust and traction have been built around both assets. However, when we look at this from the perspective of corporate treasuries, there is a case for custom, branded stablecoins for companies' treasury flows. Using SpaceX as an example, it worked with Bridge previously to create a stablecoin that manages supply payments and treasury management. This delivers capital efficiency and enhanced settlement flows as opposed to relying on SWIFT or ACH.
However, the ground-up proliferation of stablecoin builders is both a driver of adoption and a source of new risk vectors, bringing the focus back onto providing trust and regulatory protections for companies and users alike.
Retail Users & Stablecoins
Retail consumers are indifferent to the rails underneath their money as they're looking to receive local currencies in their named bank accounts for use. The main proliferation remains between corridors, and the flexibility businesses provide with financial services that depend on stablecoin flow design is key. Mass adoption doesn't require mass awareness; if payments cross borders via stablecoins and arrive as local currency, the user is unlikely to be concerned over what happens in the process.
One Identity, Global Reach
With UR's account layer, one identity is sufficient. It connects to multiple jurisdictions and takes users and businesses across borders with full understanding of the risk appetites of each. That's how UR is changing the landscape of existing web2 and web3 financial ecosystem — by providing every financial layer, be it identity, multi-currency tokenized deposits, fiat rails, card, or compliance, all into a single composable platform.
Watch the full panel here.
