Liu Qiangdong announced efforts to stabilize the currency, and the big factory found a "new gold mine"

Author:Su Zihua

Editor: Jingyu

Stablecoins are popular.

It is perhaps the hottest technology concept outside of AI throughout June. The enthusiasm of Internet giants for stablecoins has brought them back to the mainstream vision.

On June 17, 2025, Liu Qiangdong, Chairman of the Board of Directors of JD.com, said at a sharing meeting: "JD.com will apply for a stablecoin license in major currencies around the world, with the goal of reducing the cost of cross-border payments by 90% and increasing the transfer time to within 10 seconds."

This may be the first time that the founder or CEO of a major Chinese Internet manufacturer has expressed its layout in cryptocurrency in public .

Stablecoins are essentially also cryptocurrencies.

Unlike cryptocurrencies with drastic price fluctuations such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, stablecoins keep prices stable by anchoring fiat currencies (such as US dollar, Hong Kong dollar, etc.) or assets.

Its main advantages are cost and efficiency. According to a survey by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the cross-border payment efficiency of stablecoins can be 100 times higher than traditional payments and more than 10 times lower.

This financial technology track, which has been surviving in the "gray zone" in the past and on the edge of niche, is breaking out. According to public data, in May 2025, the total market value of the global stablecoin market exceeded US$246.3 billion, an increase of nearly 50 times from 2019.

Not only that, on June 5, the first stablecoin concept stock, Circle, was listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock price soared 168% on the first day, with a market value exceeding US$18.3 billion, and its employees were less than 1,000 . Circle's listing has also added great confidence to other stablecoin companies. Recently, major technology manufacturers such as Ant Group, Walmart, and Amazon have been actively promoting their respective stablecoin projects.

In 2014, when JD.com went public in the United States, Liu Qiangdong admitted that the biggest mistake was that he did not make payments early, and was far behind by Alipay and WeChat Pay.

Nowadays, under the wave of cross-border e-commerce and going overseas, with the arrival of large manufacturers, stablecoins have become a new trend that cannot be missed in the payment field.

In the future, how will the picture of buying overseas goods with stablecoins and cross-border transfers become a reality step by step? Will stablecoins become the next main battlefield for giants?

01 What is JD’s stablecoin?

According to information exposed by JD.com, JD.com's stablecoin, called JD-HKD, is a cryptocurrency pegged to the Hong Kong dollar (HKD). In other words, for each stablecoin issued, there are high liquidity assets of HK$1 (cash, treasury bonds, etc.) of equivalent value, which are custodianized by licensed banks and audited regularly.

JD Stablecoin is issued in Hong Kong by JD Coin Chain Technology (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of JD.com.

The company was registered in March 2024 and holds licenses No. 1, 4 and 9 issued by the Hong Kong Securities and Exchange Commission. Its business covers securities trading, asset management and blockchain technology development.

JD Stablecoin Official Website｜Picture Source: Internet

At present, JD.com has entered the second phase of the "stablecoin issuer sandbox" test of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. ("Sandbox" is the Hong Kong Monetary Authority that allows institutions interested in issuing stablecoins in Hong Kong to test their operating plans, which facilitates two-way communication to explore the implementation of compliance regulatory systems)

So, what is the purpose of JD.com’s stablecoin?

Liu Peng, CEO of JD Coin Chain Technology, explained the application scenarios that JD stablecoin is being tested in May, mainly including cross-border payments, investment transactions, retail payments, etc.

Combined with the public information, the details are as follows:

• In terms of cross-border payments, currently, cross-border payments mainly rely on the SWIFT system, and their cross-border transfers take 2-4 days, and the fees account for 1-3% of the transaction volume. Stablecoins can reduce time to seconds and reduce costs by 90% .

• In terms of investment transactions, JD.com is working with compliant cryptocurrency exchanges to support institutions and retail investors in digital asset transactions and provide stable pricing and settlement tools.

• In terms of retail payment, we connect with e-commerce platforms such as JD.com and Hong Kong and Macao Station to try to support consumers to pay directly with JD-HKD.

It is not difficult to see that JD.com's payment ambitions cover both the B-end and the C-end.

As Liu Qiangdong said in his sharing on June 17, "After the B-side payment is completed, we will penetrate into the C-side payment. I hope that one day everyone can use JD stablecoin to pay when spending around the world."

The impact of stablecoins on the traditional payment system brings opportunities to e-commerce giants, which means lower transaction costs, faster capital flow, and the opportunity to overtake in the cross-border trade market .

In addition, stablecoins themselves are also a business with high profit margins.

Taking Circle, which has just listed stocks soared, as an example, the net profit in 2023 was US$268 million and the net profit in 2024 was US$156 million.

Circle's main sources of income are:

1. Reserve interest income: Users purchase fiat currency funds from stablecoins. Circle can invest in low-risk assets (such as US Treasury bonds) to earn interest spreads. According to the financial report, this revenue accounted for 99% of the total revenue in 2024. It also shows the high dependence of its business model on interest rates . 2. Transaction fee: Service fees are charged for cross-border payment, currency exchange and other scenarios.

This allows you to compare the business model of JD.com's stablecoin, which will not be expanded here.

02 Big companies compete for stablecoins, gathering in Hong Kong

JD.com is not the only giant targeting stablecoins. The global Internet and financial giants have already heard of the news.

For example, in June, Ant International and Ant Digital announced that they would apply for stablecoin licenses in Hong Kong and Singapore. Ant Digital has set up Hong Kong as its global headquarters and tested stablecoin applications in a regulatory sandbox, focusing on global treasury management and cross-border payments.

As retail platforms, Amazon and Walmart have similar logic to JD.com. Among them, Walmart tried to attract users who lack coverage of traditional banks and expand into emerging markets through low handling fees for stablecoins.

Xiaomi chose to join the market with light weight, and its subsidiary Tianxing Bank cooperated with JD Coin Chain to develop cross-border payment solutions.

In addition, traditional payment providers (such as Visa and PayPal) have also launched their own stablecoin solutions to try to maintain market share through cooperation.

For giants, Hong Kong is an excellent place to deploy stablecoins. Hong Kong's unique advantages lie in its international financial center status, its mature regulatory system and its connectivity with the mainland.

In May 2025, the Stablecoin Ordinance passed by Hong Kong stipulates that it is the world's first fiat stablecoin regulatory framework, requiring issuers to hold HK$25 million paid-in equity and reserve 1:1 high-liquidity assets (such as cash, treasury bonds) to ensure stability and transparency.

And the ordinance will come into effect in August 2025.

So far, the selected powerful players have formed three types of forces in the Hong Kong stablecoin ecosystem:

• Chinese technology giants: JD.com, Ant, Xiaomi, etc., relying on e-commerce scenarios and user base to seize cross-border payment and other scenarios;

• Traditional financial institutions: Standard Chartered Bank, Hong Kong Telecom, JPMorgan Chase, etc., has laid out stablecoin issuance, trading and derivative businesses, with the goal of global financial markets;

• Web3 companies: Yuanbi Technology, which issues HKD stablecoin HKDR, etc.;

The current popularity of stablecoins is largely due to the gradual improvement of supervision. With the acceleration of legislation in Hong Kong, the United States, the European Union and other places, stablecoins have moved from a "gray zone" to compliance, allowing large manufacturers and institutions to dare to enter the market.

Standard Chartered Bank predicts that the global stablecoin market size will reach US$2 trillion in 2028, with an annual compound growth rate of 58%.

Just as WeChat Pay reshapes the mobile payment ecosystem, stablecoins may become the "new SWIFT" in the digital age. As more and more heavyweight players enter the game, the competition for the dominance of the next generation of global payment networks has begun.

Regulatory compliance, payment experience, etc. are still key variables, and their progress may profoundly affect our daily payment habits and even the future global payment landscape.