CashEquivalence was in Singapore last week, attending Token 2049 and Network State. Hence, the delay in the wrap. This will now be split into a number of parts due to the volume of material.
Token 2049:
Overall mood: Held at the Marina Bay Sands conference center in Singapore, Token 2049 is arguably one of the world’s largest crypto-dedicated trade fairs. The number of exhibitors on display over two days and five floors was truly jaw-dropping, as was the volume of branded merch giveaways.
But we weren’t there for the crypto T-shirts and stress balls. Stablecoin-themed sessions represented a good chunk of the agenda, with all the main issuers present, from Tether’s Paolo Ardoino to Paxos’ Charles Carsciclla and Donnie Jr. representing World Liberty Financial. The sense I got was that there’s no shortage of money sloshing around the industry — more than can be said for other fringe asset classes like art or wine.
And as far as stablecoins go, if there was one overarching TLDR theme to take away, it was that while issuing a native stablecoin can make sense for many ecosystems with sufficient scale, the future will not be one of endless fragmentation. Instead, liquidity will coalesce around a smaller number of well-adopted stablecoins, with each surviving coin linked to strategic distribution advantages, business model improvements, or broader integrations.
World Liberty Financial:
Europe playing catch-up: Mike Ho, the executive chairman of American Bitcoin, a Trump-backed bitcoin mining and treasury company, added that the whole world was now trying to catch up with the Genius Act, which has finally created regulatory clarity for the stablecoin market. “We’ve been around the world recently, and I can tell you that every jurisdiction is now rushing to figure out how to create their own digital currency,” he said.
Who’s sorry now? Trump Jr also took the opportunity to rib JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon, previously a major crypto skeptic, noting, “It was only a couple months ago that Jamie Dimon was saying it’s basically a big scam. And how many billions did they buy a few weeks ago? You went from ‘big scam’ to ‘we’re all in’ really quickly.”
Debanking tyranny: Trump explained the main motive for the family getting into crypto was to get around being debanked by traditional financial institutions. “We got into it out of necessity because we saw how broken the traditional system was,” he said, in a reference to the time after his father’s defaults had led most Wall Street banks to cut ties with him.
The last shall be first: Trump Jr said his backing of crypto also had a European angle, coming from his experiences in Czechoslovakia under communism. “My mother was from there, I spoke the language, she made sure that I understood what was going on over there,” he said. “So I spent my summers in what was then communist Czechoslovakia. But you always felt that you were the lesser European nations relative to Western Europe.”
That, he said, has changed now. Eastern Europe is now “the bastion of freedom,” and whereas it used to be “the redheaded stepchild” of the continent, “right now, no one would even think to do business in Western Europe.”
BUT THERE’S MORE! In another session hosted by David Wachsman, Trump partnered on stage with Zach Witkoff and reiterated that he entered crypto after 300+ Trump accounts were shut down overnight. This, he said, made him realize firsthand how fragile and undemocratic traditional finance was. He also said he believes regulatory clarity in the U.S. (via the “Genius Act”) will drive jobs and innovation back to America. He then criticized prior administrations for pushing crypto offshore.
Meme culture: A major theme of the panel was the unexpected emergence of culture and community around USD1 and World Liberty Financial. Donnie Jr. emphasized that, unlike typical stablecoins, USD1 has developed a following more akin to a meme coin. He argued that this stems from the project’s history — entering crypto out of necessity after being debanked, positioning themselves as defenders of free speech and financial liberty — and from their commitment to building a genuinely participatory ecosystem.
Governance is key to the culture: Through the WLFI governance token, holders are empowered to propose and vote on decisions, creating what Donnie described as a “truly democratized platform where people get to vote daily.” This sense of inclusion has fostered loyalty and enthusiasm, with community members seeing themselves as partners in shaping the project’s future. Wachsman noted how unusual it is to see a “stablecoin with culture,” highlighting the contrast with competitors. Zach Witkoff added that intentional partnerships, transparency, and consistent delivery on promises have reinforced that community trust. Together, they positioned USD1 not just as a financial instrument but as a movement, where identity, culture, and governance intersect to generate an energy rarely seen in the stablecoin space.
Intercepting with Tradfi: The panelists framed WLFI as not just a crypto project but a vehicle to modernize traditional finance by eliminating inefficiencies and broadening access. Donnie Jr. pointed to entrenched practices such as title insurance in real estate—where costs are high and value is low—as examples of outdated systems that blockchain could streamline.
Bold dreams of commodity tokenization: Zach Witkoff expanded on this by stressing the team’s active work in tokenizing real-world assets, especially commodities such as oil, gas, timber, and cotton, as well as real estate. He argued that these markets should be traded on-chain for greater efficiency and transparency, with USD1 serving as the trusted base pair.
The ‘Big Debit Card News’: The panelists announced WLFI would be launching a debit card, slated for pilot testing in the coming quarter, with a full launch expected soon after. Zach Witkoff explained that the card is designed to bridge the gap between crypto assets and everyday spending, making stablecoins directly usable in daily commerce. By focusing on usability and integrating crypto seamlessly into established financial behaviors, the debit card aims to accelerate adoption, expand the reach of USD1, and cement World Liberty Financial’s role as a driver of mainstream integration.
Not a political project! Donnie Jr. was emphatic: “It’s 100% true [that it’s not political].” He argued that while the project undeniably benefits the U.S. by strengthening the dollar, its mission is rooted in stablecoin adoption rather than electoral politics. Witkoff echoed this point but acknowledged the political undertone, saying, “No, we are not a political organization. But yes, of course, we think President Trump is the greatest president to ever exist in the history of the world. He has single-handedly saved the crypto industry from people who wanted to ruin it, and he’s brought crypto back to its rightful home, the United States of America.”
Censorship resistance: Donnie Jr. was blunt about his mistrust of legacy outlets: “My overall experience with the media has been, let’s call it a disaster.” He argued that traditional media bias and hostility had backfired, creating space for independent voices and alternative platforms: “They’ve become their own worst enemy, which created the opportunity for other people to step in and fill that void.” He drew a parallel between being “debanked” financially and “deplatformed” in the media, suggesting that both experiences drove him toward building solutions rather than retreating: “When we were attacked, we didn’t just sort of take our ball, go home, cry to mommy. We actually came up with real, viable solutions that people see.”
The ultimate big vision? It’s all about bringing freedom to the world, baby, yeah!
Specifically, Trump linked the project’s mission to preserving U.S. dollar strength, noting that stablecoins could offset “all the countries that used to buy U.S. Treasuries” and thereby reinforce dollar hegemony in a way that benefits both America and the global financial system. At the same time, he and his co-founders stressed the universality of their vision: “We call it World Liberty because it’s not just about America… we want the same opportunities for the world.” By extending access to transparent, stable digital money and opening new avenues for tokenized ownership, they positioned World Liberty Financial as both a patriotic project — securing America’s financial leadership — and a liberating force for populations worldwide who lack stable financial infrastructure.
What was not addressed: The fallout from the freezing of Justin Sun’s coins. This is notable given that Sun was also present at the conference.
The big stablecoin macro shift:
The U.S. government, he argued, cares deeply about stablecoins because they extend the dollar’s global dominance. “It’s the same reason the U.S. cared about the synthetic dollar staying strong. Today, the U.S. dollar is 27 percent of GDP, but it’s 57 percent of central bank reserves.
Growth potential: Lee highlighted the rapid growth of stablecoin markets, with major implications for U.S. Treasuries. “Collectively, stablecoins are the 12th largest holder of treasuries in the world… about $280 billion of stablecoin outstanding treasuries. Secretary Bessent thinks it could be a $4 trillion market. But once stablecoins own more than $1 trillion of treasuries, they will become the single largest holder of treasuries in the world. It’s not that far away.”
Gold comparative: Lee, however, explained that the key metric is not Bitcoin in isolation, but its valuation relative to gold: “What percentage of Bitcoin’s network value should mirror that of gold? And if it’s only 10 percent, then you get $140,000 value for Bitcoin. I think that number is too low. I think it’s going to basically match gold value or even exceed it, and that’s how you get to the $1.4 to $2.2 million of value for Bitcoin.” In his view, Bitcoin’s trajectory is secured by its scarcity and store-of-value properties, but the more dynamic story lies elsewhere.
Stablecoins ‘R’ Us:
A discussion between Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino (Tether), Paxos CEO Charles Cascarilla (Paxos), and Dragonfly general partner Rob Hadick focused on the so-called “trillion-dollar payments shift”.
Black market disruption: Ardoino pointed out that stablecoins are now replacing cash dollars previously bought on the black market. He highlighted that out of Tether’s half a billion users, roughly 35 percent use USDT as a savings account.
“Boots on the ground” distribution: Tether’s distribution model strategically relies not only on digital rails but also physical touchpoints in underserved regions. Ardoino described this as critical to scaling adoption: “What matters is distribution … from the beginning, we started buying distribution channels, investing [in] distribution channels that go from chains of shops in Central South America to kiosks in Africa and Asia.” These networks, he explained, allow users to access stablecoins in the same way they might top up mobile phone credit. The goal is to build “the biggest physical and digital financial distribution network in the world, with boots on the ground, with hundreds of thousands of these touch points … that allow us to keep scaling even in the smallest communities.”
Yield doesn’t matter: In countries such as Turkey, Argentina, and Vietnam, where inflation routinely erodes purchasing power, stablecoins provide a new form of financial stability for the underbanked. As Ardoino put it, users are “not necessarily interested in buying volatile tokens. They look forward to having stability in their lives … stability is again relative.”
Servicing the world: Through this model, Tether aims to bridge what Ardoino described as a global monetary gap — connecting poorer populations in emerging markets with wealthier participants in the developed world. Without such distribution, he warned, “stablecoins will remain just a niche for those who already have a lot of access to finance … the United States and Europe.”
ALL ABOUT THE YIELD: Paolo Ardoino of Tether explained how the company has adapted to changing rate environments, recalling that for much of its early history, revenue generation was unclear: “When Tether started in 2014, we didn’t have a clue of how we were going to monetize it. Until 2022, interest rates were almost zero, so the revenue model was very different and difficult on stablecoins.” With the return of higher rates, the model looks starkly different: “Now that stablecoins are bound to, for example, U.S. Treasuries, and they yield this yield like about 3.5 percent, it’s a juicy profit for everyone.”
Future-proofing against negative interest rates: Ardoino cautioned against building purely around yield, warning that “if you design stablecoins thinking about maximizing the profit now, what happens when most of the profits will go away? Because maybe in five, ten years, inflation will go back to zero.” His position was that technology must be designed to remain sustainable across cycles, not only when rates are favorable.
Democratizing access to the risk-free rate: Charles Cascarilla of Paxos, in contrast, framed yield redistribution as a structural opportunity to shift margins away from banks and toward end users. “Sometimes stablecoins are about democratizing access to dollars … [but] democratizing access to the risk-free rate actually changes the value pool from the firms that are holding that yield back to the end user.” He emphasized that the ability to pass interest to merchants or customers could upend traditional payments models: “You don’t have to pay for payments anymore. You can actually be paid to accept payments.”
Competing with the banks: The panel noted U.S. banks are lobbying aggressively to block models that share yield or payments revenue with end users. Hadick explained that the root issue is incumbents’ unwillingness to compete on economics. “There’s a lot of conversation around that … the banking lobby in the U.S. is upset about the idea that issuers can share revenue with distribution partners and then pass it on to the end customer. They’re worried about deposits, but really they don’t want to compete on the economics.”
Banks are scared: This lobbying effort underscores how seriously U.S. banks view the threat. By challenging the regulatory legitimacy of yield-sharing models, incumbents hope to preserve their traditional profit structures. Yet, as the panelists agreed, the momentum behind stablecoins is already forcing financial institutions to confront a future in which their monopoly over these economics is no longer guaranteed.
On Tether’s fundraising: Ardoino said that Tether was raising $15–20 billion at a $500 billion valuation to reinvest into AI, telecom, and even decentralized electricity grids in Africa with the intent of literally “lighting up” Africa, and creating new peer-to-peer economies.
Predictions: Cascarilla says he expects 3–5 major global stablecoins to dominate, alongside hundreds of smaller localized ones. We’re still in the “first inning” of disruption, he said. Ardoino, meanwhile, noted that Tether is now designing region-specific stablecoins to fit local needs rather than a one-size-fits-all model.
Tether, the ‘stable’ company:
Ardoino also took to the stage for a solo slot, where he offered a narrative about how March 2020 was the real inflection point for USDT adoption, connecting it to the inability to buy physical cash dollars during lockdowns: “Before stablecoins … everyone was just going to the streets to buy cash dollars … but during the pandemic you couldn’t. So your kids would say, ‘Well, Mom, Dad, I have a better version of the dollar, I can keep it on the smartphone.’ That single thing triggered that enormous growth.”
When asked by a journalist how to describe Tether, Paolo said: “They suggested ‘the stablecoin company.’ My answer was, No, it’s the stable company.” He tied this to Tether’s mission of providing not just financial stability but societal stability — a rhetorical flourish not seen in the earlier session.
DeFi gets in on the game:
A discussion between Jeff Yan of Hyperliquid Labs, Guy Young of Ethena Labs, and Stani Kulechov of Aave Labs looked at the evolution of stablecoins in a DeFi context.
Self-stablecoin issuance: A central theme of the panel was whether the current trend of every major DeFi protocol launching its own stablecoin is sustainable, or whether consolidation is inevitable. Moderator remarks framed the issue directly: “One of the big stories this year has been about the stablecoin… are we going to see every single DeFi protocol have its own stablecoin? And if not, what makes an ecosystem big enough or self-contained enough to have its own stablecoin?”
Bridging TradFi and DeFi: Jeff Yan, CEO of Hyperliquid Labs, positioned stablecoins as an infrastructural priority rather than a standalone product: “Hyperliquid is not one application, but it’s rather a network… when you look around at finance, the obvious bridge between TradFi and DeFi at this point seems to be stablecoins. So there’s a strong prioritization on building the best infrastructure for these stablecoins that ultimately, like you said, consolidate liquidity and play out that way.”
Proliferation risk: Guy Young, CEO of Ethena Labs, agreed that incentives drive protocols to launch their own tokens, but he cautioned against proliferation: “Do we actually need 1,000 stablecoins for every single wallet and chain? I think the answer is no. But I do think there is an incentive structure that provides a better outcome — if you own the user, if you own distribution, why don’t you get more of the economics for providing that service?” He also noted that recent launches created a “pre- and post-moment” for the industry, accelerating serious consideration of stablecoins across major platforms.
Margin control: Stani Kulechov, founder of Aave Labs, framed stablecoin issuance as a strategic business shift. For Aave, its GHO stablecoin was designed to strengthen margins in an otherwise low-margin lending environment. He explained: “DeFi lending is a very low-margin business… with GHO outstanding supply, for example, with 100 million GHO, we’re earning the same amount as with 1 billion worth of external stablecoins. So it’s a way for the protocol to transition to a higher-margin business, ten times higher.” He added that stablecoins allow Aave to export protocol revenues beyond its own ecosystem by integrating with fintechs and other financial applications.
Outperforming the risk-free rate: A major point of discussion centered on how the macro interest rate environment has shaped DeFi’s evolution — and how it may continue to do so. In the early years, DeFi emerged during a period of near-zero rates, which made its yield opportunities uniquely compelling. But Aave has been beating U.S. Treasury bill yields even in high-rate environments, and panelists said they expect that when rates fall, DeFi yield opportunities will surge again. Looking ahead, he forecasted that rate cuts would act as a catalyst: “Every single rate cut by the Fed or ECB is basically additional arbitrage for these DeFi rates. As rates go down, we’re going to see a really good bull market for DeFi yield.”
Crypto’s weird rate dynamics: Guy Young of Ethena Labs emphasized that crypto yields move differently from traditional interest rates: “Rates within crypto DeFi and funding rates within CeFi tend to have a negative correlation to rates in the real world. We saw the same thing last cycle, where Fed funds went to zero, funding went to 40 percent.” He argued that while traditional competitors’ margins decline in a falling-rate environment, DeFi protocols could actually expand theirs, positioning them to capture market share.
Perp-olution!
From perps to PerpDex: The same panel noted that perpetual futures are widely seen as one of DeFi’s most important innovations and growth areas. Guy Young noted that retail traders overwhelmingly prefer perpetual swaps to express leverage: “Crypto’s experience is that volumes are 95 percent or more in perps. When given the option, retail users actually prefer perpetual swaps… to me, this feels like a multi-hundred-billion-dollar opportunity where this is the correct form factor.” He predicted a breakthrough moment ahead: “My view is that, like, perpetual swaps, in the next 12 months, will become legal within the US.”
The true origin story: Jeff Yan underscored perps’ status as a fundamental innovation: “Maybe technically it was written in some paper before, but really it was BitMEX and their successors who pushed the technology… demonstrating that it’s in many cases a superior instrument.” He suggested that perps could become a core primitive for finance, with traditional players gradually embracing them through tokenization and regulatory clarity.
The 24/7 factor: The conversation also highlighted the 24/7 nature of crypto markets as a driver of perp adoption. Young noted: “If you actually force that outcome with perps to make this a 24/7 market, you’re almost forcing demand as well. You have fiduciary duty to hedge that risk or take a view… and perps actually serve that market.” This dynamic makes perpetual futures especially attractive to institutions needing continuous exposure and risk management.
Watch out, CME: Stani Kulechov agreed that perps will capture a dominant share of derivatives activity, though he emphasized tokenized assets will also grow in parallel: “Perps for everything might be interesting and they’re going to be growing the same way as in traditional finance. Tokenized assets will also have their place, but perps will be the much, much bigger share.”
Economic statecraft:
In the same discussion, Stani Kulechov pointed out that the current interest rate environment is creating powerful arbitrage opportunities across borders: “Every single rate cut by the Fed or ECB is basically additional arbitrage for these DeFi rates. As rates are going to go down, we’re going to see a really good bull market for DeFi yield… access to compelling yield globally, whether you’re in the Western world, Asia, Latin America, or Africa.” In his view, DeFi allows financial returns to be exported across geographies in a way that traditional systems cannot.
Cash equivalents in the making: Guy Young echoed this theme, noting how different today’s landscape is compared with the last low-rate cycle: “Last cycle, everyone was scrambling to raise a credit fund in 2021 to find some subcommittee through which dollars could enter the system. This time, you just have so many different surface areas where that money can enter… You can do it at a mega scale.” He described this as one of the largest macro tailwinds DeFi has ever experienced, because it connects decentralized protocols directly to the global flows of capital searching for yield.
