Circle unveils on-chain FX platform 'StableFX'… also activates its own blockchain testnet

U.S. stablecoin issuer Circle has launched a new service for on-chain foreign exchange (FX) trading called 'StableFX'. Market observers say this could mark the start of intensified real-time payment and remittance competition using stablecoins.

On the 13th (local time), according to crypto asset (cryptocurrency) specialist media CoinDesk, Circle began operating StableFX on its own blockchain Arc testnet. The company said institutional investors will be able to trade stablecoin-based currency pairs in a 24-hour on-chain environment.

The traditional foreign exchange market is the world's largest financial market, trading more than $9 trillion per day, but it still has structural inefficiencies such as the need for pre-funded accounts (Pre-funding), delayed settlement, and high settlement risk. Circle believes real-time (on-chain) payments using stablecoins can solve these issues.

In particular, StableFX supports real-time payment and settlement and is designed so institutions can, upon request, receive real-time quotes (RFQ) from various liquidity providers (LPs) and trade immediately.

Meanwhile, Circle also announced the 'Circle Partner Stablecoins' program to expand the non-dollar stablecoin ecosystem. Initial participating projects include BRLA (Abenia) based on the Brazilian real, MXNB (Juno) based on the Mexican peso, and QCAD (Stablecorp) based on the Canadian dollar, and the tradable currency pairs within StableFX are expected to expand in the future.