The Futility of Stablecoins..."Useless for Transfers Between Developed Countries"

Jack Zhang, CEO of Airwallex, criticized the claim that stablecoins can reduce foreign exchange fees as unrealistic.

CEO Zhang recently pointed out on his X account, "Even when remitting from US dollars to euros, if the recipient ultimately has to receive euros in a bank account, using a stablecoin is actually more expensive," highlighting this issue.

He further explained, "The off-ramping process from stablecoins to fiat currency incurs even greater costs than interbank FX markets," evaluating that the technology does not provide any real help in cutting FX fees. Even if stablecoins have low volatility, they are of no real use for B2B transactions except in extremely illiquid, specialized currencies.

CEO Zhang stated, "We currently offer real-time transfers of major G10 currencies with fees below 0.01%. It simply cannot get cheaper or faster than this," emphasizing that "the idea of using stablecoins for cross-border payments between developed countries is unrealistic."

He continued, "Back when the crypto market overheated in 2021, many talked about the future of Web3, but I still haven’t seen that future. Even in 2025, I don’t see what real utility stablecoins will have in payments between developed countries," he said.

He added, "In the past 15 years, I haven't seen any practical case where virtual assets have genuinely solved a real problem. Of all the counterarguments I’ve received, only the demand for dollars in emerging markets made sense. I will soon post refined data on my blog showing the actual stablecoin volumes used for real economic activities like payments, remittances, and commerce."