WEB3 WEEKLY RECAP | 22-26 SEPTEMBER 2025

Should stablecoin initiatives be led by technology companies or by traditional financial institutions?

The core market development theme this week is undeniably centred on payments – with stablecoins at the forefront. A notable trend is that technology companies, rather than financial institutions, are increasingly taking the lead in stablecoin initiatives across different jurisdictions.

𝙏𝙤𝙥 𝙃𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙚(𝙨)
– Ripple, Securitize Bring RLUSD to BlackRock and VanEck Tokenised Funds (24 Sept 2025)
– Tech Giant Cloudflare to Launch NET Dollar Stablecoin for ‘AI-Driven Internet’ (25 Sept 2025)
– Naver to Acquire Dunamu, Upbit Operator, for Stablecoin (26 Sept 2025)

Just last week, South Korea’s largest internet company (NAVER Corp) acquired the country’s leading crypto exchange (Upbit, part of 두나무 (Dunamu)) as part of its broader Web3 and stablecoin agenda – an initiative expected to gain further momentum in the coming months.

Globally, regulators continue to debate whether stablecoin adoption should be led by technology companies or traditional financial institutions. While financial institutions may represent a safer and more familiar choice for regulators, such a preference risks overlooking the strength of technology companies, which are inherently better positioned to deliver rapid and large-scale innovation and impact in this space.

In my personal opinion, while traditional financial institutions bring trust and well-established expertise in AML/CFT operations, technology companies have also built considerable trust and expertise through their digital payment platforms. The main challenges for these superapps in leading stablecoin adoption lie in cross-platform integration and the risk of potential market monopolisation. As such, a platform-agnostic stablecoin would represent the most effective model to achieve scale and deliver the greatest impact.