ME News reports that on April 14 (UTC+8), Livio Weng, CEO of Xinhuo Group, was recently interviewed by Phoenix TV, where he provided insights on Hong Kong’s stablecoin licensing and industry development. He stated that the regulator’s approach is prudent and reasonable, preventing resource dispersion and the “sprinkling pepper” effect, significantly enhancing the certainty of compliant projects’ growth; at the same time, the HKD stablecoin sector must seize this opportunity to achieve a strategic leap forward.
Livio Weng stated that while the issuance of only two stablecoin licenses from 36 applicants in Hong Kong has been controversial, it is not necessarily a bad thing, as cautious regulatory decision-making brings more benefits than drawbacks. The success of stablecoins depends on large-scale adoption and a coordinated, comprehensive ecosystem; too many licenses risk fragmenting resources and fostering inefficient, scattered competition—ultimately hindering the industry’s overall development. Currently, over 80% of the global stablecoin market is dominated by USDT and USDC; Hong Kong’s emergence of a “2 vs. 2” structure holds strategic significance as a reference model.
He revealed that, for example, Xinhuo Group, as Hong Kong’s leading digital asset services company, has seen significant customer growth over the past six months, with a substantial portion of clients expressing demand related to stablecoins. As a result, we also plan to establish stablecoin trading and asset management services within the next six months. Regarding which of these two licenses to support, Xinhuo’s choice is clear: either choose one or support both; other companies similar to Xinhuo will face the same situation.
Regarding industry catch-up, Livio Weng noted that the total supply of global leading stablecoins has exceeded $300 billion, with a development cycle spanning over a decade. While Hong Kong’s regulatory implementation has led globally, it still lags behind the existing "unregulated stablecoins" and must focus on core use cases to build differentiated advantages and achieve a breakthrough.
Regarding new opportunities for stablecoins in the age of AI agents, he believes that AI agents, as a historic development, will fundamentally reshape productivity, and stablecoins are their most natural financial primitive. The development of AI agents will go through three stages: in the early phase, when they serve as human assistants, their characteristics of high-frequency, low-value, 24/7 interactions make traditional banking and SWIFT systems inadequate—stablecoins will become the most suitable payment tool, experiencing explosive adoption and driving massive global uptake. In the subsequent stage of equal collaboration with humans, AI agents may prefer native decentralized tokens like Bitcoin; in a distant hypothetical phase, AI might even issue its own currency. Overall, over a long period, AI agents will remain a key force driving the scalable adoption of stablecoins.(Source: Xinhuo Group)