Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire says there is “tremendous opportunity” for a yuan-backed stablecoin, despite Beijing’s formal moves against most private renminbi-linked stablecoins and commitment to its own digital yuan.
Speaking to Reuters in Hong Kong on Thursday, Allaire framed stablecoins as a way for China to “export” its currency by making global payments easier, as digital money becomes more tightly woven into trade and finance, and said the country could roll out a yuan-backed stablecoin within three to five years.
Geopolitical rivalry over money is increasingly being waged in code as much as in central bank policy, and Allaire’s comments sharpen a deeper question: Can governments that clamp down on private digital currencies afford to shun them if they want to compete globally?
China’s crackdown contrasts with growing demand for stablecoins as cross-border payment tools, raising questions about how the yuan will evolve in a tokenized financial system.
In February, the People’s Bank of China and seven other agencies said unauthorized offshore issuance of yuan-pegged stablecoins would be treated as illegal financial activity and said tokenization of domestic real-world assets would face stricter vetting.
Officials framed the move as necessary to protect financial stability, curb capital flight and safeguard monetary sovereignty as Beijing pushes its central bank digital currency, the e-CNY. The decision slams the door on most offshore RMB stablecoins just months after reports that China was studying yuan-backed tokens as a way to boost global usage of its currency.
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Digital dollars still dominate stablecoins
Allaire’s remarks come as stablecoins are pulled deeper into geopolitics. Circle’s US dollar-backed USDC grew 72% year-on-year in circulation to $75.3 billion by the end of 2025. Allaire told Reuters that “several billion dollars” in additional USDC transactions followed the outbreak of the US-Iran war as users sought portable digital dollars in a crisis.
Outlier Ventures said in a 2025 market report that US dollar-backed stablecoins accounted for 99.8% of all fiat-denominated stablecoins, underlining how heavily the market still relies on digital dollars rather than other national currency-pegged tokens.
China, by contrast, is pursuing a CBDC-first strategy. Authorities have repeatedly reaffirmed their 2021 ban on crypto trading and mining. In November 2025, the central bank warned it would intensify its crackdown on stablecoins, leading to February’s notice banning RMB-linked stablecoin issuance and most RWA tokenization without prior approval, as Beijing promotes the e-CNY as its preferred model for digital yuan adoption.
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