Mankun Lawyer | Testing stablecoin with JD.com, looking at the next rise blue ocean for Web3 practitioners

How much is a channel worth? We start with an ancient yet groundbreaking story. In 1859, the construction of the Suez Canal began, taking a full ten years to excavate an artificial waterway connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. At that time, the cost was 416 million francs, equivalent to 1.5% of France's GDP. In today's terms, this is an investment comparable to a national-level infrastructure project. Why did they spend such a huge cost to dig an "artificial river" back then?

You will understand after looking at a set of data: Each ship passing through the Suez Canal has to pay about $250,000; there are 18,000 to 21,000 ships passing through each year; annual revenue exceeds $6 billion; average daily revenue exceeds $15 million. Because it is not an ordinary river, but a "Golden Passage" that connects Europe and Asia. Without this canal, all ships would have to go around the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa, which not only adds 4 to 5 days to the journey but also costs 2 to 3.7 times more than now. Each detour could result in additional expenses ranging from hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars. So, this is not a water issue, but a "channel" issue. An efficient, safe, and legal channel brings not only time and cost savings but also the key to mastering the initiative in global trade. The channel value of stablecoins is being rediscovered. Today, we are also standing at a new starting point of a "channel revolution". Many countries around the world are promoting stablecoin legislation to open up a main road to the real financial system for the on-chain world. In other words, it opens a fast track for traditional businesses to on-chain finance. It is predicted that by 2025, the global market value of stablecoins will reach $250 billion; Standard Chartered Bank is even more optimistic, expecting its potential to scale up to $2 trillion, thereby leveraging $10 trillion in capital flow.

More importantly, regulators are beginning to recognize the legitimacy of stablecoins. Just as the Suez Canal is not just about "water passage," but also about "trade passage"; the moment the stablecoin legislation is passed, it means that capital can finally enter the blockchain legally and directly. No longer relying on intermediary companies, no need to go through gray channels, reducing costs and increasing efficiency. This is a landmark moment: the compliance channel is officially open. The story of USDT: it's not about issuing a coin, but about seizing structural positions. Before discussing JD.com, we need to take a look at the "big brother" Tether - the issuer of USDT. What opportunity did Tether really seize? Bitcoin was born for peer-to-peer payments at the beginning, but due to its high volatility, it is difficult to be used for daily settlements. USDT perfectly fills this gap. It is not "born out of thin air"; it is created by the real demand of the market: providing a stable asset for on-chain transactions, a liquidity hub, and a hedging tool. As someone wisely said: after every round of bull market bubble bursts, stablecoins are the "embers" that remain in the market, allowing funds to not retreat entirely and be ready for the next wave of market movement. Tether's returns are also astonishing:

In 2024, the net profit is 13.7 billion USD, with a team of only 100 people, resulting in an average output of over 68 million USD per person, far surpassing JPMorgan Chase, American Express, and Berkshire. Is this reliant on technology? No. It relies on structural positioning—it stands on the essential channel of capital flow on the chain. Even though it has faced investigations and regulatory fines, it did not evade compliance; instead, it improved and perfected itself along the way, ultimately allowing hundreds of millions of users worldwide to "dare to use" it. This is the structural dividend. And now, a new dividend window has been opened. Why is JD.com launching a stablecoin? Many people say that JD has entered Web3. But I don't see it that way. JD.com is not creating stablecoins to "issue coins", but to solve the old problem of cross-border e-commerce: Long settlement cycles, high costs, severe capital occupation, and cumbersome bank processes. The value of stablecoins lies in the fact that they are the shortest path between reality and the chain. They can: Real-time cross-border payments without intermediary fees greatly reduce costs, with systems that can be automated and audited. So, stablecoins are not necessarily exclusive to Web3; rather, they are a new tool for Web2 companies to build financial infrastructure. This is not just an opportunity for JD, but for all Chinese companies that hope to go global and connect with the world.

Stablecoin 2.0 Era: System-Level Solutions In the past, stablecoins served the purpose of speculating on cryptocurrencies. Today's stablecoins serve enterprises. They are no longer just a "coin" but a system module, a part of the financial settlement system, and a component of user incentives, supply chain loops, and cross-border settlement processes. The next stage for stablecoins is systematic, compliant, and structured development. The opportunity behind this is to provide services for enterprises that offer "stablecoin infrastructure." The Role Transformation of Web3 Practitioners: From "Speculators" to "Architects" The real opportunity lies not in whether you can issue a coin, but in whether you can: Design a payment system for stablecoin integration, build a cross-chain settlement bridge to achieve automatic revenue distribution and risk control strategies to help enterprises complete compliance implementation. If you understand both the chain and the structure, as well as the enterprise, then you are precisely at this intersection. If you just wander around in Web3, it won't work; you also need to become a service provider, architect, and channel builder for more Web2 companies. We are experiencing the "Suez moment" of stablecoins. Back to the original question: How much is a channel worth? No one complains about the toll of the Suez Canal because everyone knows: taking the long way is expensive, slow, and dangerous. The channel for stablecoins is the same. You can take the gray road, engage in arbitrage, or use it as a springboard, but those risks are "temporary bonuses" rather than a long-term moat. What is truly valuable is the structure, the channel. The next breakout point in this industry is not the bustling trend of issuing tokens, but the steady construction of structures. Those who can earn long-term value are the ones who "build channels" for enterprises. I command the opening of this river, so that ships can navigate it directly to Persia, fulfilling my wish. The oath of Darius, the king of Persia, still holds true today. Now, it is time for our generation of Web3 people to carve out the next new passage.

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Author of this article: Lawyer Niu Xiaojing