For whom does the funeral bell ring? - Tomb Inscription on Circle and USDC Payment Narrative The battlefield of stablecoins in the future is getting farther and farther away from the cryptocurrency field. This was my first thought when I saw Open USD come out today. In the past, stablecoins were born to better communicate with traditional markets and even to avoid regulation. Although Circle fully embraces regulation, the essence of USDC is still for cryptocurrency. Payment is just a choice for Circle when facing survival. Although stablecoin payments have been around for many years, they still cannot be used on the market. They are mostly between gray and black industries, and not all stablecoins can do this. Trust is the first foundation, and the absolute leaders in this field are Tether and USDT. It's not because Tether is more compliant, but because USDT is too early and has gone through countless FUDs, almost once a year. However, USDT still maintains a very hard acceptance, and its acceptors have surpassed other stablecoins by dozens of streets. Even though Tether's transparency is poor and the margin system is not fully compliant, it still cannot prevent USDT from circulating in the black and gray gold field. Many people may not understand, but take a look at Huiwang. When the scale goes from covering one region to one country, to multiple countries, it is hard currency. Last year, I wrote a lot of articles about Circle, mainly focusing on its business areas. Circle is a typical cryptocurrency trading stablecoin, but its main source of income is from US Treasury bonds, and this income has to be distributed with multiple channel partners, resulting in actual revenue that is not very abundant. This is also the disadvantage of trading stablecoins. Using USDT and USDC as trading media, but unable to charge any transaction fees, it is destined that if the trading path comes to an end, the revenue of stablecoins will have a very low ceiling. All Tethers have started to break through, from trading to investment, from US dollars to gold, to bonds, to Bitcoin, all in order to find better sources of income. Even now, the trading of USDT and cryptocurrencies has become increasingly distant, and there is sufficient data to show that USDC has comprehensively surpassed USDT in cryptocurrency trading. USDC has indeed won in this regard. Compliance restrictions have directly caused both Europe and the United States to abandon USDT and use USDC. However, with the downturn of the cryptocurrency industry, such as Bitcoin: native and Ethereum: native, and even the popularity of RWA in the US stock market, the trading volume of cryptocurrencies is decreasing, and the market value of USDC is gradually declining. This is not a big problem for USDT, but it is even worse for USDC, which currently only relies on interest. Circle has made efforts in the field of payment, including obtaining bank licenses, exploring payment methods, and even discussing AI payments. These are all Circle's efforts, but the biggest problem with Circle is not that they are not doing well enough, it is that their background is not outstanding enough. Now that the bill is clear, it can be seen that banks are treating Circle as a competitor. So Open USD is here. Coincidentally, yesterday afternoon we were still discussing the difference between bank issued stablecoins and current stablecoins. At that time, my focus was on the current stablecoins, whether it's USDT, USDC, or PYUSD, most of which are not targeted at institutional and enterprise level users. Therefore, even though I have been talking about payment for a long time, payment is only a manifestation of the upper level. The core that truly constrains payment is acceptance, and a strong acceptance is the guarantee of payment, such as in the case of Huiwang. Take a look at the list of Open USD associations this time, Visa、Mastercard、Stripe、American Express、Adyen、Fiserv、Western Union、MoneyGram、Google、Shopify、BlackRock、BNY、Standard Chartered、DBS、America. Bank These names together indicate that the starting point of Open USD is not simply cryptocurrency trading, but towards payment or acceptance. The target users of USDT are in the lower tier markets of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, while the target users of USDC are in the payment narrative of Europe and America. Now Open USD is directly entering Europe and America through payment, banking, merchant platforms, and cross-border settlements, targeting areas where USDC has always wanted to expand but has made slow progress. This is not what makes Circle feel the most uncomfortable. Looking at another sub list of the Open USD Association, Coinbase, OKX, Bybit, http://(Crypto. com), Aave, Solana, and Polygon, it shows that Open USD is not only about online and offline payments, but also has not given up on the field of cryptocurrency trading. Exchanges naturally require banks. What Circle can achieve, Open USD can also achieve. What Circle cannot currently achieve, Open USD can still achieve. Even the AI payment that Circle has been promoting ultimately cannot bypass banks. If Tether brings USDT as the 1.0 era of stablecoin trading, and Circe brings USDC as the 2.0 era of stablecoin compliance, then Open USD brings the 3.0 era of stablecoin acceptance. Acceptance is the biggest lifeline of stablecoins, either a complete compliance system or a consensus based underground system. Returning to the topic, for whom does the funeral bell ring? I don't think it's for the sake of the USDC product itself. USDC will still have a large market, especially in the field of compliant cryptocurrency trading in the United States. But Circle has been telling the USDC payment narrative for many years and has indeed encountered real challenges. Banks can accept their association's stablecoins and establish a network that can cover most countries worldwide, but there is no Circle in this network. Tether can accept its own credit and consensus, creating an underground network dominated by Asia, Africa, and Latin America, but there is no USDC in this network. I don't believe CRCL will go bankrupt, but its survival space will definitely be compressed. Circle still needs to find its own path, while USDC is now more like a poor family. Although there is a chance for a comeback, the road is not easy to take. Bitget is here, VIP! Crypto、 US shares CFD， Global Advantage One Stop Layout