Written by: Shao Jiadine, Partner Lawyer at Mankun (Shenzhen) Law Firm;
Xu Xiaohui, Lawyer at Shanghai Mankun Law Firm
On May 21st, the moment the Hong Kong Legislative Council passed the third reading of the stablecoin bill, the chat groups of crypto exchanges went completely wild:
"The license era is officially starting, small players have no chance!"
"Rushing to issue stablecoins now? Don't go if you're not tough enough!"
"PayFi is the real gold mine, act now or miss the opportunity!"
Noise, anxiety, and excitement intertwined. But the true Web3 veterans were surprisingly calm. They knew that the bill's passage was not the end, but precisely the moment when the new game rules started. As stablecoin giants began queuing to apply for their "Hong Kong identity cards", a deep and quiet wealth redistribution drama around the stablecoin ecosystem was just beginning to unfold.
Entrepreneurs, don't just watch the giants fight - keep your eyes on the ground beneath their feet, where numerous new tracks are cracking open, waiting for you to stake your claim!
[The rest of the translation follows the same professional and precise approach, maintaining the original tone and technical terminology.]1. Anti-Money Laundering Tools: Making On-Chain Transactions "Transparent"
Regulatory requirements mandate that stablecoin issuers must monitor transactions in real-time, and immediately report suspicious addresses (such as those associated with exchange hackers). This requires an "on-chain whitelist and blacklist screening tool", like developing an API that connects to data from major public chains, helping issuers automatically identify risk addresses. For example: if an address suddenly transfers 100,000 USDC and then disperses it to 100 new addresses, your system can automatically trigger a warning, indicating potential money laundering. Such tools are charged annually, with one client paying 100,000-200,000 per year, and 10 clients can support a small team.
2. Audit Services: Giving Stablecoins a "Physical Examination"
Previously, USDC released a monthly reserve report, which was well-received because users needed to know their money was truly guaranteed. Now, Hong Kong regulations require issuers to regularly disclose reserve information, necessitating a professional audit team. You could establish a "stablecoin audit firm" to help issuers perform real-time reserve verification, such as checking if their bank account balances match the circulating stablecoin quantity, and issuing transparent reports. These services are highly charged and require professional qualifications, and once you secure a few major clients, you can establish industry barriers.
3. Regulatory Technology (RegTech): Making Compliance "Automated"
Many small and medium-sized issuers lack the capability or necessity to develop their own compliance systems. In this case, you could create a "compliance report generator" that integrates their financial and on-chain transaction data to automatically generate reports meeting financial authority requirements with a single click. Similar to current tax software, it simplifies complex compliance processes into a "one-click operation". Such tools can charge hundreds to thousands of Hong Kong dollars per month, and with a large customer base, significant profits can be made.
(Three) Core Track Three: Cross-Chain Bridging - Becoming the "Ferryman of the Stablecoin World"
The Multichain universe is an inevitable trend. This brings explosive growth in stablecoin cross-chain demand, especially in:
Enterprise Payment Scenarios: When the sender's on-chain stablecoin and the recipient's required chain/fiat currency differ?
DeFi Settlement and Arbitrage: Differences in stablecoin interest rates and liquidity across different chains present opportunities, but how to move them low-cost and efficiently?
When USDC comfortably sits on Ethereum, USDT plays on TRON, and Hong Kong tea restaurant owners only recognize HKD... A safe, fast, and low-slippage stablecoin cross-chain bridge becomes an absolute necessity!
Opportunity: Develop a secure, efficient, and low-slippage cross-chain protocol or service focused on stablecoins. Prioritize supporting mainstream public chains in the Hong Kong market: ETH, Solana, TON, Polygon, etc.
Technical Life-or-Death Line: Safety! Safety! And more safety! The Nomad bridge's billions stolen overnight is still fresh in memory. Your bridge must be fully armed: consider introducing advanced cryptographic technologies like zero-knowledge proofs for security verification, with multi-signature and decentralized oracle networks being indispensable. Safety is the 1, everything else is the zeros after it.
Do not cross legal red lines: When designing mechanisms, strictly prevent being deemed by regulators as covert token issuance (such as creating assets out of thin air through bridges) or causing multi-chain inflation. This requires close collaboration between legal and technical teams.
(Translation continues in the same manner for the rest of the text)
