As stablecoins continue to expand, the friction and integration between crypto and traditional financial payments are still on the way.

With the major stablecoin issuer Circle ringing the bell for its listing on the New York Stock Exchange, the "stablecoin craze" continues in the financial sector.

More and more people are becoming interested in stablecoins, and some companies in traditional industries that are already somewhat related to stablecoins have a lot to say.

Last weekend, Airwallex's founder and CEO Jack Zhang criticized stablecoins on Twitter, stating that stablecoins have no advantages compared to traditional payments.

This statement immediately sparked a lot of discussions, so let's take a look at what happened.

The Futility of Stablecoins

On June 7, Jack Zhang questioned the ability of stablecoins to reduce foreign exchange costs in cross-border payments in a Thread, claiming that for transactions from USD to EUR, the conversion costs of stablecoins are higher than those in traditional markets.

This is because traditional payments in G10 countries for currencies (like USD/EUR) have fees as low as 0.01% and can be processed in real-time.

Simply comparing costs and efficiency is not enough; Jack Zhang continued to criticize: over the past 15 years, he has not seen any real value in cryptocurrencies, including stablecoins, which cannot compare to practical tools like AI. Regarding the use cases of stablecoins in Latin America, he believes they are merely a form of "regulatory arbitrage."

What is Airwallex's Background?

If you know about Airwallex, you might not be surprised by Jack Zhang's comments.

Airwallex is a cross-border payment platform founded in 2015, headquartered in Singapore. It specializes in helping businesses achieve low-cost and efficient cross-border payments.

Founder and CEO Jack Zhang was born in China and moved to Melbourne, Australia during his teenage years. The inspiration for founding Airwallex came from his own experience of being charged high foreign exchange fees while running a coffee shop, leading him to create a cross-border payment platform.

Airwallex's advantages can be summarized as "compliance + funds."

It holds compliance licenses in major global markets, including China, the U.S., Europe, and Latin America. At the same time, Airwallex utilizes a centralized fund management system, commonly referred to as a "fund pool," to optimize fund flow.

Specifically, Airwallex manages all users' funds centrally. When cross-border remittances occur, it does not directly settle through banks but instead uses its own fund pool for unified dispatch. Throughout the entire chain, Airwallex acts as an intermediary, pooling clients' funds together and leveraging economies of scale and internal optimization to lower costs, thus creating its own low-cost and efficient cross-border payment advantage.

In May 2025, Airwallex completed a $300 million financing round with a valuation of $6.2 billion, bringing its total financing to over $1.2 billion, with investors including several pension funds and Visa Ventures as a strategic investor. According to public information, Airwallex's annualized revenue reached $720 million in March 2025. The fund pool model has indeed helped it secure a place in the cross-border payment market, successfully attracting a large customer base with payment needs. It processes over $130 billion in transactions annually.

In just ten years, Airwallex has established itself in the global payment sector and secured significant financing, undoubtedly making it a unicorn in Web2 payments. As a beneficiary of traditional payments, it is inevitable that there is a sense of "established players looking down on newcomers" regarding the impact of stablecoins on traditional payments.

What Do Crypto People Say?

Jack Zhang's clear and somewhat harsh denial of stablecoins has sparked dissatisfaction, leading many in the crypto community to respond.

Huma Finance Co-Founder Richard Liu: You fail to recognize the fundamental issues with the payment system.

Don't deceive yourself into thinking that you (Airwallex) have reduced foreign exchange costs to the limit. Your clients are still paying for fees and high restrictions; the fundamental problem is that you still rely on an outdated and predatory banking system.

Danny @agintender: Why not eat meat porridge?

The reason you think the conversion costs of stablecoins are higher than traditional fiat currencies is that you only see the convenience and lack of restrictions in certain regions. For people in countries with strict foreign exchange controls, stablecoins are often the only viable option.

I think our customer bases are completely different—your clients do not feel this pain point and may even dislike our approach; while my clients cannot afford that "luxury" and have no choice but to rely on stablecoins.

heliuslabs CEO mert: Your platform's fund flow efficiency is also quite poor, which is why I prefer cryptocurrencies.

Mask Network CEO @suji_yan: Hehe…

Why not try transferring $10 million in ten seconds? :)

Wublockchain Editor-in-Chief Colin Wu: Stablecoins are more convenient; the barriers for beneficiaries will eventually be dismantled.

Twitter User Earning Artist: Jack is discussing this from the perspective of his strongest moat, "compliance."

Twitter User Crypto Veda @thecryptoskanda: The tail wags the dog.

Simon Taylor: The charm of stablecoins lies in speed and transparency; Jack's focus solely on fees is too narrow.

Is Airwallex Really Cheaper and More Efficient?

Jack Zhang began by comparing costs to prove that stablecoins have no advantages. However, the scenarios he mentioned are limited to "B2B cross-border payments in G10 countries." In the broader payment segments worldwide, Airwallex cannot cover everything. For individual users or audiences in underdeveloped regions, they cannot enjoy the so-called fast and cheap services of Airwallex.

Twitter user @rachzoooo mentioned: Airwallex's fund pool operating model is similar to Wise, which establishes local entities and accounts in various locations, using local payment rails to process transactions, allowing funds to avoid truly "cross-border" movement. This enables Airwallex to provide faster and cheaper transfer services than the expensive and slow SWIFT.

In a16z's report "How stablecoins will eat payment, and what happens next," it points out that stablecoins are indeed more efficient than local paths like ACH, while providing near-instant global settlement, 24/7 availability, and extremely low costs.

Conclusion

Whether stablecoins are useful or not will naturally lead to vastly different opinions from different perspectives.

In developed regions, payment systems are already sufficiently mature, leaving little room for stablecoins to play a role. However, the main users of stablecoin services are not developed mainstream countries; the demand for stablecoins is continuously growing among users in Latin America and Africa.

Relying on the traditional payment system to thrive while remaining in a comfortable zone and refusing to acknowledge the real demand for stablecoins in emerging markets, Jack Zhang, as a beneficiary, is seen by many as acting in a way that "the tail wags the dog" from within a mature financial payment system.

Looking outward, this debate is also a microcosm of the clash between traditional finance and crypto: Jack aligns with the traditional side, while the crypto community bets on the future. From different standpoints, it seems there is no absolute right or wrong. The GENIUS Act grants stablecoins M1 status, and the subsequent FOMO after Circle's listing has already shown sufficient market confidence in stablecoins. As stablecoins continue to expand, the friction and integration between crypto and traditional financial payments are still on the way.

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