SINGAPORE, Sept. 19, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The inaugural Stablecoin Summit 2023 jointly hosted by XREX and the Unitas Foundation took place at Singapore's Raffles Hotel on 15 September, featuring prominent speakers and experts from the global stablecoin industry. Speakers included Paolo Ardoino, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Tether, the world's largest stablecoin issuer,Circle's Strategy and Policy Vice President Yam Ki Chan, OKX's Global Chief Commercial Officer Lennix Lai, Matrixport's co-founder & Chief Operating Officer Cynthia Wu, ADDX's Vice President of Private Capital Markets Timothy Lui, BitMEX's Chief Executive Officer Stephan Lutz, Polygon Labs' Global Head of Payment Aishwary Gupta, and many other heavyweights. The summit attracted international and local attendees passionate about expanding stablecoins' real-world use and paving the way for tomorrow's digital finance.

As the world's first stablecoin issuer introducing Tether USD (USDT) in 2014, Tether's CTO Paolo Ardoino underlined how USDT provides breakthrough liquidity and market efficiencies that offer advantages superior to incumbent technologies. "The world has witnessed a shift (in) USD usage," Ardoino stated, adding that "USDT is now a product used in real life by more than 100 million people, particularly in emerging markets, to deal with uncertainties of the local national currencies such as depreciation and inflation."

During his fireside chat with XREX's co-founder and Group CEO Wayne Huang, Ardoino also unveiled Tether's forward-looking plans for Tether Gold (XAUt), a digital token backed by gold. A self-proclaimed "Bitcoiner'', Ardoino believes that while Bitcoin is a better solution than gold, not everyone understands Bitcoin yet. Gold, on the other hand, is universally valued. For more than three years now, Tether has explored a spectrum of reserve assets apart from USD and USD-denominated securities, with gold being an obvious choice amongst various options.

"I think that XAUt will be an important product for the next few years, which is 100% backed by physical gold in Switzerland," Ardoino said. "That will represent a huge step for stablecoins and commodity-backed stablecoins for the next few years."

Huang, Group CEO of XREX and co-host of the Stablecoin Summit, pledged strong confidence for the stablecoin movement in the next decade. "Stablecoins will enhance the transparency, programmability, and self-sovereignty of assets used as stores of value," Huang said. "They represent unique mediums of exchange that can ultimately increase the velocity of money and promote GDP growth."

"Currency thrives when freedom and competition unite," said Winston Hsiao, co-founder and board member of Unitas Foundation. Hsiao unveiled the Unitas Protocol that introduces the concept of unitized stablecoins. As much as USD-denominated stablecoins have brought great value to the digital asset industry, the reality is that most countries still use their local currencies, rather than USD, for day-to-day domestic transactions. The Sing Dollar for Singapore or the Indian Rupee for India are examples.

Unitas's unitized stablecoins bridge this gap by providing users with guaranteed, on-chain USD liquidity while still allowing them to quote, transact, and communicate using their respective countries' primary Units of Account (i.e. their local currencies).

Stablecoin regulations in the US, EU, Japan, Singapore, and Hong Kong have made significant progress in the past year, with many regulators releasing formalized guidelines for the issuance, distribution and utilization of stablecoins. Currently, more than 60 countries are exploring Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs).

By popular demand, XREX and the Unitas Foundation have announced a second Stablecoin Summit to be held in 2024.

For those who missed the event or wish to recap highlights, clips of various sessions will be shared on the Summit's official YouTube channel. Find more event pictures at stablecoinsummit.com and join the official Telegram channel for the latest updates.

About the organizers:

XREX is a blockchain-enabled financial institution working with banks, regulators and users to redefine banking together. XREX provides enterprise-grade banking services to small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in or dealing with emerging markets, and novice-friendly financial services to individuals worldwide.

Unitas Foundation is the team behind Unitas Protocol, which defines a new stablecoin category -- unitized stablecoins. These serve as units of account representing emerging market currencies. Unitas' unitized stablecoins are over-reserved with exogenous USD stablecoins (e.g., USDT, USDC, Dai), thereby providing transaction ease and efficiency for people in emerging markets while secured by underlying USD stablecoin value.