The promise of a truly global, frictionless financial system is closer than ever, powered by the potential of stablecoins. Yet, the path from innovative code to real-world compliance is fraught with challenges. 

It was this critical juncture that Cobo, alongside our partners at BlockSec and with the support of our sponsors Amazon Web Services and BosiCloud, sought to explore at our recent “Make Liquidity Great Again: Stablecoins & RWA Strategy Forum” in Singapore.

We convened a brain trust of industry pioneers for a candid discussion on the practical realities of integrating digital assets into the global payment landscape. Guiding the conversation was Cobo’s own VP Alex Zuo, who steered a candid conversation with leading experts: Michael Wu of Interlace, Andy Yajin Zhou of BlockSec, Anjo Zhang from crypto capital markets firm GSR, and Jess Wang from Bahrain-licensed digital bank SGB. Their insights offered a clear-eyed blueprint for the future.

Photo: Cobo VP Alex Zuo

The Price of Entry: Mastering Security in the Digital Age

As traditional firms dip their toes into the crypto waters, they are met with what Andy of BlockSec aptly called the "first tuition fee": a stark lesson in security where "your private key is your money". He shared the cautionary tale of a payment firm losing $50 million to internal control failures, a potent reminder that the old financial security playbook is obsolete.

Photo: Andy Zhou, BlockSec

This foundational gap between traditional security mindsets and the unforgiving nature of self-custody is precisely where institutional-grade solutions, like those pioneered by Cobo, become indispensable. Andy further drove the point home by explaining that legacy AML frameworks, built on personal identity, are simply "not work" in crypto's pseudonymous world. A new paradigm of on-chain, technologically-driven compliance is required.

Forging the New Financial Rails

The future of payments requires new infrastructure. Alex pivoted the conversation to the architects forging these essential rails.

Anjo from the global trading powerhouse GSR distilled the formula for a reliable settlement partner into two potent elements: "Money and security". This translates to the immense capital pools needed to ensure liquidity and the sophisticated global banking network required for seamless fiat on- and off-ramps, a capability GSR demonstrates by supporting 25 different fiat currencies.

Photo: Anjo Zhang, GSR

Jess from SGB offered a glimpse into this future, detailing their mission to build a digital-native bank that operates "at the pace of crypto," creating a 24/7 financial engine for a world that never sleeps. She described their vision for a real-time settlement network that bypasses the sluggish, legacy SWIFT system, allowing both fiat and stablecoins to move instantly within their ecosystem.

Photo: Jess Wang, SGB

On the Front Lines of Adoption: Lessons from the Card Market

To anchor the discussion in a real-world use case, the panel explored the crypto-linked card market. Michael of Interlace shared hard-won wisdom from the front lines, where his firm has already issued nearly 10 million crypto-based cards.

Photo: Michael Wu, Interlace

His key insight was a lesson in strategy: he warned against focusing exclusively on the hyper-competitive Chinese market, where razor-thin margins make profitability a constant battle. The true growth, he argued, lies in the emerging markets of the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. However, his most crucial warning was about sustainability. Many card ventures burn brightly but briefly, often extinguished by a failure to respect compliance. Chasing a "'no-KYC' dream," he noted, "is a fast track to being shut down" by the very payment networks they rely on, like Visa or Mastercard.

The Final Frontier: Conquering Crypto’s ‘Last Mile’

The discussion culminated by addressing the single biggest barrier to mass adoption. While the panel unanimously saw cross-border transactions as the killer use case, Michael delivered a powerful reality check, identifying the true bottleneck as the "last mile" problem.

The most advanced global payment network is only as strong as its weakest link. He powerfully argued that if converting local currencies into USDT still relies on a murky grey market, then the core promise of a seamless system remains unfulfilled. The real work, he contended, lies not in launching more stablecoins, but in building the legitimate and efficient infrastructure to solve this "last mile" challenge.

The insights from our forum paint a clear picture: the future of finance isn't a battle between Web2 and Web3, but a delicate process of integration. It requires forging new rails of liquidity, wrapping them in institutional-grade security, and navigating a complex global regulatory landscape.