South Korea's stablecoin frenzy

plus: a central bank power panel, jobs, manufacturing, BTC and more

“Freedom is not constituted primarily of privileges but of responsibilities.” – Albert Camus ||

Hello everyone, I hope you’re all doing well! Not gonna lie, I am looking forward to a few days’ break, brain feeling a bit sluggish today 😝 – will be back on Monday, with no doubt an even more acute backlog list to tackle! Just in time for possible tariff confusion, market volatility, currency shifts and almost certainly more stablecoin news…

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I forgot to mention yesterday that on Monday I was invited onto Yahoo Finance to talk about stablecoins, crypto, BTC dominance and more – this is an abbreviated clip, but it covers some of the talking points.

Programming note: time for a short summer break – this newsletter will be skipping publication on Thursday July 3rd – Saturday July 5th. Back on Monday!

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IN THIS NEWSLETTER:

• The South Korean stablecoin frenzy

• The central bank power panel

• Macro-Crypto Bits: manufacturing, jobs, BTC, stablecoins, ETFs

If you’re not a premium subscriber, I hope you’ll consider becoming one! You get ~daily commentary on markets, tokenization, regulation and other signs that crypto IS impacting the macro landscape. As well as relevant links and music recommendations ‘cos why not.

WHAT I’M WATCHING:

The South Korean stablecoin frenzy

South Korea has long been ahead of other nations when it comes to crypto enthusiasm. Even back in the ecosystem’s early days, BTC and other assets would trade at a premium on Korean exchanges due to capital control friction. And a recent survey conducted by the Hana Financial Research Institute found that more than a quarter of respondents already own digital assets, with 70% (and 86% of current holders) intending to buy more over the coming year.

Still, the recent market frenzy around stablecoins has taken many by surprise – stablecoins are not exactly speculative assets. But stablecoin-related businesses can be, and expectations of strong growth have wreaked havoc with some share prices.

First, where did the expectations of growth come from? In part, from the likely passage of the GENIUS Act currently working its way through the US Congress, which is expected to trigger a flurry of institutional stablecoin activity. They’re also no doubt a reaction to the astonishing appreciation in the price of stablecoin issuer Circle since its stock exchange debut – at one point it was more than 360% higher than the IPO level, and as I type almost a month later, it is still up 180%.

But high expectations are also to do with a flurry of local stablecoin interest.