Mintlayer Expert Interview Series #4

We're back with another Mintlayer Expert Interview, featuring insights from leaders building the future of finance and technology.

While much of the crypto conversation focuses on trading and speculation, stablecoins are quietly becoming the infrastructure layer for real-world payments, cross-border settlements, and business operations. Nowhere is this shift more visible than in Asia, where practical adoption is outpacing regulatory frameworks.

Our guest, Rachel Ong, is Strategic Partnership Manager at XT.COM, one of the leading crypto trading platforms serving global markets with particular strength across Asia. With over a decade of experience in entrepreneurship and finance, Rachel brings a ground-level perspective on how stablecoins are being used today in practice, not in theory.

In this conversation, Rachel discusses why stablecoins already outperform bank rails, what Asia's wallet-ready culture means for adoption, the bottlenecks preventing broader business use, and how exchanges think about stablecoins as infrastructure.

‍The Real-World Case for Stablecoins

‍You recently joined a panel on stablecoins versus traditional finance. From your point of view, what are stablecoins already doing better than bank rails today

‍From what I see across the market, stablecoins already outperform traditional rails on the basics. Transfers move quickly, settle almost instantly and are not restricted by borders or banking hours. Anyone who has ever waited on cross border wires knows how painful T+1 to T+3 (1-3 Business day settlement) can be, so the jump to seconds is a very real upgrade.

Costs are another clear difference. In many Asian corridors, banks still take a few percent off each transfer. On chain, the cost drops to almost nothing, and you get complete visibility of the transaction instead of waiting on unclear bank updates.

In our daily operations at XT, this matters. Stablecoins allow us to handle payouts, partner settlements, treasury movements and liquidity flows with far more flexibility than legacy rails can offer. When you operate across multiple markets and time zones, that efficiency becomes meaningful.

The scale in the market reflects this shift. Stablecoins are holding around the 300 billion range this year, with on chain volumes already in the trillions. On XT, the deepest liquidity and most active trading pairs are already stablecoin based. At this stage, stablecoins are not a niche product. They are part of the core infrastructure that keeps the ecosystem running.

Asia seems to be one of the most active regions for stablecoin payments and remittances. What are you seeing on the ground that people outside the region might miss?

Asia is very practical. People use whatever removes friction, and in many corridors traditional rails are still slow, expensive and unreliable. When a stablecoin transfer lands in seconds and costs almost nothing, adoption is immediate. It has nothing to do with being “crypto natives” and everything to do with solving weekly payment pain.

Another thing people outside the region often miss is how wallet-ready Asia already is. QR payments, super apps and digital balances are part of daily life. Stablecoins fit naturally into that behaviour, so the learning curve is almost zero.

There is also a lot of on the ground experimentation. Regulators, exchanges, fintechs and payment companies are testing stablecoin use cases faster than in other regions. That creates real data on what works, and users here respond quickly to products that actually solve a problem.

For us at XT, we see partners choosing stablecoins simply because they need reliability across borders. Stablecoins match the pace of how Asia moves, and that is why adoption is happening faster here than almost anywhere else.

‍

For someone new to crypto, how would you explain why stablecoins matter beyond just “dollar tokens on chain”?

I usually explain stablecoins as a better form of digital cash. They keep a stable value, but they move with the speed of the internet. You can send money globally in seconds without dealing with banking hours, cut off times or intermediaries.

They also plug directly into digital systems. Businesses can use them for payouts, cross border settlements, treasury flows and even automated contracts. That is something traditional rails were never designed to support.

The point is not that they are tokens. The point is that they combine stability with efficiency. They let people move value quickly, predictably and at low cost. That is why stablecoins matter far beyond the crypto space, and why so many companies in Asia are already using them quietly behind the scenes.

What are the biggest bottlenecks you see for stablecoins to move from traders and crypto natives into everyday business use at scale?

Technology is ready. The hesitation now comes from how businesses operate in the real world. Most companies want clearer regulatory treatment before they move meaningful volume, especially if they operate across several Asian markets that are all moving at different speeds.

The second bottleneck is the practical side of handling stablecoins. Finance and operations teams want clean settlement flows, clear reporting and simple reconciliation. If they still need to manage ten steps manually, they will stay with the rails they already know.

Another thing that slows adoption is accounting and audit comfort. For a CFO or a finance director, the questions are always about classification, controls and how auditors view the asset. If those frameworks are not standardised yet, businesses move cautiously.

Payment infrastructure also needs time. Not every PSP, gateway or merchant system is ready to settle in stablecoins today. The last mile still depends heavily on legacy rails, so businesses do not feel the full benefit yet.

So it is not about whether stablecoins work. They already do. It is about making them easy for businesses to plug into without changing their entire workflow.

How do exchanges like XT.com think about stablecoins from a risk and product point of view, compared to other assets?

At XT, we view stablecoins as part of the core infrastructure that keeps value moving across the platform. They are not treated like typical trading assets. They function as settlement rails behind liquidity, treasury flows and user transactions.

From a risk perspective, the level of due diligence is much stricter. We look closely at the issuer’s reserve structure, where those reserves are held, the legal claim framework and the quality of audits or attestations. We also monitor how the stablecoin behaves during volatility or redemption pressure because confidence and liquidity matter more here than price action.

On the product side, stablecoins anchor most of our major pairs and power a wide range of user and partner activity. They support everything from trading volume to cross border flows, campaigns and operational settlement. When we integrate a stablecoin deeply, it has to meet a higher standard because it becomes part of the exchange’s daily operations.

In short, stablecoins are treated as infrastructure. They are evaluated with more depth, integrated more carefully and monitored more closely than most other assets on the platform.

If you look three to five years ahead, do you see stablecoins living mostly on general purpose chains, or on more specialized infrastructure that is built for payments and RWAs?

I think we are moving into a mixed environment where both will exist, but each will have very clear roles. General purpose chains will continue to host most of the liquidity, trading activity and open innovation. They have the network effects, and developers will keep building there.

Stablecoins will stay very active on these chains because they remain the default settlement asset for exchanges, users and DeFi participants.

At the same time, we will see more specialised payment and RWA-focused infrastructure emerging. These will prioritise predictable fees, compliance tooling and smoother integration with banks and regulated institutions. Businesses that need clarity and reliability will gravitate toward these chains because they behave more like financial rails than experimental Ecosystems.

For a platform like XT, the important part is that users will not feel the underlying complexity. Stablecoins will move across whichever chain provides the best combination of speed, cost and reliability. Platform tokens will sit alongside them but serve a different function. A token like XT Token drives participation, incentives and ecosystem engagement, while stablecoins handle the actual transfer of value. Both coexist, but each plays a distinct role.

If adoption continues at the pace we see in Asia, the average user will not ask what chain they are on. They will simply expect instant settlement, low cost and consistent performance. That is the direction the industry is heading toward.

Closing Thoughts

Rachel's perspective offers something often missing from stablecoin conversations: a view from the ground where adoption is actually happening.

Three insights stand out. Stablecoins are already infrastructure, not experiments. XT.COM treats them with stricter due diligence than most assets because they function as settlement rails. Asia's adoption advantage isn't about being "crypto native" but about removing friction. In corridors where traditional banking is slow and expensive, stablecoins solve immediate payment problems. The wallet-ready culture means stablecoins fit naturally into existing behavior.

The bottlenecks to broader adoption aren't technical. The technology works. The hesitation comes from regulatory clarity, accounting standards, and integrating stablecoins into existing business workflows without rebuilding entire operations.

Rachel's vision of a mixed environment where general-purpose chains coexist with specialized payment infrastructure makes sense. Liquidity stays on general-purpose chains. Businesses needing predictable fees and compliance will gravitate toward specialized rails. This is why Mintlayer MWS focuses on making stablecoin integration practical for enterprises, offering compliant infrastructure for B2B payments, global payroll, and treasury operations that fits into existing workflows. Users won't care about underlying complexity, they'll expect instant settlement and low cost.

Stablecoins represent the clearest path from crypto experimentation to financial infrastructure. Rachel's insights from Asia's adoption wave show us what that transition actually looks like.

Thanks for joining us for our fourth Expert Interview. Stay tuned for more conversations with the leaders shaping the future of finance and technology.

About the Guest: Rachel Ong

Rachel Ong is Strategic Partnership Manager at XT.COM, a leading crypto trading platform, where she drives Launchpad and Mainchain Ecosystem initiatives. With over a decade of experience in entrepreneurship and finance and more than five years specializing in blockchain technology, Rachel brings strategic insights from both infrastructure and partnership sides of crypto adoption.

In 2017, Rachel co-founded Omnis Crypto Pte Ltd, a cryptocurrency mining company in Singapore, where she spearheaded mining operations and managed trading portfolios.

Where to find Rachel:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachelongjy/