BroadChain has learned that Circle, the issuer of USDC, is once again setting its sights on a Renminbi (RMB)-pegged stablecoin.
In an interview with Reuters in Hong Kong, Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire described RMB-pegged stablecoins as a "huge opportunity." He even suggested that China could launch its own RMB-pegged stablecoin within three to five years. If this materializes, it could reshape cross-border payments and potentially challenge the U.S. dollar's dominance in digital finance.
Currently, Chinese regulators prohibit the unauthorized overseas issuance of RMB-pegged stablecoins and have tightened scrutiny over the tokenization of real-world assets (RWA) within the mainland.
Data from Outlier Ventures indicates that USD-backed stablecoins will constitute 99.8% of the fiat currency supply in 2025. Among them, Circle's USD stablecoin USDC is projected to reach $75.3 billion by the end of 2025—a 72% year-on-year increase.
Yet Circle's journey in China has been far from smooth.
According to Forgiven, co-founder of Conflux, Circle made a high-profile entry into China in 2016, establishing an independent operating entity named "Shike China," registered in Tianjin. That June, Circle raised $60 million in a funding round led by IDG Capital, with participation from Baidu, Everbright Holdings, CreditEase, Wanxiang Blockchain, and the China International Capital Corporation (CICC) Alpha Fund. At its peak, Circle's China team neared 50 employees.
However, payment-related businesses require regulatory licenses—which Circle never secured. Its operations remained stagnant for years, leading industry observers to dismiss it as "all talk and no action."
In August 2020, Shike China (Tianjin) filed for simplified deregistration and officially exited the Chinese market the following month.
Nevertheless, Circle persisted. In 2023, its investment arm, Circle Ventures, joined IDG Capital and the Conflux Foundation in a $10 million Series A+ round for the offshore RMB stablecoin CNHC. However, the project collapsed in May of that year after Shanghai police cracked down on its USDT over-the-counter (OTC) business.
Now, in 2026, Circle is once again expressing optimism about RMB-pegged stablecoins. But the landscape has shifted: former partners have largely moved on, and the regulatory environment is markedly different.
From direct market entry to indirect investment, and now to watching from the sidelines, Circle's decade-long pursuit of an RMB stablecoin underscores both its strong desire to tap into the Chinese market and the profound differences between U.S. and Chinese financial infrastructure and regulatory approaches.
With Hong Kong recently implementing a licensing regime for stablecoin issuers, a new springboard may now be available for Circle. Yet whether it can truly gain a foothold remains to be seen.