The long-term narrative of stablecoins and tokenization

During the past week at the Davos Forum, BlackRock's Larry Fink became the busiest person. As the co-chair of the forum, he hosted several high-profile guest interviews and explicitly declared "Tokenization is inevitable" at the forum, proposing that future financial markets would operate on a "One Common Blockchain." Let's discuss the long-term narrative of "stablecoins" and "tokenization."

The current international system is based on U.S.-led rules, but now the U.S. can neither maintain the post-Cold War global hegemony model (relying on military power to underpin global order, but it costs too much) nor perfectly retreat to the traditional Monroe Doctrine's geopolitical contraction (relying on tariffs, industrial policies, and geopolitical games, but at the cost of global influence). So, is there a third way for the U.S. to use financial tools with minimal spending while maintaining global hegemony?

Stablecoins and tokenization might be the direction of this third way. It is neither a return to the post-Cold War global hegemony model nor a retreat to the traditional Monroe Doctrine's geopolitical contraction. Instead, it leverages financial infrastructure paired with highly precise military power to continue dominating the world.

First, stablecoins. In the past, the U.S. relied on the central banks of China and Japan to buy U.S. Treasuries. Now, foreign central banks are reducing their holdings, while Tether and Circle have quietly become top holders of U.S. Treasuries (with holdings exceeding those of sovereign nations like Germany and Australia). When USDC and USDT are used globally, they are denominated in U.S. dollars, backed by U.S. Treasuries or dollar assets, and operate within a regulatory framework influenced by the U.S. This means ordinary people worldwide are spontaneously creating demand for U.S. dollars, U.S. Treasuries, and U.S. financial regulatory influence. The U.S. government doesn’t need to deploy troops, build bases, or station forces. This is an extremely low-cost extension of hegemony because stablecoins are essentially digital dollar colonies issued by the private sector.

Next, tokenization. When stocks, bonds, funds, and real estate are tokenized, the key isn’t just going on-chain—it’s about whose legal framework they operate under. If the regulatory framework is U.S.-led, with U.S. securities law interpretations, KYC and AML standards, and investor protection rules, it’s equivalent to global assets running on a U.S. legal operating system. Moreover, this financial infrastructure is naturally suited for the AI era. When AI agents start replacing humans in trading, payments, and asset management, they need programmable, 24/7, globally unified financial interfaces. Traditional banking systems can’t provide this, but stablecoins and tokenized assets can. Whoever builds this infrastructure first will control the settlement layer of the AI economy.

This path simultaneously solves three major structural challenges: no need for unlimited military expansion, no need for long-term overseas occupation, and no need to persuade domestic voters to support wars. Yet it still maintains dollar centrality, capital market centrality, rule-making power, and the U.S.’s dominant position in the global system. Recently, the SEC, CFTC, Treasury, and Congress have gradually shifted toward guidance rather than blanket bans, opting for innovation within licensed and regulated frameworks to turn them into a new generation of dollar infrastructure. This signals that stablecoins and tokenization may become the starting line for this path.