Collins said the next phase of stablecoins will focus on yield-sharing and financial infrastructure as dollar-pegged tokens face regulatory exposure and differ from CBDCs on programmability and surveillance.
Reeve Collins said the stablecoin industry is moving into a “2.0 era” as current infrastructure shows structural weaknesses, especially a model in which issuers keep the income from reserve assets while users receive dollar liquidity but no yield. He reiterated that Tether invests customers’ dollar deposits in U.S. Treasuries and earns about 3%–4%, retaining that full return rather than passing it on to holders. Collins said competition will increasingly center on financial infrastructure and yield-sharing models. He also warned that dollar stablecoins remain exposed to U.S. regulation and said they differ from central bank digital currencies in their programmability and potential for financial surveillance. Separately, he introduced STBL, a decentralized dual-token protocol that separates a payment stablecoin from a yield-bearing token, and said it would allow banks, brands and sports teams to issue their own stablecoins with selected reserve assets and tailored yield-sharing rules. He has also said investors should focus early on AI infrastructure and maintain long-term Bitcoin holdings.