The shift in the cloud of the air: from despising stablecoins a year ago to the high-profile entry of capital today

Author: Gu Yu, ChainCatcher

On June 26, the tokenized financial settlement network Metal announced the completion of its seed round financing, led by the cross-border payment giant Airwallex and its fund Capital49.

This investment is noteworthy not only because Airwallex is an important fintech company in the global cross-border payment sector but also because its founder Jack Zhang was one of the sharpest critics of stablecoins just a year ago.

In June last year, Jack Zhang publicly stated that stablecoins could not reduce remittance costs between mainstream currencies, and that cryptocurrencies had not demonstrated clear practical use cases over the past 15 years. In his view, if users ultimately still need to receive euros, pounds, or other fiat currencies in their bank accounts, then the cost of converting stablecoins to local currencies might be higher than that of the traditional interbank foreign exchange market. This sparked fierce rebuttals from leaders in the crypto industry.

The stark contrast between last year's "cold observation" and today's "heavy investment" reflects the underlying consensus reached by global traditional financial giants in 2026 when facing the penetration of Crypto: you can be bearish on speculative narratives, but you cannot deny the generational revolution in settlement efficiency brought about by stablecoins and tokenized networks.

1. What is Metal?

To understand Jack Zhang's change in attitude, one must first understand what Metal aims to do.

According to public information, Metal is a global settlement network and Layer-1 blockchain for tokenized finance, natively supporting AI agent trading, with built-in identity verification (KYC) and permission authorization systems, possessing institutional-level compliance and privacy.

Its goals extend beyond stablecoin payments; it aims to support the tokenized settlement of all financial products, including stocks, bonds, and funds, catering to a trillion-dollar institutional trading market.

On the team front, Metal co-founder Loong Wang was the founder of the well-known cross-chain protocol Ren Protocol, with deep technical expertise in distributed systems and on-chain settlement; while another co-founder, Catherine Porter, previously served as the global partnerships lead for Meta's globally renowned Libra (later renamed Diem) project.

Through this investment, Airwallex will introduce tokenized financial products into its payment network, including not only stablecoins but also tokenized bank deposits, money markets, securities, and a range of other assets.

Airwallex's core capabilities include global accounts, local collections, foreign exchange, corporate payments, and cross-border settlement. If Metal provides the on-chain settlement layer, Airwallex can offer fiat currency channels, corporate clients, compliance interfaces, and global payment scenarios.

Just this month, Airwallex announced the completion of its $320 million Series H financing, with a valuation soaring to $11 billion, ample funds, and plans to create an AI-native financial operating system.

This is indeed a win-win strategic investment and collaboration, common in the business world, but what makes it special is that Airwallex's founder was criticizing cryptocurrencies and stablecoins just a year ago.

2. Jack Zhang Still Stubborn

In June 2025, Jack Zhang posted on X platform, stating, "Investors always ask me about stablecoins and how they can reduce foreign exchange costs; but if you are remitting from dollars to euros, and the recipient still requires euros in their bank account, I really don't see how stablecoins can reduce costs— the cost of converting stablecoins to the receiving currency is far higher than that of the traditional interbank foreign exchange market."

"Cryptocurrency is a field I have never been able to understand. Over the past 15 years, I still haven't seen how cryptocurrencies have truly helped. Even with stablecoins being less volatile, I don't see what benefits they can bring to B2B transactions, unless used for very niche currency markets, but those markets have very low liquidity." Jack Zhang continued.

In no time, many industry leaders in the crypto space engaged in a debate, continuously promoting the practical applications and value of stablecoins, but Jack Zhang remained unconvinced and held onto his views. At that time, most opinions characterized him as a "defensive old financial vested interest"—Airwallex's core barrier is its licenses in various countries and global capital pool, and the rise of stablecoins naturally impacts its business model.

Now, Jack Zhang is showing through his actions that his views on stablecoins are changing. However, in the face of the ridicule from crypto users, he also emphasized that his attitude towards cryptocurrencies has not changed, and stablecoins do not belong to cryptocurrencies.

"Stablecoins are currencies that tokenize fiat currencies on the blockchain, and unlike cryptocurrencies, they are backed 1:1 by underlying reserve assets, thus fundamentally different from unsupported crypto tokens," Jack Zhang responded today to the sarcasm from Dragonfly investor Omar Kanji.

Nevertheless, this is still good news for the stablecoin and crypto payment sectors.

3. Stablecoins and Crypto Payments are Being Rapidly Accepted by Mainstream Systems

Airwallex's investment in Metal is not an isolated case; the traditional financial system has been competing to lay out in the stablecoin payment sector over the past year.

Stripe has successively acquired Bridge and Privy to complete its stablecoin payment and wallet infrastructure; Mastercard acquired BVNK to enter the stablecoin corporate payment space; large banks such as JPMorgan, Citi, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo have also been reported to plan to launch tokenized networks to respond to competition from crypto companies in 24/7 settlement. a16z views these actions as signals that finance is crossing the critical point of migrating on-chain.

At the same time, the rhetoric of traditional financial leaders is also changing.

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has long been skeptical of crypto, but after JPMorgan launched its institutional payment dollar deposit token JPMD, he acknowledged that stablecoins "actually exist" and stated that JPMorgan must participate to understand their development.

Visa's crypto head Cuy Sheffield's judgment is closer to Jack Zhang's revised version: stablecoins may not disrupt card networks in U.S. retail payments, but in emerging markets such as Latin America, Africa, and Asia-Pacific, stablecoins can provide access to dollar acquisition and modern financial tools.

These cases collectively indicate that stablecoins are being redefined by traditional finance. They are no longer just dollar substitutes in exchanges but are becoming a common interface for corporate finance, cross-border payments, on-chain assets, bank deposits, and dollar liquidity.

For Airwallex, stablecoins are no longer just a theoretical question of "whether they are useful," but a strategic question of "whether to occupy a position."

If stablecoins continue to develop, future corporate clients may not only need traditional multi-currency accounts but also stablecoin accounts; not only local bank collections but also on-chain dollar settlements.

This will change the competitive boundaries for payment companies. In the past, payment companies competed on licenses, local bank networks, foreign exchange costs, and API capabilities. In the future, they will also need to compete on stablecoin settlements, on-chain compliance, wallet infrastructure, and on-chain liquidity management.

Thus, Airwallex's investment in Metal is not a sudden "faith in crypto," but rather a ticket to enter a new table in advance. It can continue to question the cost-effectiveness of stablecoins in the G10 currency corridor, but it cannot ignore the structural opportunities that stablecoins present in emerging markets, corporate finance, and on-chain settlements.

A year ago, Jack Zhang asked: What is the use of stablecoins?

A year later, Airwallex's leading investment in Metal provides the answer: at least it's worth investing in; you cannot just stand on the sidelines.