Interview with StakeStone founder Charles: Why was he selected by WLFI, and how to eat the first crab worth USD1?

On the occasion of the launch of the StakeStone USD1 liquidity distribution product, a conversation with Charles to understand the new variables and dividend window of the largest Alpha stablecoin market in 2025.

Written by: Web3 Farmer Frank

What is the core competitiveness of the stablecoin business?

"Credit".

The response from StakeStone founder Charles is straightforward and candid. In the context of the stablecoin battle, the typical embodiment of "credit" is precisely represented by USD1, which relies on the credit backing of the Trump family. In less than 100 days since its inception, USD1 has achieved what can be described as a phenomenal "zero to one" growth and complete coverage on top exchanges:

Since March, the issuance has soared to 2.1 billion USD, surpassing FDUSD and PYUSD to become the fifth largest stablecoin globally (according to CoinMarketCap data), and has fully landed on top CEXs such as HTX, Bitget, and Binance. In contrast, PYUSD, backed by PayPal for two years, is still struggling to gain traction.

In Charles's view, "the essence of currency issuance is credit"; the stronger the credit, the faster it will be adopted. Therefore, he is confident that USD1 will be the most growth-potential stablecoin in 2025.

So, why did StakeStone secure the first ticket?

"The development logic of USD1 is vastly different from USDT/USDC," the unique credit backing of USD1 enables its promotion in the real world to have greater cross-domain adoption and resource integration capabilities compared to traditional stablecoins.

Therefore, the maximum growth potential of USD1 does not lie within the Web3 space, just as the larger proportion of today's applications of USDT and USDC are also in the traditional financial sector, including but not limited to: large financial institutions, cross-border trade companies, small and medium enterprises, individual entrepreneurs (such as freelancers, content creators), and regions with underdeveloped financial services. These areas will greatly benefit from the proliferation of digital stablecoins.

The widespread adoption of USD1 on the chain must be achieved through a full-chain liquidity hub. Therefore, according to Charles, as early as the second half of 2024, StakeStone began discussions with World Liberty Finance (WLFI), the issuer behind USD1, regarding cooperation on full-chain liquidity.

The key factor that truly prompted WLFI to choose StakeStone is the multi-chain operation capability demonstrated by StakeStone in a series of products such as Berachain. This is especially reflected in its functional performance within the "full-chain liquidity distribution" it has consistently built. Therefore, in the ecological landscape of USD1, StakeStone actually plays a dual role: as the official minting channel and the full-chain liquidity hub. This provides USD1 with a one-stop portal covering everything from minting to full-chain and all scenarios.

From this perspective, having StakeStone take on this USD1 crab can be seen as a perfect match between WLFI and USD1. This interview also hopes to understand the collaboration logic between WLFI/USD1 and StakeStone through Charles's perspective, and what fundamental changes he sees in the stablecoin landscape, in order to unveil the key pieces of this new narrative of stablecoins.

At the end of last year, why did WLFI choose StakeStone?

When asked about the reason StakeStone became the first DeFi minting platform for USD1, Charles first broke down the issuance mechanism of USD1:

After institutional users complete KYC certification and other compliance processes, they need to deposit USD into a designated custodial bank account. Once WLFI verifies the arrival of the funds, the institution can mint USD1 in minimum units of 100 USD — however, the USD1 balance during this process remains in the account system and has not been on-chain yet. It must enter the public chain world through "withdrawal," and currently, USD1 officially supports only Ethereum and BNB Chain (with the latter accounting for over 98% of the total issuance).

In other words, in the current on-chain environment, USD1 has not achieved native multi-chain deployment. To enable the circulation and use of USD1 on other chains, there are currently only two methods. One is to rely on the cross-chain bridge launched by the official, but this is far from sufficient, as it can only solve the "cross-chain existence" of assets and cannot build a complete application scenario; the second is to build an independent full-chain distribution system through partners.

StakeStone is cutting into this critical link, utilizing its multi-chain distribution and scenario operation capabilities to distribute USD1 across more than 20 chains, achieving native landing and application in multi-chain DeFi scenarios.

According to Charles, StakeStone has been in multiple rounds of discussions with the WLFI team since the end of 2024, and the latter's decision to collaborate is largely due to StakeStone's established asset distribution system within the multi-chain ecosystem, as well as its rich experience in integrating returns from blue-chip assets, which can quickly bring USD1 into real DeFi application scenarios. This also means that from the very beginning of USD1's inception, StakeStone is not just a "minting party," but more like a strategic partner as it moves towards the multi-chain ecosystem—responsible not only for achieving full-chain distribution of USD1 as a core hub but also for building yield products across various DeFi chains, providing yield certificates, and creating an on-chain usage soil for USD1. In the future, it aims to achieve an integrated connection of "fiat deposit → minting → multi-chain distribution → on-chain and off-chain scenario docking," constructing a truly one-stop liquidity closed-loop service for USD1.

The following are relevant interview questions:

Frank: We see that StakeStone is the "official on-chain liquidity support partner for USD1 stablecoin." Could you introduce the specifics of the collaboration with WLFI? What core support and services will StakeStone provide for USD1?

Charles: Currently, we are both a minting service provider for USD1 and deeply involved in its governance ecosystem, taking on the task of building liquidity across the entire chain. Future cooperation plans include:

Payment products: Launch a payment tool based on USD1, allowing global businesses to directly receive USD1 via Visa/Mastercard, and integrate into the traditional banking system as stablecoins become legal.

Full-chain DeFi yield products: Launching a one-stop full-chain yield product on-chain, the USD1 LiquidityPad Vault product;

CeDeFi Products: USD1CeDeFi products that integrate traditional financial institution dollar wealth management products with quantitative trading returns.

Compliance channel construction: Apply for multiple country payment licenses to establish a one-stop exchange path for fiat currency → USD1, gradually replacing the OTC channel.

Frank: Currently, the qualification requirements for Mint service providers are very high for USD1. Why did WLFI choose StakeStone as the first DeFi protocol minting service provider, and what prompted this collaboration between the two parties?

Charles: Our cooperation with the USD1 team began during its private placement phase at the end of last year (Q4 2024). We participated early in its technical roadmap planning, and based on our successful Liquidity distribution experience in multiple projects, the USD1 team recognized our capabilities in multi-chain ecosystem development, leading to a strategic partnership between both parties.

Frank: Previously, StakeStone had not launched any businesses or products directly related to stablecoins. Does this deep cooperation with USD1 mark StakeStone's official entry into the compliant stablecoin field?

Charles: We indeed did not have stablecoin products before. This collaboration is our first step into the stablecoin infrastructure. In the future, we will definitely develop a complete set of products around USD1, including the USD1 LiquidityPad full-chain liquidity distribution vault, USD1 minting, and stable yield products, etc.

These are things that StakeStone is already skilled at, but previously we mainly served blue-chip assets or public chain assets. Now we will provide a complete "stablecoin as a service" solution for USD1.

Frank: As the "first DeFi protocol issuer of USD1", will regular users be able to directly mint or cross-chain exchange USD1 through StakeStone in the future?

Charles: We definitely hope to encapsulate this mechanism well, for example, users can bind their bank cards through the StakeStone front end, deposit fiat currency directly, and then the system backend mints USD1 through our institutional account, which is then bridged to the user's chosen target chain. This achieves a one-stop experience for the entire process from deposit, minting to distribution.

We are currently laying out compliance licenses in this regard, especially in regions like Singapore and Hong Kong where the compliance licenses are relatively clear, to open up payment channels. In the future, users may be able to deposit and exchange through methods such as credit cards, SWIFT, and wire transfers for USD1.

"The larger application scenario for USD1 is not in the coin circle," a new growth paradigm of on-chain liquidity × global liquidity.

"USD1 has a larger application scenario, not in the coin circle."

StakeStone is also preparing a payment product based on USD1, providing compliant and efficient global aggregation acquiring products for small and medium-sized enterprises, digital nomads, and self-employed individuals.

He believes that the market indicated by this direction is the larger second half of stablecoins that cannot be ignored. StakeStone aims not only to provide full-stack support for USD1 as "stablecoin as a service," but also attempts to evolve it into an "on-chain dollar API" that serves real settlement and global circulation.

The following are the relevant interview questions:

Frank: The full-chain stablecoin distribution product may seem a bit abstract. Could you provide an example of how ordinary users can use USD1 across the entire chain through StakeStone, participate in different ecosystems, and earn returns?

Charles: It can be simply understood as a "three-step process". Users first deposit USD1 into StakeStone's Liquidity pool, StakeStone issues interest-bearing stablecoin certificates, and users then participate in target chain blue-chip DeFi scenarios (such as Morpho, Pendle, etc.) to earn returns by holding the interest-bearing certificates.

At the same time, StakeStone will distribute the underlying USD1 into the entire chain ecosystem, participating in the deployment of cross-chain multi-yield strategies.

Finally, users can receive chain-wide rewards effortlessly by holding the income certificates.

Frank: From the perspective of ecological cooperation, how do you evaluate the synergistic value of this StakeStone × USD1 collaboration? Does this mean that both parties will form a long-term alliance of a stablecoin + Liquidity protocol to jointly penetrate multi-chain and cross-regional markets?

Charles: Our future will be a one-stop portal for USD1 from minting to distribution.

In the crypto space, we have launched a dedicated LiquidityPad vault for USD1 to assist in its expansion into multi-chain DeFi scenarios. We will also release RWA+CeDeFi products based on USD1 to provide stable yield services. In the traditional finance sector, we are advancing the application and cooperation for payment licenses, aiming to create a compliant, low-friction path for users to mint USD1 directly from fiat currency, truly unlocking the entry point for off-chain funds.

For this closed loop to truly land and run smoothly, it still relies on the push of three key variables: first is regulatory progress, such as whether policies like the U.S. "Stablecoin Act" can be smoothly implemented, which will directly determine the legality of the fiat channel for USD1; second is the penetration ability of scenarios, that is, whether small and medium-sized enterprises, cross-border freelancers, and global trade institutions will adopt USD1 on a large scale as a payment tool; finally, it is the ability to expand yield-bearing products, that is, whether the on-chain yield of USD1 can be further expanded to RWA, government bonds, and other off-chain assets, as well as CeDeFi.

The biggest Alpha in 2025 is "legal stablecoin", and the real implementation of a closed loop depends on the joint driving force of regulation, scenarios, and products.

What should be the next step?

The stablecoin industry has entered the second half, and the focus of competition is shifting from scale and traffic to compliance capability and scenario penetration.

In addition to product cooperation, Charles also shared his understanding of the future landscape of the industry with respect to stablecoins during this conversation. He believes that legitimate stablecoins represent a groundbreaking watershed moment for the crypto industry, specifically:

The emergence of legal stablecoins will gradually erode the market of traditional fiat currencies in cross-border payments. This is because it is evident that crypto stablecoins have lower ledger security maintenance costs and lower global access costs.

The emergence of legal stablecoins will end the existing P2P deposit and withdrawal structure, which will ultimately be replaced by legal exchange license enterprises in various countries.

The emergence of legal stablecoins will gradually blur the business boundaries between traditional banks and Web3 stablecoin asset management projects. In the future, the only differences will be the accounting methods (centralized database accounting VS on-chain accounting) and regulatory requirements, and their business boundaries will become increasingly close.

Therefore, StakeStone will firmly embrace the stablecoin market in 2025, especially emerging stablecoins like USD1 that have the potential to become legitimate stablecoins.