Ant Group Shuts Down Speculation: No Rare Earth-Backed Stablecoin Collaboration With PBoC
Rumors of a rare earth metals stablecoin partnership between Ant Group and China's central bank just got debunked—hard. The fintech giant slammed the brakes on market chatter that had traders dreaming of commodity-pegged digital yuan alternatives.
Why the hype? Rare earth elements (those obscure but critical metals powering everything from EVs to missiles) would've made for one hell of a collateral play. Imagine a crypto token backed by the very materials that fuel tech supremacy battles between superpowers.
But Ant isn't playing ball—at least not publicly. Their denial comes as China tightens its grip on both crypto innovation and rare earth exports. Classic case of 'we'll disrupt finance, but only when Beijing says so.'
Meanwhile, Wall Street hedge funds were probably already drafting their 'Web3 meets geopolitics' investment theses. Nothing gets VCs hotter than a narrative that combines supply chain dominance with blockchain buzzwords.
Ant Group and blockchain
Ant Group itself has active blockchain projects, including plans to integrate Circle’s USDC stablecoin into its blockchain platform once the token achieves full compliance in the U.S. under the GENIUS Act. It was also considering launching stablecoins backed by the Hong Kong dollar.
Other major Chinese firms are moving in the same direction. JD.com said in June it plans to seek stablecoin licenses in multiple countries to reduce the cost and time of cross-border payments.
The e-commerce giant aims to start with business-to-business transactions before expanding to consumer use.
