Hong Kong's highest financial official stated that the government will "submit a stablecoin bill to the Legislative Council as soon as practicable." A Hong Kong financial official stated that once negotiations make progress, the government will focus on submitting a stablecoin licensing bill. Hong Kong's Financial Affairs and Treasury Bureau Director, Christopher Hui, stated that depending on the consultation results and progress of preparatory work, the government will submit the bill to the Legislative Council as soon as possible.

Decentralized stablecoin issuer Ethena Labs announced the opening of a new USDe deposit pool with a limit of $50 million.

Y Combinator, a Silicon Valley incubator, has added stablecoin finance as a category in its new request for startups (RFS) list. The RFS is a tradition that dates back to 2009, where YC offers up ideas they want to see made real. YC is looking to fund teams building B2B and consumer products on top of stablecoins, tools and platforms that enable stablecoin finance, and more stablecoin protocols themselves. Despite $136 billion worth of stablecoins being issued to date, only about seven million people have transacted with stablecoins, and there are only a handful of major stablecoin issuers.

M^0 is a protocol that allows global institutions to mint stablecoins backed by alternative treasury bills. The whitepaper, website, and other details about the protocol have been released. The team includes heavyweight members from MakerDAO and Circle, and received a $22.5 million seed round led by Pantera Capital last year. M^0 Labs CEO Luca Prosperi stated that M^0 aims to target the offshore US dollar market of $50 trillion to $20 trillion. The M^0 protocol is set to launch in Q2 2024, with initial users expected to include crypto-friendly institutions, DeFi investment funds, and market makers.

We are grateful for the opportunity to provide feedback on the FCA's discussion paper on stablecoins regulation. The response herewith is informed by our extensive risk assessment of USDM, a regulated Real-World Asset (RWA) token backed by short-term U.S. Treasuries, and asset overview of USDY, a tokenized note anchored by U.S. Treasuries and bank deposits. Additionally, our insights are aligned with the recent S&P Stability Assessments of centralized stablecoins, reflecting our commitment to maintaining the highest standards of safety and compliance in this evolving market.

Mińsk Mazowiecki, a town in Poland, has introduced MinsCoin, a stablecoin that can be used at local businesses. The token is designed to be user-friendly and will only circulate within the town. UrbanChange, the platform behind MinsCoin, plans to launch similar coins in other European cities. The project aims to incentivize positive actions within communities and promote economic participation and solidarity.

Janet Yellen, the US Secretary of the Treasury, explained the latest work of the Financial Stability Oversight Committee (FSOC) to the US House Financial Services Committee, warning of the risks of cryptocurrency and stating that she will continue to cooperate with Congress on cryptocurrency legislation. She emphasized the need to comply with applicable rules and regulations and called on Congress to regulate the spot market for stablecoins and non-security cryptocurrencies through legislation.

According to DefiLlama data, the total market value of stablecoins has reached 135.627 billion US dollars, of which USDT has a market value of about 96.125 billion US dollars, accounting for 70.87%.

According to a report released in December 2023 with the assistance of 10 media organizations in China, Thailand, South Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam, by Vietnamese venture capital firm Kyros Ventures, more than 70% of the 5,268 participants surveyed stated that cryptocurrency accounts for more than half of their asset portfolios. However, 33.3% of Chinese investors hold a large amount of stablecoins, second only to Vietnam (where 58.6% of investors hold stablecoins). Except for Vietnam and China, most investors in other countries have reduced their holdings of stablecoins, indicating that they are more willing to take risks in investing in crypto assets.

According to DeFiLlama data, stablecoins worth over $200 million flowed into Solana's network on January 31st (the day JUP was launched), setting a new record for the highest daily inflow since May 2022.