stable coins

Story: AMRO Economists Warn AI Stablecoin Loop Could Lock 13 Nations Into Dollar Dependency

By Evie Vavasseur

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Why Stablecoins Win the AI Payment Race. Fu and Huang's argument rests on a specific kind of payment need that AI creates.

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What ASEAN+3 Countries Are Being Told to Do. Fu and Huang direct their warning at a specific group: the thirteen ASEAN+3 nations.

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The Broader Stakes. What makes the AMRO paper notable is that it frames stablecoin dominance as a geopolitical and…

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Two economists from the ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office are raising alarms about a dollar trap hiding inside the AI boom. And it's not the one most people are watching.

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Chengxu Fu and Xiaguo Huang, writing for AMRO, argue that the real battleground in the AI race isn't about which country builds the smartest models.

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Dollar stablecoins are already operational. That's the key.

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Fu and Huang's argument rests on a specific kind of payment need that AI creates. As AI systems move into logistics, inventory management, and treasury operations — what they…

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So stablecoins get the first-mover slot. And first movers in payment networks tend to stay there.

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There's a secondary effect too. Stablecoins are typically backed by U.S. Treasuries as collateral. So as stablecoin supply grows to meet AI-driven demand, demand for U.S.

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Fu and Huang direct their warning at a specific group: the thirteen ASEAN+3 nations. That's Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore,…

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More context: Visa Bets on OpenUSD and Tokenized Deposits in Stablecoin Push

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The prescription has two main parts. First, build regional data centers. If AI infrastructure in the region runs on locally owned and locally denominated systems, the dependency…

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Without those steps, Fu and Huang think the risk is clear: ASEAN+3 nations become consumers of a financial system shaped around U.S.

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It's a structural concern, not a short-term market call. And it's probably more urgent than most regional policymakers currently treat it.

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What makes the AMRO paper notable is that it frames stablecoin dominance as a geopolitical and macroeconomic issue, not just a fintech one.

The Currency Analytics

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