Odaily reported, citing Financefeeds, that Tether co-founder Reeve Collins believes the stablecoin industry is entering what he called a “2.0 era.” Collins said the current stablecoin infrastructure still has structural issues, and that the next generation of stablecoin designs needs to address a central problem: users do not receive the yield generated by the reserve assets backing the tokens they hold.
From “$1 for One Token” to Reserve Yield Distribution
Collins described the stablecoin 1.0 model as a simple arrangement in which “the user provides $1, and the issuer issues one token.” That structure gives users convenience for payments and transfers, but it does not allow them to share in the returns produced by the reserves held by issuers. In his view, the next phase of stablecoins is not only about continuing the token issuance model, but also about how financial services become infrastructure and how that infrastructure allocates yield.
He said financial services will increasingly become a basic infrastructure layer, and that users will not care which bank sends their money. In that setting, artificial intelligence agents may select different financial ecosystems based on the interests of users. As a result, the next stage of competition in stablecoins will focus on financial infrastructure and yield distribution models, rather than only on payment and transfer functionality.
Dollar Stablecoins, Regulatory Reach and CBDC Differences
On regulatory issues, Collins disclosed that he still holds Bitcoin on a long-term basis. He also said dollar-denominated stablecoins are, in essence, an extension of the U.S. financial system, which means they carry the risk of regulatory reach. His comments frame dollar stablecoins within the existing financial system rather than as instruments fully separate from traditional finance.
Collins also pointed to differences between dollar stablecoins and central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs. According to him, CBDCs could bring stronger programmability and greater financial monitoring capabilities. The discussion around a stablecoin “2.0 era” therefore spans product structure, the ownership of reserve yields, competition in financial infrastructure, and the boundaries of regulation.