According to Odaily, citing Financefeeds, Tether co-founder Reeve Collins said the stablecoin industry is entering a “2.0 era.” In his view, current stablecoin infrastructure still has structural issues, and the next generation of stablecoin designs needs to address a central problem: users provide the funds that support reserve assets, but they do not receive the yield generated by those reserves.
From a One-Dollar Token Model to Yield Sharing
Collins described the stablecoin 1.0 model as a simple arrangement in which “the user provides 1 dollar, and the issuer issues 1 token.” Under that framework, users receive the convenience of payments and transfers, but they do not share in the income produced by the reserve assets backing the tokens. He said the next stage of competition will not be limited to issuance itself, but will increasingly center on financial infrastructure and how yield is distributed across the ecosystem.
Collins also said financial services will gradually become infrastructure. In that setting, “users will not care which bank sends the funds.” He added that artificial intelligence agents can choose among different financial ecosystems based on users’ interests. As stablecoins move into the next phase, the ability to provide financial infrastructure and a yield-distribution model will become a key point of competition.
Regulatory Reach, Dollar Stablecoins and CBDCs
On regulation, Collins disclosed that he still holds Bitcoin on a long-term basis. He also noted that dollar-denominated stablecoins are essentially an extension of the U.S. financial system, which means they carry exposure to regulatory reach. He distinguished this model from central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, saying that CBDCs differ from dollar stablecoins and can bring stronger programmability and financial monitoring capabilities.