What is Circle’s plan and playbook for non-USD stablecoin expansion?

While the headline out of Washington last week was the SEC’s SuperApp policy framework, the quiet story that flew under the radar was Circle President Heath Tarbert’s visit to Korea - meeting with the central bank governor, the country’s largest banks, and top exchanges.

Why does this matter?

I’ve been saying for some time: the future of stablecoins is multi-currency. With Korea’s Digital Assets Basic Acts (DABA), a regulatory framework equivalent to the U.S. GENIUS Act, nearing passage, Circle is positioning itself for its third major Asian market expansion.

In this week’s research note, I’ll break down Circle’s multi-currency stablecoin expansion playbook through three critical lenses:

• Market conditions – what needs to be in place for adoption to scale

• Political & policy alignment – how regulatory clarity drives expansion momentum

• Distribution strategy – building the rails for institutional and retail demand

  
  

Let’s dive in.

Market Conditions

Circle’s stablecoin business is both an AUM and a volume business. The more usage, the more AUM grows naturally and the more interest it can earn on the reserves. EURC was the first non-USD stablecoin Circle launched and it covers the entire EU area with more than 40M crypto users and 4 out of the top 20 global digital asset markets.

As I wrote earlier in the year in Stablecoin: King of Digital Assets, the top 3 crypto usage markets in East Asia are South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan. Here are their respective sizes:

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