# How to Build a Non USD Stablecoin | Kevin Zhang (Loon) at ETHConf

- Channel: [ETHGlobal](https://streameth.org/ethglobal)
- Date: 2026-07-09
- Duration: 17:06
- Topics: Loon, Kevin Zhang, CADC, ETHConf, non-USD stablecoin, Canadian dollar stablecoin, stablecoins, FX, foreign exchange, velocity of money, monetary sovereignty, on-off ramps, liquidity, market making, domestic payment rails, Pix, UPI, MiCA, Clarity Act, regulation, Circle, Tether, Bridge, Paxos, USDC, EuroC, Wintermute, Cumberland, Jump, cross border payments, SWIFT, Wise, Airwallex, AUM, treasuries, yield, monetary policy, reserve currency, digital assets
- Watch: https://streameth.org/watch/yt-Q1qXrJa9JCo
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1qXrJa9JCo

## Description

In this talk, Kevin Zhang, co-founder of Loon, the issuer of Canadian dollar stablecoin CADC, explains why the playbook for building a non-US dollar stablecoin is fundamentally different from a US dollar one. He shares that Loon is Canada's largest stablecoin with about two-thirds of the market, launched the first Canadian dollar stablecoin in 2021, and did around half a billion dollars in transactions over the past year. He maps the global rise of local stablecoins across Europe, Asia (Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand), Africa (Nigeria, Cameroon), and a booming Latin America (Brazilian Real, Argentine Peso, Mexico), envisioning a network of stablecoins enabling unique new use cases.

Kevin contrasts the two models. The US dollar stablecoin playbook is to accumulate AUM, lock it in treasuries, and earn yield, which works spectacularly for Tether but is becoming a race to zero as Circle, Paxos, and Bridge compete by distributing more yield to partners, ultimately becoming asset managers charging basis points like banks. Non-US dollar stablecoins have a different advantage: an FX conversion is inherent in almost every transaction, value that is usually captured by centralized exchanges. By decoupling the fiat on-off ramp from the FX component, a stablecoin issuer can become the on-off ramp while a separate provider handles foreign exchange, significantly reducing onboarding costs. He walks through the core principles of building a stablecoin: regulation (Canada's conflicting federal and provincial regimes, Europe's MiCA revision, the US Clarity Act, and the UK rethinking limits), politics (the Gary Gensler era versus today's climate), and the deeper driver of monetary sovereignty, since countries want citizens using local currency rather than ceding monetary supremacy to the US dollar. He stresses trusted infrastructure and efficient fiat on-off ramps to hold the peg, integration with domestic payment rails like Brazil's Pix and India's UPI, catering to local geography, and the hard problem of liquidity and market making since major market makers like Wintermute, Cumberland, and Jump have not yet entered. He closes on velocity of money as the biggest opportunity, noting CADC's roughly $2 million market cap generated $500 million in volume and millions in FX revenue, and argues coupling on-off ramps with issuance (a synergy Circle missed by not acquiring Bridge) is key to building the future non-US dollar stablecoin FX network.

00:00 Introduction
00:11 Meet Loon and CADC
00:44 Why Not Everyone Uses the US Dollar
01:06 Kevin's Background in Crypto
01:34 Launching the First Canadian Dollar Stablecoin
01:58 Mapping Stablecoins Around the World
02:32 Latin America's Local Stablecoin Boom
02:55 Toward a Network of Stablecoins
03:27 The US Dollar Stablecoin Playbook
03:51 Why AUM Is a Race to Zero
04:34 Why the Yield Model Is Unsustainable
04:34 The FX Advantage of Non-USD Stablecoins
05:08 Decoupling On-Off Ramps From FX
05:41 The Core Principles of Building a Stablecoin
06:27 Regulation in Canada and Beyond
07:08 MiCA, Clarity Act, and the UK
07:31 Why Monetary Sovereignty Matters
07:52 Escaping US Monetary Supremacy
08:46 Why Politics Plays a Big Part
09:14 The Gensler Era and Its Aftermath
09:41 Why Trusted Infrastructure Is Critical
10:09 Why Efficient On-Off Ramps Hold the Peg
10:32 Connecting Domestic Payment Rails Like Pix and UPI
10:58 Catering to Local Geography
11:41 Why Liquidity and Market Making Is the Hardest Part
12:10 Convincing the Biggest Market Makers
12:32 Toward a 24/7 Always-On FX Market
13:04 Disintermediating SWIFT and the Banks
13:42 Velocity of Money as the Biggest Opportunity
14:05 How CADC Did $500 Million on $2 Million AUM
14:53 Why FX Is the Cornerstone
15:17 The Non-USD Playbook Recap
15:41 The Bridge Acquisition Circle Missed
16:12 Why Circle Should Own Its On-Off Ramps
16:37 Building the Future Non-USD Stablecoin Network
17:00 Closing

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