Professor Huasheng Gao’s Monograph Stablecoin: The Future of Digital Finance is Selected for the 35th Edition of the “Jiefang Book List”, with Book Reviews Published by Executive Dean Jun Qian and Others | Info

Release time：2026-01-09    

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Lately, the monograph entitled Stablecoin: The Future of Digital Finance and co-authored by Huasheng Gao, Deputy Dean of Faculty and Research at FISF and Professor in Finance, together with Yaheng Lin, a macro strategy analyst at a leading domestic fund management company, was selected for the 35^th edition of the “Jiefang Book List”. The book integrates academic perspectives, industry practices and policy frontiers, offering insightful and systematic responses to the emerging financial phenomenon of stablecoins. For readers concerned with fintech trends, digital currency governance and the compliant development of Web3, this is undoubtedly a cutting-edge read worth paying attention to.

Jun Qian, Executive Dean of FISF and Professor in Finance, made a book review as below: In a sense, the history of finance is a history of the search for an “anchor”. From shells to gold, from the US dollar under the Bretton Woods system to the commitments of central banks in the era of fiat currency, humanity has long been striving to find a stable fulcrum for the flow of value. Today, we once again stand at a new historical threshold. As blockchain technology seeks to rebuild trust through algorithms and smart contracts, that very fulcrum is facing profound upheaval and reinvention.

Jun Qian

Executive Dean of FISF

Professor in Finance

In recent years, stablecoins—once regarded as a marginal experiment in financial innovation—have gradually moved center stage. Such a rise reflects a profound tension within the current digital financial system. On one hand, native crypto-assets such as Bitcoin, despite embodying the ideal of decentralization, have struggled to fulfill basic monetary functions due to high volatility and technological shortcomings. On the other hand, the traditional financial system, while backed by established credit, faces bottlenecks in efficiency and openness. It is precisely within this dialectical interplay that “stablecoins” have emerged as an institutional compromise—balancing efficiency with “stability”. However, public and even industry understanding of the essential nature and the complex operational ecosystem of this new phenomenon, as well as the challenges correspondingly posed to existing systems remains fragmented.

The book Stablecoin: The Future of Digital Finance, recently published by Professor Huasheng Gao as one of the co-authors, who is also my colleague from FISF, offers a timely and systematic academic analysis and “retrospective” of this emerging phenomenon. From my daily conversations with Professor Gao, I have often sensed his attitude toward financial innovation—one that is both perceptive and prudent. That same attitude is fully reflected in this book. Rather than being swept away by the clamorous “wealth-creation stories” of the market, he calmly situates stablecoins within the long-term evolution of the monetary system, and dissects their true value and potential risks as a piece of “digital financial infrastructure” through rigorous logical reasoning.

With the wave of digital finance sweeping across the globe, various economies have gradually introduced and refined their own regulatory frameworks for stablecoins. Stablecoins have thus become a focal point of discussion in the field of financial innovation and are increasingly seen as a critical piece of infrastructure bridging the traditional financial world and the world of crypto assets. As one of the first systematic guides to stablecoins available in the market, this book aims to delve into stablecoins as a new form of financial infrastructure, offering readers a comprehensive and clear cognitive framework to help them cope with this financial transformation with composure amid the technological surge.

What is most impressive about this book is that the authors do not regard stablecoins merely as a technological innovation. Instead, they define them as an “attempt at (partially) decentralized transformation”, which is very coherent logically. If the early crypto “punks” sought to build a utopia completely detached from fiat currency, then the emergence of stablecoins, in effect, represents a “return” and a “handshake” with the existing financial order.

By tracing the evolution of stablecoins—from the “wild growth” of USDT (Tether) to the compliance-driven development of USDC (the world’s second-largest stablecoin), the book reveals a central thesis: to truly move from the margins to the mainstream, digital finance must establish a connection between on-chain efficiency and off-chain credit anchors. Such a connection is no longer about disruption; rather it is about institutional embedding. The authors characterize this as the “ChatGPT moment” for crypto assets—a highly forward-looking judgment. It signals that the industry's focus is shifting from speculative behavior to practical application, from disruptive innovation to constructive integration.

As financial scholars, we are more concerned with the institutional contest beneath the surface of technology. The elaboration on the “digital Bretton Woods system” in the book demonstrates the authors’ grand global vision. When the US dollar, through stablecoins, may likely circulate globally—especially in emerging markets—in a lower-cost, higher-penetration manner, this actually constitutes an extension of dollar hegemony in the digital age. The book soberly analyzes how this “on-chain dollar” generates a closed capital loop through purchases of U.S. bonds, thereby influencing global monetary policy transmission mechanisms. This perspective is extremely valuable for understanding the current international financial geopolitics. It serves as a powerful reminder that the competition over digital currencies is never just about code—it is also about monetary sovereignty, clearing networks, and the power of financial discourse.

The book does not evade the formidable challenges confronting stablecoins. From the collapse of the algorithmic stablecoin UST to the potential impact of “financial disintermediation” on traditional commercial banks, the authors consistently exhibit scholarly caution and restraint. Rather than offering an uncritical endorsement of the technology, they devote considerable space to exploring risks and regulation. The book contends that the development of stablecoins is actually compelling an upgrade to the traditional regulatory system. How should their legal status be defined? How can the risk of money laundering be prevented? And how can the transparency of reserve assets be ensured? These questions are addressed with detailed case studies and institutional recommendations. This risk-based approach to thinking reflects the academic philosophy consistently upheld by FISF: “Respect the Market, Respect the Rule of Law”.

Particularly noteworthy is the reflection made in the book on the path for China to take that fully embodies the spirit of applying knowledge to practical use. After analyzing the regulatory practices in the United States, the European Union, Singapore and elsewhere, the authors turn their attention to Hong Kong. As a financial hub linking Mainland China with the globe, Hong Kong is exploring a steady and open path for stablecoin development through regulatory sandboxes and a Hong Kong dollar stablecoin pilot. The book presents a logically rigorous and step-by-step conception of pushing forward the tokenization of real-world assets (RWA) with stablecoins and building an offshore RMB stablecoin system, which not only offers a theoretical response to the functional upgrading of Hong Kong as a financial center, but also provides highly constructive ideas for a “lane-changing” acceleration of RMB internationalization in the digital age.

In an era of great transformation, we tend to overestimate the short-term explosive power of technology while underestimating its long-term institutional influence. The value of this book Stablecoin: The Future of Digital Finance may not lie so much in providing a definitive answer as in offering a coordinate system for sober observation. It allows us to see how the foundation of digital finance should be laid once the noise of speculation fades away. The authors, with their solid academic grounding and fluent prose, dissect this complex financial engineering with clarity and depth—offering both theoretical rigor and practical relevance.

For policymakers, financial practitioners and all readers concerned with the future shape of the economy, this book offers a rational window and a systematic knowledge framework, telling us the financial world of the future will be neither purely decentralized nor a rigid continuation of tradition. Rather, it will be a dynamic search for a “stable” anchor through interplay and integration. This may be precisely the kind of academic composure we need most in the current era full of uncertainties.

Yi Wang, Editor-in-Chief of the Jiefang Book List column, commented: In an era of of great transformation, we tend to overestimate the short-term explosive power of technology while underestimating its long-term institutional influence. The value of this book Stablecoin: The Future of Digital Finance may not lie so much in providing a definitive answer as in offering a coordinate system for sober observation. It allows us to see how the foundation of digital finance should be laid once the noise of speculation fades away. The authors, with their solid academic grounding and fluent prose, dissect this complex financial engineering with clarity and depth—offering both theoretical rigor and practical relevance.

The “Jiefang Book List” is the first reading list in China targeting at leading cadres as its primary audience, while also recommending quality books to the general public. Upholding the book selection philosophy of “Value, Depth and Cutting-edge Perspectives”, the 35^th edition features 10 recent selected publications involving a wide range of fields such as history and humanities, technological innovation and social governance, bringing both depth of thought and contemporary relevance to the massive readers.

One book to understand stablecoins from scratch

Grasp the new dynamics of global financial order

Jointly recommended by

Shang-Jin Wei / Ye Zhou

Lin Cong / Qingping Nie

Shuai Xiang