US Aims to Use Digital Assets to Hold Dollar Hegemony… Institutional Integration Accelerates

The US Treasury buybacks played an important role in improving market liquidity, which had a positive effect on digital asset markets.

It was the largest inflow since the start of the year, with roughly 3 trillion won flowing into Bitcoin ETFs over a single month. This influx of institutional capital helped raise the stability and credibility of the digital asset market.

Recently, the movements of coins other than Bitcoin have diverged, and the market is polarizing according to whether coins have practical utility and value creation. The era of the 'indiscriminate rally' in which all altcoins rose together has ended, and assets with real use cases and revenue structures are clearly leading gains. Institutional investors, including venture capital firms, are changing their investment criteria by asking questions like 'Are they making money?' and 'Is there utility?'

Blockchain technology itself has now settled as a theme and is being perceived as an extension of existing financial infrastructure.

Just as internet banking transitioned to mobile banking, various financial products such as stocks, bonds, payments, and remittances are being digitized through tokenization. This signifies a new infrastructure shift that raises the efficiency of the financial system.

Institutional investors, including venture capital firms, now focus on questions such as whether digital assets are actually being used and whether they generate money through clear revenue structures. This is an indicator of market maturity, making real value creation more important.

Interest in digital assets has spread to traditional investor groups in their 40s, 50s, 60s, and even those over 70, causing a shift in investor age demographics. As a result, the investment share of the 20s and 30s has been declining relatively. This shows that digital assets are no longer the exclusive domain of younger generations and are beginning to be perceived as part of the overall financial market.

In particular, it is important to track the pace at which the total issuance of stablecoins such as USDT and USDC is growing. How widely digital assets are used in existing payment systems such as Visa and Mastercard is also an important indicator, and the issuance volume and figures for RWA (real-world asset tokenization) are essential for gauging utility.

For coin investment, one must clearly distinguish whether a coin represents a direct asset or the utility flow of its ecosystem. Stablecoins, whose core is value stability, are close to direct asset-backed tokens. Coins used within a specific blockchain ecosystem, by contrast, reflect the utility flow of that infrastructure. Therefore, factors that affect price, such as buyback or burn mechanisms for each coin, must be checked carefully.

Remittance stability and the price volatility of investment assets can have conflicting characteristics. To resolve this contradiction, a trend is spreading in blockchain ecosystems toward issuing stablecoins separately to secure remittance stability. For example, XRP issues a separate stablecoin called RLUSD for stable remittances, and this strategy of separating purposes is gradually expanding across most blockchain ecosystems.

The US SEC, most financial institutions, and major companies such as Samsung are focusing on improving inefficiencies in financial services through blockchain technology and streamlining services. This shows that traditional finance is approaching digital assets as infrastructure for expanding and improving existing systems.

It is not merely to avoid falling behind in competition, but to proactively jump in to play a central role in the evolving ecosystem. This suggests that digital assets are no longer on the periphery but are being integrated into the center of the financial market.

Existing financial institutions prefer collaboration with innovative startups and technology firms, and as a result, the valuations of companies that hold leadership in existing markets are also rising. This means that market leadership is gradually shifting toward traditional finance.

Within the digital asset market, the dollar accounts for 98 to 99 percent, and based on this dominant position, the US seeks to further entrench its economic hegemony by bringing the market into the institutional system. Actively pursuing institutional measures such as stablecoin legislation is part of this strategy.

Because blockchain technology is inherently open, a fundamental mismatch arises with China's ecosystem, which pursues a closed economic system. Due to this structural problem, China finds it difficult to secure independent leadership beyond limited responses.

The SEC's moves are also in line with the spirit of the CLARITY Act, prioritizing what is possible within the institutional system to drive market development. This shows that the US approaches the digital asset market from a national strategic perspective.

Because there remains an opportunity for Korea to decide how quickly to accept this change and how to use it, moving as swiftly as possible is important. A strategy is needed that accepts and utilizes digital assets as an industry rather than viewing them merely as objects of speculation.

The Korean digital asset market currently lacks the fundamental capacity to lead, relative to the scale of attention it receives. Compared with Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong, and Singapore, it is disadvantaged in many respects, not only in regulation but also in startup and technology environments. To build infrastructure commensurate with its market size and strengthen core capabilities, comprehensive environmental improvements such as regulatory reform, invigorating the startup ecosystem, and technology development support are urgently needed.