The payment code of global trade is quietly being rewritten on Hainan, China's most open island.
On December 19, 2025, the day after Hainan's entire island began operations, a signing ceremony without media attention was taking place in the conference room of a five-star hotel in Haikou.
The signing parties are a well-established trading company from Singapore and a local processing enterprise from Hainan. The contract amount is not large, only 1.2 million USD, but the payment method is particularly special—both parties agreed to settle through compliant stablecoins. After pressing the confirmation button, what originally required several days and involved multiple intermediary banks for cross-border payment was completed in a few minutes, with fees only one-tenth of traditional channels.
This is not an isolated case. While the entire internet is still debating whether Hainan will snatch away Singapore's 'transshipment port' job, shrewd international capital, especially the most sensitive Singaporean businessmen, have already understood the essence of the game: the core of Hainan's port closure is not the simple replacement of goods flow, but the reconstruction of capital flow, information flow, and trade rules.
01 Eye of the Storm
At midnight on December 18, 2025, a milestone event in China's opening history occurs. With a notice from the Hainan provincial government, the entire island, covering an area of 33,900 square kilometers, officially starts port closure operations.
"Closing the port does not mean closing the island, but rather a higher level of openness." This marks the transition of the world's largest free trade port from blueprint to practical operation.
The new regulatory system of 'opening up the first line, controlling the second line, and allowing freedom within the island' has started to operate. The most direct impact comes from taxes: over 6,600 items can enter Hainan with zero tariffs, with coverage rising from 21% to 74%.
This means that the import costs of everything from high-end scientific research equipment to daily consumer goods will be significantly reduced. A chip company in Hainan importing a lithography machine could directly save over 100 million yuan.
02 Singapore's 'Hainan Strategy': From Competitor to Player
Just as public opinion places Hainan and Singapore in the arena of 'competition', Singaporean capital has already adjusted its posture and completed a beautiful 'flanking maneuver'.
They understand that they cannot compete with China in terms of hardware scale and hinterland market, so they chose a smarter strategy: to become 'co-builders' and 'rule exporters' in Hainan.
In the aviation industry, for example, the commercial operation of Haikou Meilan International Airport has already seen the presence of Singapore Changi Airport Management Company. They have brought world-leading airport retail and management experience to Hainan through joint ventures or consulting.
A more critical step lies in the industrial layout. Singaporean enterprises are rapidly relocating the primary processing stages of the supply chain to key parks such as Yangpu in Hainan.
A Singaporean food company transports its raw materials procured in Southeast Asia to Hainan duty-free, and after completing more than a 30% value-added processing locally, its products can enter the mainland market smoothly as duty-free.
Hainan has become their 'duty-free springboard' and 'super processing factory' for entering China's 1.4 billion domestic market. Singapore not only did not lose business but also benefited from China's policy dividends, making this bowl of rice even more fragrant.
03 Secret Frontline: How Stablecoins Become the 'New Infrastructure' of the Free Trade Port
The reshaping of goods flow is just a facade; the real transformation occurs along the secret frontline of capital settlement. After closing the port, the flow of goods between Hainan and the mainland is regarded as cross-border transactions, creating a massive new demand for cross-border payments.
Traditional bank wire transfer methods are time-consuming, incur high fees, and are subject to significant exchange rate fluctuation risks. The compliant stablecoin settlement supported by blockchain technology provides a precise solution.
In Hainan, this transformation already has the policy soil. According to the (Implementation Rules for the Pilot Business of Cross-border Asset Management in Hainan Free Trade Port), Hainan has reserved space for stablecoin exchange through the free trade account (FT account) system.
A three-step pilot plan is already in planning: from using offshore RMB stablecoins issued in Hong Kong, to connecting Hainan FT accounts allowing enterprises to settle, and finally launching onshore RMB stablecoins.
Market participants are already in place. For example, Yisheng Payment, a subsidiary of Caesar Travel, has started providing a dual-tool payment solution of 'legal digital currency + compliant stablecoin' for specific scenarios as a local institution in Hainan holding a full license for cross-border payments.
Cruise economy has become an excellent testing ground. Tourists use stablecoins like USDT to spend on cruises to Hainan, and after disembarking, they can instantly exchange it for RMB through the Yisheng payment system and shop directly at duty-free stores, improving the fund circulation efficiency by more than 90%.
04 The Ambition of Giants: When Industry Leaders Meet Blockchain
The response of traditional industry giants to this wave indicates a deeper integration. In June 2025, the executive team of Ant Group's technology division entered Hainan Huatie, a large equipment leasing company.
The core topics discussed by both parties are 'full asset on-chain' and 'RWA (Real World Asset Tokenization) stablecoin ecology'. Imagine a piece of engineering machinery worth tens of millions, whose ownership can be tokenized and split, traded, and financed on the blockchain, while the stablecoin anchored to that asset value can be used within the ecology for paying rent and settling maintenance costs.
This is not just a technological imagination, but an inevitable exploration under Hainan's strategy of developing modern services and high-tech industries. As the assets and transactions of high-end manufacturing, biomedicine, and other industries become increasingly complex and internationalized, the transparency, traceability, and settlement efficiency provided by blockchain and stablecoins will become key competitive advantages.
05 USDD sees stability as trust: the value anchor point in the free trade port
In this grand experiment, whether a stablecoin can succeed does not depend on the coolness of technology, but on two words: trust.
Trust stems from the transparency and reliability of value reserves, from extreme stability in a highly volatile market, and from a high degree of compliance that resonates with regulatory requirements.
#USDD sees stability as trust. The topic tag refers to the ultimate state pursued by all digital currencies dedicated to serving the real economy. In Hainan, China’s highest-level open pressure test field, any financial innovation must operate within the framework of 'closed operations and risk isolation'.
For stablecoins like USDD, which aim to become a bridge connecting the traditional world and the crypto world, this is both a strict examination and an excellent stage to prove their own value. It needs to demonstrate that it can not only achieve technical stability but also become a trusted, auditable, and regulated value circulation protocol.
The day after the port closure, researchers in a laboratory in Sanya Yazhou Bay are tackling seed technology; at Wenchang International Aerospace City, the launch plan for commercial rockets is already on the agenda.
Behind these 'hardcore' industries, a fierce competition for soft power surrounding money, data, and trust is also taking place. Singapore's professional service companies, such as law firms and consulting agencies, are entering Hainan in droves through platforms like the China International Import Expo to provide multinational companies with a full set of solutions 'from transaction to co-construction'.
The future of Hainan goes beyond sunshine beaches and duty-free shopping. It is attempting to answer a grand proposition: what is the ultimate form of a free trade port in the era of the global digital economy? The answer may be hidden in the stablecoin settlements completed in just a few minutes, as well as in the new paradigm of global trade that it represents, which is more efficient, transparent, and free.
@USDD - Decentralized USD #USDD以稳见信