The CBDC-Stablecoin Conundrum: Sovereignty, Interoperability, and the Future of Cross-Border Payments

This panel will dissect the central challenge facing Asia's financial regulators: how to balance the push for national monetary sovereignty through a CBDC with the organic, market-driven adoption of private stablecoins for cross-border transactions. Rather than viewing this as a simple debate, the discussion will explore this dynamic as a "conundrum", a complex, interdependent problem that requires a multifaceted solution. The panelists will move beyond a theoretical discussion to propose practical regulatory frameworks and public-private partnership models that could unlock billions in economic value by making cross-border payments faster and cheaper, while also addressing critical concerns related to data integrity, financial stability, and geopolitical influence in Asia's evolving digital financial landscape.