Founding Document
Stablecoin Ubiquity
The intellectual foundation for a clearing system that transforms stablecoins from crypto instruments into universal digital cash.
Download the WhitepaperPublished March 2025
By Tony McLaughlin
The case for a stablecoin clearing system
Stablecoins circulate globally at enormous scale, yet they remain largely confined to crypto trading and DeFi. The massive untapped opportunity is in general-purpose payments; remittances, B2B cross-border transactions, payroll, commerce, treasury management. The barrier is not technology. It is the absence of a standardised, regulated, scalable way to redeem stablecoins at par value through the banking system.
This whitepaper sets out the thesis that stablecoins will reach their full potential only when par-value redemption is ubiquitous; when any holder can walk into any participating financial institution and convert digital money to local currency at face value, instantly and reliably.
Ubyx is the clearing infrastructure that makes this possible.
The Problem
Six barriers to stablecoin ubiquity
The many-to-many problem
Multiple issuers and multiple accepting institutions create a many-to-many integration challenge. Each institution must individually connect with each issuer. The complexity scales geometrically. Ubyx collapses it to a hub model: connect once, reach everyone.
No par-value redemption guarantee
Stablecoins trade at slightly varying prices on exchanges. Without guaranteed par redemption, they cannot be treated as cash equivalents by corporate treasurers.
Accounting treatment
Under IAS7, stablecoins fail the "cash equivalent" test because they carry counterparty risk and lack guaranteed redemption. If they sit on the balance sheet as digital assets rather than cash, corporate CFOs will not hold them.
Singleness of money
Central banks require that all forms of money denominated in a currency are interchangeable at par. Today, different stablecoins trade at slightly different prices, violating this principle.
Issuer revenue fragility
Stablecoin issuers depend almost entirely on interest income from reserves. In a low-rate environment, the business model collapses. A clearing system introduces transaction-fee revenue.
Regulatory compliance gap
No standardised framework exists for AML, KYC, and sanctions checking in stablecoin redemption. Each off-ramp has different standards.
Key Themes
What the whitepaper argues
An ecosystem state change, not a technical breakthrough
Ubyx is not a new blockchain or cryptographic innovation. It is an institutional, commercial, and legal innovation that changes the state of the stablecoin ecosystem from fragmented and crypto-only to mutualised and general-purpose. The paper uses the metaphor of a phase transition in physics: the same molecules, fundamentally different properties. The catalyst is solving the clearing and redemption problem.
Quadratic beats linear
A mutualised clearing network scales quadratically, with value proportional to the square of participants. Bilateral deals scale linearly. Game theory dictates that the mutualised network wins. This is the same insight that created card networks, ACH systems, and SWIFT.
Cash equivalence unlocks corporate adoption
IAS7 accounting treatment is the key to corporate treasury adoption. If stablecoins can be classified as cash and cash equivalents on the balance sheet, rather than digital assets, corporate treasurers can hold them. This requires guaranteed par-value redemption on demand through regulated channels; exactly what a clearing system provides.
Three audiences, one design
The whitepaper is written for three audiences simultaneously: the crypto community, traditional finance, and regulators. It asks each to accept compromises for the others' benefit. Accounting treatment matters to corporates, not crypto. Decentralisation matters to crypto, not regulators. Singleness of money matters to central bankers, not issuers. Ubyx bridges all three.
Progressive decentralisation
Ubyx starts centralised, for speed and regulatory credibility, and progressively decentralises toward community governance. Governance tokens are allocated by transaction flow share and rebalanced periodically. The analogy is Linux and Apache: centralised creation, decentralised governance.
Contents
What the whitepaper covers
PDF, 58 pages
“Stablecoins will reach their full potential when par-value redemption is ubiquitous. Ubyx is the infrastructure that delivers this.”
From the whitepaper abstract