[ Bull Market’s Hero of the Day: ] Samuel Xu — A modest gentleman, who was brave to start a stablecoin!

A Gentle man, The Gentleman

Samuel Xu previously worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers, Softbank China, Yilong.com, Zhenghe Magnetic Capital, and TriChain Capital. In 2018, he officially took the helm of the 1:1-HKD-pegged stablecoin, HKDT.

After graduating from Tsinghua University the financial background, Samuel Xu (Xu Fei) and former Alibaba executive Wei Zhe, the current CEO Zhang Yong, chose the same first job. Back in the days, they chose PwC, the world’s largest accounting firm, as the first step for their career. More than two years of auditing experience has enabled him to build a very solid business foundation. With the accumulation of experience and resources, Samuel had the courage to seize the opportunity, and has chosen to start a business in the familiar field: an equity investment fund. After a long period of attention to the emerging blockchain industry, Samuel has decided to invest in it.

“Modest gentleman, gentle as jade” is the life motto that Xu always pursues and practices. The first thing I felt when I saw Samuel was that he looked younger and gentler in person than he looked in the photo, and that he acts mature and steady. When I was talking to him, I felt his gentlemanliness and geniality, which slowly relaxed me, as I was little nervous. By getting to know him better, I could feel his strong will and inner energy. According to a company’s staff reference, Samuel has strong work principles, he is active and rigorous, but acts harmoniously with everyone; everybody affectionately calls him “Older brother Xu”.

Xu Fei’s position for himself is “Soft to the outside, tough inside”. By his words, as the CEO of HKDT, he represents the image of the whole stablecoin industry, so he demands from himself to be honest and steady. As a matter of fact, a CEO often represents his company to a large extent. Stablecoins use blockchain technology, but in terms of product and service nature, they have strong financial attributes. This comprehensive quality is exactly in line with Xu’s rich working background, so it’s not surprising that Xu fully understands and loves stablecoin field, as well as explaining why he has devoted himself to HKDT.

HKDT: A Growing Bamboo?

HKDT is committed to becoming the largest stablecoin in Asia. It is based on the Ethereum ERC20 standard and is 1:1 pegged to the Hong Kong dollar. It has been traded on nearly 20 major digital asset exchanges. The daily transaction volume is hundreds of millions of Hong Kong dollars and the number of users is nearly 100,000. The issuer of HKDT, Anchor Financial Technology Development Ltd., has strategic partnership with Chunda Group and other partners. According to the public information, the Chunda Group has not only listed companies in mainland China and Hong Kong, but also has been deeply involved in the financial, artificial intelligence and blockchain industries.

“If you want to go fast, go alone. But if you want to go far, go together.”

In order to run HKDT well, Mr. Xu has put together a very strong and complementary team with comprehensive capabilities. They not only have rich resources and skills in blockchain field, but also have great strength in the traditional financial industry, that’s why people support and have confidence in HKDT.

In addition to the team’s service ability, another important factor is whether the stablecoin can be recognized by the market. According to Samuel, HKDT has initially explored an operational management system that is in line with its own characteristics and can serve all parties well. I believe that the future development of HKDT is not to be underestimated.

Mr. Xu believes that due to the strong network effect, the result of market competition must be based on all the stablecoins pegged to the same legal currency. One or two of them will take the larger market share, and the rest will just die or disappear. Stablecoins will be mapping of fiat currencies in the field of blockchain.

Why did the HKDT team choose to peg the Hong Kong dollar? Samuel explained: There are dozens of stablecoins that peg to the US dollar. The competition is extremely fierce, and our stablecoin must peg to a strong sovereign fiat currency. The one where we have certain resources and advantages; we believe that the Hong Kong dollar is the most appropriate.

“Hong Kong is an important world’s financial center and a free trade port, linking China and the world, radiating Southeast Asia and having an international advantage. The HKDT team has strong resources and operational capabilities in Hong Kong and East Asia, and our stablecoin can survive in the competition with maximum stability. Therefore, the stablecoin pegging to the Hong Kong dollar is the most suitable for this mission.”

Regarding the compliance issues that are of great concern to everyone in the market, Samuel Xu said:

“The primary compliance method for stablecoins is to be endorsed by government agencies. In addition, stablecoin issuers must have a high degree of self-discipline and strict self-regulation, such as meeting the AML requirements (anti-money laundering) and KYC (know your users) policies of the regulatory authorities. The stablecoin reserve account must be operated by banks and accounting firms.”

Samuel also said that, as a practitioner, he is very much looking forward to the government’s introduction of relevant regulatory policies. With clearer rules, we can better navigate in this industry; Hong Kong’s regulatory policies are gradually being expanded and promoted, which will benefit the development of HKDT. HKDT will actively embrace policy changes, support regulation, and improve in many dimensions in terms of transparency and credibility.

Stablecoin is a bridge between real economy and the blockchain-based digital asset world, giving new value to all types of assets around the world and reinforcing global economy. The USDT stablecoin has been issued for four years, although there are some problems, and there might be some doubts about it, at least at this stage, it is still the most widely recognized in the market and stands out of numerous stablecoins and has achieved very good results.

Xu shared his experience on this point. When you are doing one thing, you must “make up your mind and then make a move”. He chose the stablecoin track as a right strategy and took the lead, one step ahead. HKDT is founded on two bases, one is the “exchange medium” as the largest stablecoin in Asia, e.g. “Asian stablecoin”; another one is the “payment method”, so HKDT is becoming a solid “payment system” in the field of blockchain payments. Ultimately, it is determined to becoming a leading global financial technology company. Mr. Xu’s goal for HKDT is very clear: “Be the best, or never try!”

Samuel, HKDT, and the Future

Following the release of JPM Coin by JP Morgan Chase, Facebook also announced its cryptocurrency program. The world’s major enterprises have stepped into the field of cryptocurrency with great determination. Stablecoin market is booming recently with new projects popping up, and Samuel said that this is a good thing. He is such a person who is not afraid of competition. Mr. Xu also said that if the major Internet companies can participate, it will inspire the whole industry. Mr. Xu welcomes more quality practitioners to join in.

Stablecoin is a financial innovation. Although it is a simple use case of blockchain technology, some simple things often become very powerful, helping more people to enjoy the convenience brought by technological advancement. HKDT is moving forward and has a long way ahead. With such a promising project and such an excellent leader, what reason do we have not to believe in HKDT nor in Samuel Xu?

I believe that in the near future, Samuel Xu, who is brave enough to step forward and ride that bumpy road, will also lead HKDT to actively embrace the policy, so HKDT will become a unique and stable digital currency, a benchmark for the global trend, which allow general public to the benefit from technological progress.

This is an English translation from the original interview. Read from the source (in Chinese): http://niushi.io/zhuanlan/22856.html