Source commentary by timzz, published by PANews on September 22, 2026, at 08:39 UTC+8. The analysis and forecasts below reflect the author’s views at that time.
Stablecoin issuance creates an income stream from the assets backing tokens or the interest paid on collateralized borrowing. But issuance alone does not establish a currency’s reach: tokens also need liquidity, trading venues, lending markets and payment channels.
That is the central argument of timzz’s commentary on DeFi’s “holy grail.” The author sees monetary issuance as DeFi’s most attractive business and distribution as the next competitive battleground, comparing issuers to central banks and the protocols distributing their assets to commercial banks. These are business-model analogies, not claims that the organizations have those legal roles.
Where the author sees DeFi revenue accumulating
Timzz divides DeFi into five core businesses:
- Stablecoin and asset issuance
- Lending
- Asset management and yield aggregation
- Trading
- Derivatives
Using a ranking of the top 15 protocols by revenue from DefiLlama, the author reports the following shares of their combined 30-day revenue:
| Business | Share reported in the commentary |
|---|---|
| Stablecoin issuers, comprising five of the top 15 | 79.8% |
| Decentralized exchanges | 11.8% |
| Derivatives, represented by Hyperliquid | 6.6% |
| Lending | 1.8% |
The commentary does not specify a separate snapshot date for these figures. They describe the selected top 15, not the entire DeFi market.
The author attributes lending’s comparatively small protocol-revenue share to its structure: most borrower interest goes to lenders, while the protocol retains only a portion. Asset managers and yield aggregators had not entered this top 15, which timzz interprets as a feature of an early bull market. The author expects protocols resembling traditional money-market funds eventually to join the ranking; that is a forecast, not a reported outcome.
Trading, meanwhile, is presented as an early beneficiary of new asset issuance. Timzz links tokenized equities and potential hybrid assets combining traditional and crypto assets to renewed DeFi activity. The commentary also states that UNI’s fully diluted valuation had tripled over the preceding few months following activation of its fee switch.
Issuance income: Tether, Circle and Sky
Timzz identifies Tether, Circle and Sky as the three largest issuers by issuance volume at the time of writing.
For Tether and Circle, the author describes a model in which short-term U.S. Treasuries, dollars and related backing assets support stablecoin issuance. Income is therefore sensitive to short-term interest rates, which the commentary discusses through the lens of the Secured Overnight Financing Rate, or SOFR.
The attraction, in timzz’s view, is that issuance can combine low marginal costs at scale with first-mover advantages. The vulnerability is interest-rate compression: the author points to conditions around 2021, when SOFR and short-term Treasury yields were near zero, as an example of an environment that could substantially reduce issuer profits.
Sky is described differently. Its stablecoin model is rooted in overcollateralized borrowing. According to the commentary, Sky increased the share of real-world assets in its collateral mix as SOFR rose. Timzz argues that this gives it flexibility to shift between real-world assets and DeFi opportunities as market conditions change, while its subDAO governance model adds resilience.
The author frames the differences through a stablecoin trilemma: decentralization, capital efficiency and price stability. Tether, Circle and Sky make different trade-offs, with Sky characterized as the relatively decentralized model rather than one centered on a single entity. These are the author’s comparative judgments, not guarantees of stability or redemption.
Distribution is the second half of the business
Once tokens are issued, the question becomes how they circulate. Timzz uses distribution broadly to include liquidity, trading, lending and payments.
USDT: The author sees a first-mover advantage reinforced by trading across major centralized exchanges and payment use outside North America.
USDC: The commentary highlights Coinbase and derivatives trading on Hyperliquid as distribution channels. It questions whether those advantages would persist without what the author calls implicit subsidies, and how durable Circle’s competitive position would be if many competing “USDC-like” offerings emerged.
USDS and DAI: Timzz emphasizes integration across DeFi infrastructure and expansion through subDAOs such as Spark. In this account, Sky retains the issuance role while independent teams help broaden distribution.
Spark is presented as the “commercial bank” alongside Sky’s “central bank.” The author points to the Spark Liquidity Layer and SparkLend as capital-distribution mechanisms, with USDS serving as an intermediate asset in a stablecoin exchange layer that provides conversion liquidity for emerging stablecoins including RLUSD and PYUSD.
The broader thesis: blockchain as a channel for dollar assets
The commentary places stablecoins within a wider argument about U.S. financial influence. Timzz draws a geopolitical analogy between blockchain distribution and the military and media power that, in the author’s view, historically supported dollar dominance.
The article states that the dollar’s share of global foreign-exchange reserves fell from 65% to 58% over the preceding decade, while remaining the leading reserve currency. It also cites U.S. Treasury debt issuance reaching $40 trillion, a $1.8 trillion fiscal deficit in 2025 and an expected deficit above $2 trillion in 2026. The author contrasts a deficit-to-GDP ratio of approximately 5.8% with GDP growth of roughly 1.9%–2.2%, arguing that some economies were reducing exposure to dollars and Treasuries.
Against that backdrop, timzz sees blockchain as another channel for distributing dollars, Treasuries and dollar-linked assets, with stablecoins, trading, lending and derivatives forming the supporting infrastructure.
The author traces the tokenization thesis back to security token offering discussions in 2017, arguing that rising AI stocks and equity tokenization by Binance and Robinhood helped bring it into focus in 2026. The commentary also refers to SEC and CFTC innovation-exemption initiatives in the preceding weeks and describes the Clarity Act as “late, but arriving.” These are the source author’s characterizations, rather than a separate verification of regulatory status.
Timzz’s closing forecast is for four years of deeper integration between DeFi and U.S. finance, with blockchain distributing U.S. assets and some equity-market gains flowing into bitcoin and gold. Within that scenario, the author expects both stablecoin issuers and their distribution networks to expand substantially. The thesis remains forward-looking: issuance economics and distribution advantages are the argument, not evidence that the projected growth is assured.