China’s crypto rails have already moved $2.37 trillion. The US Senate has not even voted on its crypto rules. Faryar Shirzad, Chief Policy Officer at Coinbase, says the next financial system is being built right now.
Rails are the plumbing that moves money between banks and countries. Shirzad says China is investing more in this technology than anyone else.
What Did Coinbase Say?
Shirzad spoke in an interview on Fox Business. He called crypto plumbing, not an investment.
“Crypto fundamentally is a technology that allows people to transfer value, whether money or [a] financial instrument, as easily as they transfer a text… or e-mail.”
The host asked about Chinese AI models too. Shirzad then named the leader.
“The country that [in]vests most in this technology is China.”
He gave no numbers. Public data does.
How Big Are China’s Crypto Rails?
China runs a digital version of its currency. It is called the e-CNY.
The central bank says it has handled 3.48 billion payments. Those are worth about $2.37 trillion. Volume is up more than 800% since 2023.
China changed the rules on January 1. Digital yuan now sits in bank accounts like normal savings. Banks pay interest on it. Deposit insurance protects it.
No other major economy has done that yet.
A second system handles payments between countries. It is called mBridge. Five central banks run it, including China’s.
mBridge has settled about $55.49 billion. Back in 2022 it moved just $22 million. China’s digital yuan is 95% of the traffic.
So Is China Really Winning?
Not everywhere. It depends which number you pick.
The $2.37 trillion counts money that moved. It is a running total built up over five years.
Dollar stablecoins work differently. These are crypto tokens worth $1 each. About $310 billion of them exist today. Tether holds $184 billion. USDC holds $73 billion.
Almost all of them track the dollar. Chinese versions barely register.
So the dollar still rules private crypto. China leads on state-run rails.
What About Spending?
The same pattern shows up in AI. Stanford counted $285.9 billion of private US AI investment in 2025. China reported $12.4 billion. That is a 23 to 1 American lead.
Stanford flagged a catch. Chinese state funds pushed an estimated $184 billion into AI firms between 2000 and 2023. Official totals miss that money.
So China spends more than it reports. It also ships faster. America still spends more overall.
Coinbase Buys Chinese Tech Too
Coinbase proves the point on its own books. CEO Brian Armstrong said in June that the firm runs two Chinese AI models. The switch cut its AI bill roughly in half.
Chinese models cost far less. DeepSeek charges $0.87 per million output tokens. Western rivals charge much more.
Cheap and capable beats expensive and patriotic. That logic reaches payments too.
What Happens Next?
Senate action has stalled, and several roadblocks remain. Majority Leader John Thune expects the bill to miss the August break. Banks are still fighting over stablecoin interest. That standoff stalled talks in March over bank deposits.
China is not waiting. PBOC Governor Pan Gongsheng warned last year that a dominant currency “tends to be instrumentalized or weaponized.” Beijing wrote the digital yuan into its latest five-year plan.
Watch three things. A Senate floor vote before recess. A deal on stablecoin interest. And whether mBridge moves into oil and commodity payments.
America is spending more. China is shipping faster.
