The foreign exchange market is quietly undergoing a major change at the end of the year.

In late December, the offshore RMB against the US dollar briefly fell below the 7.0 threshold and even touched 6.99, marking the weakest performance since Q3 of last year. The onshore RMB also approached 7.0133.

Interestingly, while the official exchange rate was still holding firm at 7.0, stablecoins in the market began to show discounts. The logic behind this is actually quite simple—once the depreciation expectation of the RMB is formed, the attractiveness of holding USD assets increases, which in turn impacts the pricing of stablecoins.

This is not just a currency exchange issue but a signal of the entire asset re-pricing. When offshore and onshore exchange rates diverge and stablecoins start to trade at a discount, it often indicates that market expectations for certain assets are changing. For crypto traders, these subtle market signals are often more worth pondering than big news.