Conflux Network 2025: Building PayFi Rails for Belt & Road Markets
2025 Key Performance Metrics
2025 marked a pivotal year for Conflux Network — a permissionless Layer 1 blockchain that connects decentralized economies across borders and protocols. Conflux utilizes a hybrid PoW/PoS consensus mechanism to ensure a rapid, secure, and scalable blockchain environment—with congestion eliminated, fees remaining low, and network security enhanced. The successful deployment of Conflux 3.0 with 15,000 TPS capability, combined with strategic Tether integration (USDT0/CNHT0) via LayerZero and notable enterprise partnerships including the city of Shanghai, China Telecom, Little Red Book (China's "Instagram"), McDonald's China, Oreo, and stc Bahrain, positioned Conflux as a serious contender for cross-border payment rails serving Belt and Road Initiative markets.
The announcement of AxCNH (offshore yuan stablecoin) in collaboration with AnchorX and Eastcompeace Technology triggered a 100%+ price surge in July, briefly returning CFX to $0.278 and a $1.1B market cap. However, subsequent correction to ~$0.069 by December highlights the gap between narrative momentum and sustainable adoption metrics. With 832M CFX staked ($58M TVL) and 573M CFX burned, network fundamentals remain solid despite price volatility.
Executive Summary
Key Finding:
Conflux's unique positioning as a permissionless Layer 1 blockchain with strong China connections remains its primary competitive moat. Beijing's tacit approval for offshore yuan stablecoin experimentation, reported by South China Morning Post in October 2025, validates this strategic advantage while introducing significant policy dependency risk. The 75% drawdown from July highs suggests current prices may already discount considerable execution uncertainty.
Conflux 3.0: Technical Breakthrough
The August 2025 hardfork represented Conflux's most significant technical upgrade since inception. Implementing 8 Conflux Improvement Proposals (CIPs), the upgrade delivered enterprise-grade performance improvements:
Infrastructure metrics validated increased network utilization: BlockPi processed over 1.5 billion RPC requests from February to November, while Validation Cloud scaled from 1.1M to 15M monthly requests—a 14x increase indicating growing developer and application activity.
Stablecoin Strategy: Belt and Road Ambitions
Conflux's 2025 pivot centered on three flagship stablecoin initiatives targeting cross-border trade settlement:
AxCNH (Offshore Yuan)
- Partners: AnchorX, Eastcompeace Technology (SZSE: 002017)
- Regulatory: AFSA (Kazakhstan) approval, Singapore/Malaysia pilot Aug 2025
- Target: ¥2-4 billion monthly settlements
- Integration: TradeGo (Saudi Aramco, Bank of China, Sinochem)
USDT0 & CNHT0 (LayerZero)
- Launch: November 12, 2025
- Status: 1 of only 15 networks with direct Tether issuance
- Volume: >$50B cumulative transfers, 415K+ transactions
- Feature: Zero-fee cross-chain via Firefly Labs
PayFi Fund Commitment
Conflux Foundation allocated 500 million CFX (~$50M at November prices) plus an additional $5-10M in CFX incentives for DeFi protocol liquidity mining. Target: daily transaction volume exceeding ¥100 million. WallFreeX launched as first stablecoin-focused DEX with Uniswap V3 model and AxCNH/USDT pairs.
Enterprise Partnerships & Market Validation
Risk Factors & Growth Catalysts
? Risk Factors
- Regulatory uncertainty: "Tacit approval" can reverse with policy shifts or e-CNY priorities
- Price volatility: $0.28 ? $0.07 in 5 months (-75%)
- Market concentration: Heavy reliance on Belt & Road markets for adoption
- Competition: Alibaba deposit tokens threaten settlement dominance
? Growth Catalysts
- Unique positioning: Permissionless L1 with major China enterprise partnerships
- Tether partnership: Direct USDT0 issuance (1 of 15 networks)
- IPB acquisition: Potential HKEX listing access
- Belt and Road: ¥2-4B monthly settlement target market
- Technical superiority: 15,000 TPS, account abstraction ready
2026 Outlook & Predictions
Technical Roadmap
- Conflux 4.0: Parallel EVM execution (CIP-142 evolution)
- ZK Integration: Privacy compliance for financial settlements
- Account Abstraction: EIP-4337 for mass user onboarding
- AI Expansion: On-chain agents for automated DeFi
Stablecoin Expansion
- AxHKD Launch: Q1-Q2 2026 official release
- Geographic: Indonesia, Kazakhstan, UAE/Saudi Arabia
- Volume Target: $100M+ monthly transaction volume
- Integration: stc pay (200M+ customer base potential)
2026 Price & TVL Projections
Bottom Line Assessment
Conflux Network's 2025 strategic focus on PayFi infrastructure for cross-border payments represents a bold direction with significant upside potential but equally substantial execution risk. The technical achievements (15K TPS, Tether integration, enterprise validators) establish credible foundation for institutional adoption.
Investment Thesis: Conflux represents a unique asymmetric opportunity for investors seeking China exposure in the blockchain sector. The regulatory moat is real but fragile—success depends on Beijing's continued tacit approval of offshore stablecoin experimentation. The 75% drawdown from July highs suggests current prices may already discount significant execution risk.
Key Metric to Watch: Monthly stablecoin settlement volume through AxCNH and USDT0 will be the definitive measure of PayFi narrative validation. Target: ¥500M monthly by Q2 2026 to confirm sustainable adoption trajectory.
Sources
• Conflux Network Official Medium - Monthly Progress Reports (January-November 2025)
• South China Morning Post - "Beijing's tacit approval for offshore yuan stablecoins" (October 2025)
• HKEX - IPB Ltd. Voluntary Announcements (June-July 2025)
• CoinGecko, ConfluxScan - Network metrics and market data
• stc Bahrain, Tether, LayerZero Official Announcements
Disclaimer: This analysis is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Cryptocurrency investments involve significant risk, and prices can be extremely volatile. The metrics and projections cited may not reflect current market conditions. Always conduct your own research and consult with qualified financial advisors before making investment decisions. Past performance does not guarantee future results.