Stablecoins Threaten Central Banks, Warns IMF as Hard-Money Narrative Fuels B...
What to Know: IMF concerns about dollar stablecoins eroding local currencies reinforce the appeal of scarce, non-sovereign assets like Bitcoin in a fragmented monetary system. Bitcoin’s base layer remains constrained by slow confirmations, fee volatility, and minimal smart contract support, creating renewed interest in specialized Layer 2 infrastructure. Competing Bitcoin scaling projects, from Lightning to sidechains, are racing to capture BTC liquidity as programmable capital for payments and DeFi. Bitcoin Hyper uses an SVM-based Layer 2 anchored to Bitcoin to deliver extremely....
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Central banks are paying very close attention to stablecoins, seeking to control them — and decentralization may be the solution. Over the last couple of years, we have seen a lot of interest from central banks and governments in the stablecoin market. The reason behind it lies in the development of central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs.The idea of issuing a digital alternative to cash is a great motivator for central banks. It allows them to gain more control over the transition and processing of cashless transactions, which are currently overseen indirectly through private payment....
He clarified that it's mostly fiat money stablecoins that bear the brunt of this regulatory scrutiny. Stablecoins, or crypto assets which peg their value to less volatile fiat money, are useful tools for a variety of reasons. They can be used to cash out crypto investments, send or receive stable money abroad, and to pay for everyday consumer transactions without fear of fluctuation. A recent estimate from the Bank for International Settlements, or BIS, put the total stablecoin supply at roughly $150 billion.But central banks, the issuers of traditional fiat money around the globe, do not....
An exec at the Bank for International Settlements wants central banks to helm the evolution of digital money. With central bank digital currencies — or CBDCs — on the agenda in many countries, the general manager of the Bank for International Settlements has weighed in on the role of the mainstream financial establishment in the emerging digital currency landscape.Speaking at the Hoover Institution policy seminar on Jan. 27, Agustín Carstens argued for central banks to be front and center in issuing and controlling digital money:“If digital money is to exist, the central bank must play a....
Retail users may have to wait in much of the world, however. Editor's noteIt may be too late for resolutions and too early for Lent, but lacking any discrete occasion, I would still like to give up United States political news for a while, or at least for the duration of one Law Decoded. Fortunately, in the spirit of going international and leaving the bonkers election cycle of the U.S., blockchain technology and stablecoins are playing a major role in the latest developments in cross-border payments and settlements. It’s long been one of the most talked-about applications of blockchain....
Another financial authority is coming forth in what is becoming a long list of central banks to issue warnings on the use of the bitcoin digital currency. This time around it's the Deutsche Bundesbank, which as previously mentioned, is the central bank of the Federal Republic of Germany. Carl-Ludwig Thiele, one of the bank's board members, warns that bitcoin is highly speculative and extremely volatile. Both are sentiments that have been echoed by other central banks who have already issued warnings. Thiele reportedly says bitcoin is a "niche phenomenon", despite its explosion into the....