PANews, June 29, according to The Block, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) stated in its Annual Economic Report that stablecoins still lack key monetary attributes such as ‘singularity, resilience, interoperability, and integrity’. Their prices may deviate from the peg in secondary markets, and the redemption process also involves friction, making them ‘more like ETF shares than a means of payment.’ The report estimates that even if the stablecoin market cap reaches between $1 trillion and $3 trillion, its net impact on economic output would be ‘minimal’, and it could potentially suppress credit by pushing up bank financing costs.
The BIS warned that emerging markets face the risk of ‘stablecoin dollarization,’ as widespread holdings of dollar-denominated stablecoins by residents may weaken local monetary sovereignty. The report noted that currently about 99% of fiat-backed stablecoins are pegged to the US dollar, dominated by USDT and USDC, with a total market cap of approximately $320 billion. The BIS once again proposed the ‘unified ledger’ vision, aiming to integrate tokenized central bank money and commercial bank deposits within a regulated framework, citing the ‘Project Agorá’ involving eight central banks and over 40 institutions as evidence of the model’s feasibility.
