Stablecoins as private money: a policy agenda

Vollständiger Abstract

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Abstract Stablecoins are rapidly expanding as money-like assets for payments, trading, settlement, and cross-border transfer. This paper argues that stablecoins should be understood as emerging systems of private money rather than merely as crypto-assets. Once viewed through that lens, the relevant policy questions extend beyond issuer-level regulation, customer protection, and financial-integrity safeguards to the systemic and institutional conditions under which stablecoins can become a beneficial part of the monetary and payments system. Drawing on monetary theory, recent market developments, our own analytical work, and the broader academic literature, we develop a research-based policy agenda for stablecoins. Our central claim is that a world in which stablecoins reach scale requires a coherent package of measures: tools to preserve financial stability and resilience against liquidity crises; protections for monetary sovereignty and the singleness of money; rules on stablecoin remuneration; constraints on platform market power alongside interoperability requirements; and international coordination to limit regulatory arbitrage and close cross-border loopholes such as multi-issuer structures. We also highlight several areas that require further evaluation prior to policy adoption, including whether a public liquidity backstop for systemic issuers or central-bank reserve access is warranted, as well as modernization pathways within the traditional monetary system. We benchmark our agenda against the U.S. GENIUS Act and the EU’s MiCA and provide a cross-jurisdictional comparison.