Original author: Sam Broner
Compiled by | Odaily Planet Daily ( @OdailyChina )
Translator | Ethan ( @ethanzhang_web3 )
Traditional finance is gradually accepting stablecoins, and its market size is also continuing to expand. Stablecoins have become the optimal solution for building global financial technology because they have three core advantages: high speed, near-zero cost, and high programmability . The transition from old to new technology paradigms means that the logic of business operations will be fundamentally reconstructed; this process will also give rise to new risks. After all, the self-custody model denominated in digital bearer assets (rather than book deposits) is fundamentally different from the banking system that has lasted for hundreds of years.
So, what are the more macro-level monetary structural and policy issues that entrepreneurs, regulators, and traditional financial institutions need to address in order to achieve a smooth transition? We will conduct an in-depth discussion around three major challenges and provide builders (whether startups or traditional institutions) with current focus solutions: currency unity, the practice of US dollar stablecoins in non-US dollar economies, and the reinforcing effect of government bond endorsement on currency value.
Currency Unity and the Challenges of Building a Unified Monetary System
Monetary unity means that all forms of currency in an economy (regardless of the issuer or the method of deposit) can be freely exchanged at par (1: 1) and used for payment, pricing and contracts. Its essence is that even if there are multiple institutions or technologies issuing monetary instruments, a unified monetary system can still be formed . In practice, Chase Banks US dollars, Wells Fargos US dollars, Venmo account balances and stablecoins should theoretically always maintain a strict 1: 1 exchange relationship - although there are differences in asset management methods of various institutions, and the importance of regulatory status is often overlooked. In a sense, the history of the US banking industry is a history of continuously optimizing the system to ensure the interchangeability of the US dollar.
The World Bank, central banks, economists and regulators have advocated for a single currency because it would greatly simplify transactions, contracts, governance, planning, pricing, accounting, security and everyday payments. Today, businesses and individuals take it for granted.
However, stablecoins have not yet achieved this feature because they are not integrated enough with traditional financial infrastructure. If Microsoft, banks, construction companies or home buyers try to exchange $5 million in stablecoins through an automated market maker (AMM), the actual exchange amount will be less than 1:1 due to the slippage of liquidity depth; large transactions may even cause market fluctuations, resulting in users receiving less than $5 million in the end. If stablecoins are to achieve a financial revolution, this situation must change.
A unified denomination exchange system is key. If stablecoins cannot operate as part of a unified monetary system, their utility will be greatly reduced.
The current operating mechanism of stablecoins is as follows: issuers (such as Circle and Tether) mainly provide direct redemption services for institutional clients or users who have passed the verification process (such as Circles Circle Mint (formerly Circle Account) supports corporate minting and redemption of USDC; Tether allows verified users (usually with a threshold of over US$100,000) to redeem directly); decentralized protocols (such as MakerDAO) use the peg stability module (PSM) to achieve a fixed exchange rate between DAI and other stablecoins (such as USDC), essentially acting as a verifiable redemption/conversion tool.
While these solutions are effective, they have limited coverage and require developers to tediously connect to each issuer. Without direct connectivity, users can only exchange between different stablecoins or exit through market execution (rather than face value settlement).
Even if a company or application promises an extremely narrow spread, such as strictly maintaining 1 USDC to 1 DAI (a spread of only 1 basis point), this promise is still subject to liquidity, balance sheet space and operational capabilities.
Central bank digital currency (CBDC) can theoretically unify the monetary system, but it comes with problems such as privacy leaks, financial surveillance, limited money supply, and slowed innovation, making it more likely that optimization models similar to the existing financial system will win.
Therefore, the core challenge for builders and traditional institutions is how to make stablecoins (on par with bank deposits, fintech balances, and cash) truly become money. The realization of this goal will create the following opportunities for entrepreneurs:
Universal minting and redemption: Issuers work closely with banks, fintech and other existing infrastructure to achieve seamless deposits and withdrawals, injecting interchangeability into stablecoins through existing systems, making them indistinguishable from traditional currencies;
Stablecoin clearinghouse: Establish a decentralized collaborative mechanism (similar to the stablecoin version of ACH or Visa) to ensure instant, frictionless, and transparent exchange. Currently PSM is a viable model, but expanding its functionality to achieve 1:1 settlement between participating issuers and fiat currencies would be better;
Trusted and neutral collateral layer: Migrate convertibility to a widely adopted collateral layer (such as tokenized bank deposits or US Treasury wrapped assets), allowing issuers to flexibly explore brand, market and incentive strategies, and users can unpack and redeem on demand;
Better exchanges, intent execution, cross-chain bridges, and account abstraction: Leverage upgraded versions of existing mature technologies to automatically match the best deposit and withdrawal paths or perform optimal exchange rates; build multi-currency exchanges with minimal slippage. At the same time, hide complexity and ensure that users enjoy predictable rates (even for large-scale use).
US dollar stablecoin, monetary policy and capital regulation
Many countries have a huge structural demand for the US dollar: for residents of countries with high inflation or strict capital controls, the US dollar stablecoin is a savings umbrella and global trade portal; for companies, the US dollar is an international unit of account that simplifies cross-border transactions. People need a fast, widely accepted, and stable currency for payments, but the current cost of cross-border remittances is as high as 13%, 900 million people live in high-inflation economies without stable currencies, and 1.4 billion people do not have access to adequate banking services. The success of the US dollar stablecoin not only confirms the demand for the US dollar, but also reflects the markets desire for a better currency.
In addition to political and nationalist factors, one of the core reasons why countries maintain their own currencies is to respond to local economic shocks (such as production disruptions, export declines, and confidence fluctuations) through monetary policy tools (interest rate adjustments, currency issuance).
The popularity of US dollar stablecoins may weaken the effectiveness of other countries policies - the root cause lies in the Impossible Trinity in economics: a country cannot simultaneously achieve the three goals of free capital flow, fixed/strictly managed exchange rates, and independent formulation of domestic interest rate policies.
Decentralized peer-to-peer transfers will impact these three policies at the same time:
Bypassing capital controls and forcing the capital flow valve to open completely;
Dollarization weakens the policy effectiveness of exchange rate controls or domestic interest rates by anchoring the international unit of account;
Countries rely on the agency banking system to guide residents to use their own currencies and thus maintain policy implementation.
However, US dollar stablecoins are still attractive to other countries: lower-cost, programmable dollars can promote trade, investment and remittances (most global trade is denominated in US dollars, and the circulation of US dollars improves trade efficiency); governments can still impose taxes on deposits and withdrawals and supervise local custodians.
However, anti-money laundering, anti-tax evasion, and anti-fraud tools at the correspondent banking and international payment levels remain obstacles for stablecoins. Although stablecoins run on public programmable ledgers, security tools are easier to develop and build, but these tools need to be implemented in practice - which provides entrepreneurs with an opportunity to connect stablecoins to the existing international payment compliance system.
Unless sovereign states abandon valuable policy tools in pursuit of efficiency (extremely unlikely) or give up fighting financial crime (even less likely), entrepreneurs need to build systems to optimize the integration of stablecoins into the local economy.
The core contradiction lies in how to strengthen safeguards (such as foreign exchange liquidity, anti-money laundering (AML) supervision, and macro-prudential buffers) while embracing technology to achieve compatibility between stablecoins and the local financial system. Specific implementation paths include:
Local adoption of USD stablecoins : Connect USD stablecoins to local banks, fintech and payment systems (supporting small, optional, and potentially taxable exchanges) to increase local liquidity without completely impacting the local currency;
Local currency as a bridge for deposits and withdrawals: Launch local currency stablecoins with deep liquidity and deep integration into local financial infrastructure. Although it requires a clearing house or neutral collateral layer to start (see Part 1), once integrated, local stablecoins will become the optimal foreign exchange tool and the default high-performance payment track;
On-chain foreign exchange market: Build a matching and price aggregation system across stablecoins and fiat currencies. Market participants may need to hold interest-bearing instruments as reserves and support existing foreign exchange trading strategies through leverage;
Western Union competitors: Building a compliant offline cash deposit and withdrawal network and incentivizing agents through stablecoin settlement. Although MoneyGram has launched similar products, there is still room for other institutions with mature distribution networks;
Compliance upgrade: Optimize existing compliance solutions to support stablecoin tracks. Leverage the programmability of stablecoins to provide richer, real-time insights into fund flows.
The impact of government bonds as stablecoin collateral
The popularity of stablecoins stems from their near-instant, near-zero-cost, and infinitely programmable nature, not from government bond backing. Fiat-backed stablecoins were widely adopted first simply because they are easier to understand, manage, and regulate. User demand is driven by practicality (24/7 settlement, composability, global demand) and confidence, not collateral structure.
But fiat-backed stablecoins may be in trouble because of their success - if the issuance volume increases 10 times (for example, from the current $262 billion to $2 trillion in a few years), and regulations require them to be backed by short-term US Treasury bonds (T-Bills), how will this impact the collateral market and credit creation? This scenario is not inevitable, but the impact may be far-reaching.
Short-term Treasury holdings surge
If $2 trillion of stablecoins are invested in short-term Treasury bills (one of the few assets that regulators currently explicitly support), the issuer will hold about 1/3 of the $7.6 trillion in short-term Treasury bills. This role is similar to current money market funds (concentrated holders of liquid, low-risk assets), but the impact on the Treasury market is more significant.
Short-term Treasury bonds are high-quality collateral: globally recognized low-risk, highly liquid assets, denominated in U.S. dollars, simplifying exchange rate risk management. However, the issuance of $2 trillion in stablecoins may lead to a decline in Treasury yields and a contraction in repo market liquidity - every additional $1 in stablecoin investment is an additional bid for Treasury bonds, allowing the U.S. Treasury to refinance at a lower cost, or making it more difficult for other financial institutions to obtain the collateral required for liquidity (pushing up their costs).
A potential solution is for the Treasury to expand its short-term debt issuance (such as increasing the stock of short-term Treasury bills from $7 trillion to $14 trillion), but the continued growth of the stablecoin industry will still reshape the supply and demand landscape.
The hidden dangers of the narrow banking model
The deeper contradiction is that the fiat-reserved stablecoin is highly similar to a “narrow bank”: 100% reserve (cash equivalent) and no lending. This model is inherently low-risk (which is why it was recognized by regulators in the early days), but a 10-fold increase in the size of stablecoins (full reserves of $2 trillion) will impact credit creation.
Traditional banks (fractional reserve banks) only keep a small amount of deposits as cash reserves, and use the rest to lend to businesses, home buyers, and entrepreneurs. Under supervision, banks manage credit risk and loan terms to ensure that depositors can withdraw cash at any time.
The core reason why regulators oppose narrow banks from absorbing deposits is that their money multiplier is lower (the scale of credit supported by a single dollar is smaller).
The economy runs on credit - regulators, businesses and individuals all benefit from a more active and connected economy. If only a small portion of the US $17 trillion deposit base migrates to fiat-backed stablecoins, banks sources of low-cost funding will shrink. Banks face a dilemma: shrink credit (reduce mortgages, auto loans, and small business credit lines) or replace lost deposits with wholesale funding (such as Federal Home Loan Bank advances) (but at a higher cost and for a shorter period of time).
But stablecoins are better currencies, with a circulation velocity (Velocity) much higher than traditional currencies - a single stablecoin can be sent, spent, and borrowed by humans or software around the clock, enabling high-frequency use.
Stablecoins also do not need to rely on government bond backing: tokenized deposits are another path - stablecoin claims remain on bank balance sheets, but circulate in the economy at the speed of modern blockchains. In this model, deposits remain in the fractional reserve banking system, and each stable value token continues to support the issuers lending business. The money multiplier effect will return through traditional credit creation (rather than circulation velocity), while users can still enjoy 7×24 settlement, composability and on-chain programmability.
When designing a stablecoin, it will be more conducive to economic vitality if the following three points can be achieved:
Keep deposits in a fractional reserve system through a tokenized deposit model;
Diversified collateral (includes municipal bonds, high-rated corporate notes, mortgage-backed securities (MBS), and real-world assets (RWAs) in addition to short-term Treasury bonds);
Built-in automatic liquidity pipeline (on-chain repo, tri-party facilities, CDP pool) to inject idle reserves back into the credit market.
This is not a compromise with the banks, but an option to maintain economic vitality.
Remember: our goal is to build an interdependent, growing economy where credit for legitimate business needs is more accessible. Innovative stablecoin designs can achieve this by supporting traditional credit creation, increasing velocity, and developing collateralized decentralized lending and direct private lending.
While the current regulatory environment restricts tokenized deposits, the clarification of the regulatory framework for fiat-backed stablecoins opens the door to stablecoins with the same collateral as bank deposits.
Deposit-backed stablecoins allow banks to improve capital efficiency while maintaining existing customer credit and enjoy the programmability, cost and speed advantages of stablecoins. Its operating model can be simplified as follows: when a user chooses to mint a deposit-backed stablecoin, the bank deducts the balance from the users deposit account and transfers the liability to the total stablecoin account; the stablecoin representing the bearer debt denominated in US dollars can be sent to the address specified by the user.
In addition to deposit-backed stablecoins, other solutions can also improve capital efficiency, reduce friction in the Treasury market, and increase circulation speed:
Helping banks adopt stablecoins: Banks can issue or accept stablecoins to retain the underlying asset income and customer relationships when users withdraw deposits, while expanding payment business (without intermediaries);
Promote the participation of individuals and enterprises in DeFi: As more users directly custody stablecoins and tokenized assets, entrepreneurs need to help them obtain funds safely and quickly;
Expand and tokenize collateral types: Expand the range of acceptable collateral (municipal bonds, high-rated corporate notes, MBS, real-world assets), reduce reliance on a single market, and provide credit to borrowers outside the U.S. government while ensuring collateral quality and liquidity;
Collateral on-chain improves liquidity: tokenize collateral such as real estate, commodities, stocks, and government bonds to build a richer collateral ecosystem;
Collateralized Debt Position (CDP): Adopting MakerDAO’s DAI model (collateralized by diversified on-chain assets), it disperses risk while reproducing the bank’s monetary expansion on-chain. Such stablecoins are subject to strict third-party audits and transparent disclosures to verify the stability of the collateral model.
Conclusion
Although the challenges are huge, the opportunities are even greater. Entrepreneurs and policymakers who understand the nuances of stablecoins will shape a smarter, safer, and better financial future.
