Here is our pick of the 3 most important Stablecoin news stories during the week.
Today, all stablecoins are issued by the Private sector. Tether being the largest, followed by the audited USDC. But should we have a Public option and should the Public Central Banks have a monopoly as they do today in the non Crypto world?
The ECB are signalling they want in on the game and that they should as a custodian for the people have a monopoly. They have registered the name Digital Euro and see nothing but trouble coming from private sector Tech companies.
Big-tech’s stablecoins may hurt privacy and innovation – ECB
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – A stablecoin managed by a big tech company, like Facebook’s FB.O proposed libra, would raise concerns about data protection and even choke financial innovation, European Central Bank board member Fabio Panetta said on Wednesday.
“The issues at stake range from data security and compliance with EU data protection law to cutting off the lifeblood of European financial innovation,” Panetta said.
In the UK they seem to be signaling they are open to a Private company issued stablecoins, under appropriate regulation. This tweet from the Chancellor saying in effect that the Government is open to both.
Today the size of the market for stablecoins (as it so happens all of them issued by privately owned companies) has doubled in the last 3 months to over USD 20 billion. Tether (USDT) is by far the largest followed by Circles (USDC).
Stablecoin Supply Doubles in 3 Months as Combined Market Cap Surpasses $20B
So in summary we have an existing stablecoin market of privately owned issuers growing rapidly, while the public sector is figuring out what role it should play. This is all before we see Facebook’s much anticipated Libra coin make its debut.
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Alan Scott is an expert in the FX market and has been working in the domain of stablecoins for many years.
We have a self imposed constraint of 3 news stories per week because we serve busy senior Fintech leaders who just want succinct and important information.
For context on stablecoins please read this introductory interview with Alan “How stablecoins will change our world” and read articles tagged stablecoin in our archives.
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