When, if ever, will we get our stablecoin(s)?

 

Here is our pick of the 3 most important Stablecoin news stories during the week.

This last week we have heard quite a bit of “go slow” commentary on the pace of delivery of this future form of money.  Let’s try to summarize and make sense of it here.

Firstly, the European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said she believes the region’s monetary authority will move to launch a digital version of the euro in the next two to four years.

“We might well go in that direction,” Lagarde said Thursday on a virtual panel with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey. “My hunch is that it will come.”

ECB’s Lagarde Says Digital Euro May Launch in 2-4 Years

 

Also at the same conference, Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey has taken a side-swipe at Facebook’s (FB) cryptocurrency project Libra and others like it.

“The bar is set very high for private stablecoins, and I don’t think they have met that bar,”

Bank of England’s Bailey pours cold water on Facebook’s Libra

 

Later in the week, in this article the author argues that Central Banks will never be able to build a product that offers real benefits to clients without sacrificing privacy and control.  So in the end we as consumers will choose the superior Crypto solutions that are out there or in the process of being developed.

Central bank digital currencies are dead in the water

 

So, while in single party China we are seeing implementation moving ahead swiftly, it remains to be seen in the West if a Central Bank can thread the needle of conflicting efficiency, State and privacy concerns, regardless of the coin being issued by themselves or a private sector entity such as Facebook.

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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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