Private stablecoins are preferred over CBDCs, which Warsh called “a bad policy choice” and the Senate outlawed until 2030, leaving GENIUS Act-governed tokens, a $311 billion market, as the preferred digital-dollar path.
- Fed Governor Christopher Waller said stablecoins and tokenized assets are creating new dollar channels outside the banking system.
- Waller told the Fed’s conference on the dollar’s worldwide role that stablecoins “have the potential to maintain and extend” the dollar’s global reach.
- Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman cautioned that AI has “dramatically accelerated” the detection of cyber vulnerabilities in key infrastructure, including banking.
Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said on Monday that stablecoins and tokenized assets are opening new dollar channels outside the traditional banking system.
Speaking at the opening of the Fed’s Fifth Conference on the International Roles of the US Dollar in Washington, Waller framed the two-day discussion around the implications of digital assets for the dollar’s international role. He said the dollar’s dominance still rests on the size and strength of the US economy, deep financial markets, and trust in US institutions and the rule of law, but argued that distributed ledger technology is now actively reshaping how households and businesses hold and move dollars.
Waller pointed to private-sector firms rapidly expanding access to dollar-denominated assets and building new business models around the technology. “Stablecoins have the potential to maintain and extend the role of the dollar internationally,” he said, citing retail and cross-border payments as the most immediate use cases.
Washington’s Digital Dollar Strategy Is Taking Shape
Waller’s framing aligns with the broader regulatory posture taking shape across Washington.
Fed Chair Kevin Warsh has separately called a US central bank digital currency “a bad policy choice,” and the Senate this week passed a housing bill that bars the Fed from issuing a CBDC through 2030.
Both moves leave private stablecoins, governed under the GENIUS Act framework already in implementation, as the preferred US route to digital-dollar adoption.
Stablecoin Market Is Growing
That adoption is showing up in numbers as well. Circle Internet Group’s (CRCL) dollar-pegged stablecoin, USD Coin’s price (USDC), continues to trade near the $1.00 peg. On Stocktwits, the retail sentiment around USDC remained in the ‘bearish’ zone, while chatter around it stayed in the ‘high’ levels over the past day.
Additionally, the total stablecoin market has expanded to roughly $311 billion as of June, up from over $300 billion at the start of the year, with Standard Chartered projecting it could grow sixfold to $2 trillion by 2028.
Fed’s Bowman Warns About AI-Driven Cyber Risks
The remarks land alongside related Fed commentary from Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman, who told the House Financial Services Committee earlier this month that recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have “dramatically accelerated the identification of cyber vulnerabilities across critical infrastructure, including the banking system.”
Read also: Binance Founder CZ Says Bitcoin’s $60K ‘Winter’ Is Normal – And Predicts Stablecoins Could Grow ‘Thousands Of Times’ From Here
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