Here We Go Again
Late last week, Bloomberg reported that the same kind of interest-bearing stablecoin products that wreaked havoc in 2023 and even some that purport to offer checking accounts are proliferating again with kudzu’s tenacity. Offshore trading volumes for stablecoins grew 28 percent to almost touch $1 trillion at the end of last year, a move said to be bolstered by larger reserve assets at the largest stablecoin issuers. The problem is that other than the case-by-case enforcement actions that drove this market offshore, there is still no U.S. law or rule to protect investors and, as stablecoins head over the $1 trillion hump, also the financial system. Will that change this year?