Global central bank body to stablecoins: you’re not money
The Bank for International Settlements has warned that stablecoins can’t replace real money, lacking central bank backing, flexibility and safeguards.
The global banking regulator has poured cold water on the red-hot stablecoin sector, declaring the currencies — crypto assets linked to real-world fiat assets — “a risk to financial stability and monetary sovereignty”.
“Besides acting as a gateway to the crypto ecosystem, their future role is unclear,” the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) said in an early release of a special chapter from its 2025 Annual Economic Report.
The BIS stance echoes that of Airwallex founder Jack Zhang, who has been engaged in a public debate about the actual use of crypto, and stablecoins in particular, saying he simply cannot understand where they have a viable economic role.
“Most of the stablecoins volume doesn't include economic activities,” he wrote in an initial post on Linkedin.
