Overview
- A new 56-page IMF paper details a stablecoin market above $300 billion with roughly 97% tied to the U.S. dollar and concentrated in USDT and USDC.
- The IMF warns that divergent national regimes enable regulatory arbitrage and presses for the principle of “same activity, same risk, same regulation.”
- Heavy holdings of short‑term U.S. Treasuries by major issuers link tokens to funding markets, raising concern that large redemptions could trigger fire sales and impair policy transmission.
- Recommended measures include harmonized legal definitions, strict reserve and one‑to‑one redemption rules, granular reserve disclosures, coordinated AML enforcement, and cross‑border supervisory colleges.
- Regulators such as the ECB and ESRB voice similar risks, while industry figures argue the IMF overstates substitution threats and contend private stablecoins can coexist with CBDCs.