IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/bis/biswps/905.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Stablecoins: potential, risks and regulation

Author

Listed:
  • Douglas Arner
  • Raphael Auer
  • Jon Frost

Abstract

The technologies underlying money and payment systems are evolving rapidly. Both the emergence of distributed ledger technology (DLT) and rapid advances in traditional centralised systems are moving the technological horizon of money and payments. These trends are embodied in private "stablecoins": cryptocurrencies with values tied to fiat currencies or other assets. Stablecoins - in particular potential "global stablecoins" such as Facebook's Libra proposal - pose a range of challenges from the standpoint of financial authorities around the world. At the same time, regulatory responses to global stablecoins should take into account the potential of other stablecoin uses, such as embedding a robust monetary instrument into digital environments, especially in the context of decentralised systems. Looking forward, in such cases, one possible option from a regulatory standpoint is to embed supervisory requirements into stablecoin systems themselves, allowing for "embedded supervision". Yet it is an open question whether central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and other initiatives could in fact provide more effective solutions to fulfil the functions that stablecoins are meant to address.

Suggested Citation

  • Douglas Arner & Raphael Auer & Jon Frost, 2020. "Stablecoins: potential, risks and regulation," BIS Working Papers 905, Bank for International Settlements.
    • Handle: RePEc:bis:biswps:905
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.bis.org/publ/work905.pdf
    File Function: Full PDF document
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.bis.org/publ/work905.htm
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kane, Edward J, 1977. "Good Intentions and Unintended Evil: The Case against Selective Credit Allocation," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 9(1), pages 55-69, February.
    2. Thomas Philippon, 2015. "Has the US Finance Industry Become Less Efficient? On the Theory and Measurement of Financial Intermediation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(4), pages 1408-1438, April.
    3. Bullmann, Dirk & Klemm, Jonas & Pinna, Andrea, 2019. "In search for stability in crypto-assets: are stablecoins the solution?," Occasional Paper Series 230, European Central Bank.
    4. John M. Griffin & Amin Shams, 2020. "Is Bitcoin Really Untethered?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 75(4), pages 1913-1964, August.
    5. Ferrari Minesso, Massimo & Mehl, Arnaud & Stracca, Livio, 2022. "Central bank digital currency in an open economy," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 54-68.
    6. Morten Linnemann Bech & Jenny Hancock & Tara Rice & Amber Wadsworth, 2020. "On the future of securities settlement," BIS Quarterly Review, Bank for International Settlements, March.
    7. Mr. Charles M. Kahn & Caitlin Long & Mr. Manmohan Singh, 2020. "Privacy Provision, Payment Latency, and Role of Collateral," IMF Working Papers 2020/148, International Monetary Fund.
    8. Morten Linnemann Bech & Rodney Garratt, 2017. "Central bank cryptocurrencies," BIS Quarterly Review, Bank for International Settlements, September.
    9. Raphael A. Auer & Giulio Cornelli & Jon Frost, 2020. "Rise of the Central Bank Digital Currencies: Drivers, Approaches and Technologies," CESifo Working Paper Series 8655, CESifo.
    10. Guillaume Bazot, 2018. "Financial intermediation cost, rents, and productivity: An international comparison," Working Papers 0141, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).
    11. Eric Budish, 2018. "The Economic Limits of Bitcoin and the Blockchain," NBER Working Papers 24717, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Raphael Auer & Stijn Claessens, 2018. "Regulating cryptocurrencies: assessing market reactions," BIS Quarterly Review, Bank for International Settlements, September.
    13. Hermann Simon & Martin Fassnacht, 2019. "Price Management," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-3-319-99456-7, October.
    14. Jon Frost & Hyun Song Shin & Peter Wierts, 2020. "An early stablecoin? The Bank of Amsterdam and the governance of money," Working Papers 696, DNB.
    15. Drew Dahl & Andrew P. Meyer & Michelle Clark Neely, 2016. "Scale Matters: Community Banks and Compliance Costs," The Regional Economist, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, issue July.
    16. Raphael Auer & Rainer Boehme, 2020. "The technology of retail central bank digital currency," BIS Quarterly Review, Bank for International Settlements, March.
    17. Amber Wadsworth, 2018. "Decrypting the role of distributed ledger technology in payments processes," Reserve Bank of New Zealand Bulletin, Reserve Bank of New Zealand, vol. 81, pages 1-20, May.
    18. Derryl D'Silva & Zuzana Filkova & Frank Packer & Siddharth Tiwari, 2019. "The design of digital financial infrastructure: lessons from India," BIS Papers, Bank for International Settlements, number 106, October –.
    19. Codruta Boar & Henry Holden & Amber Wadsworth, 2020. "Impending arrival - a sequel to the survey on central bank digital currency," BIS Papers, Bank for International Settlements, number 107, October –.
    20. Raphael Auer & Giulio Cornelli & Jon Frost, 2020. "Covid-19, cash, and the future of payments," BIS Bulletins 3, Bank for International Settlements.
    21. Adachi, Mitsutoshi & Cominetta, Matteo & Kaufmann, Christoph & van der Kraaij, Anton, 2020. "A regulatory and financial stability perspective on global stablecoins," Macroprudential Bulletin, European Central Bank, vol. 10.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Raphael A. Auer, 2022. "Embedded Supervision: How to Build Regulation into Decentralised Finance," CESifo Working Paper Series 9771, CESifo.
    2. Raphael Auer, 2019. "Embedded supervision: how to build regulation into blockchain finance," BIS Working Papers 811, Bank for International Settlements.
    3. Raphael A. Auer & Giulio Cornelli & Jon Frost, 2020. "Rise of the Central Bank Digital Currencies: Drivers, Approaches and Technologies," CESifo Working Paper Series 8655, CESifo.
    4. Cong, Lin William & Mayer, Simon, 2022. "The Coming Battle of Digital Currencies," Applied Economics and Policy Working Paper Series 320020, Cornell University, Department of Applied Economics and Management.
    5. Marcelo A. T. Aragão, 2021. "A Few Things You Wanted to Know about the Economics of CBDCs, but were Afraid to Model: a survey of what we can learn from who has done," Working Papers Series 554, Central Bank of Brazil, Research Department.
    6. Alexandra Mitschke, 2021. "Central Bank Digital Currencies and Monetary Policy Effectiveness in the Euro Area," Working Papers Dissertations 74, Paderborn University, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics.
    7. Dionysopoulos, Lambis & Marra, Miriam & Urquhart, Andrew, 2024. "Central bank digital currencies: A critical review," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    8. Shalva Mkhatrishvili & Wim Boonstra, 2022. "What we know on Central Bank Digital Currencies (so far)," NBG Working Papers 01/2022, National Bank of Georgia.
    9. Cyril Monnet & Hyun Song Shin & Jon Frost & Leonardo Gambacorta & Raphael Auer & Tara Rice, 2022. "Central Bank Digital Currencies: Motives, Economic Implications, and the Research Frontier," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 14(1), pages 697-721, August.
    10. Agur, Itai & Ari, Anil & Dell’Ariccia, Giovanni, 2022. "Designing central bank digital currencies," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 62-79.
    11. Raphael Auer & Codruta Boar & Giulio Cornelli & Jon Frost & Henry Holden & Andreas Wehrli, 2021. "CBDCs beyond borders: results from a survey of central banks," BIS Papers, Bank for International Settlements, number 116, October –.
    12. Sally Chen & Tirupam Goel & Han Qiu & Ilhyock Shim, 2022. "CBDCs in emerging market economies," BIS Papers chapters, in: Bank for International Settlements (ed.), CBDCs in emerging market economies, volume 123, pages 1-21, Bank for International Settlements.
    13. Erik Feyen & Jon Frost & Harish Natarajan & Tara Rice, 2021. "What Does Digital Money Mean for Emerging Market and Developing Economies?," Springer Books, in: Raghavendra Rau & Robert Wardrop & Luigi Zingales (ed.), The Palgrave Handbook of Technological Finance, pages 217-241, Springer.
    14. Raphael Auer & Rainer Boehme, 2020. "The technology of retail central bank digital currency," BIS Quarterly Review, Bank for International Settlements, March.
    15. Hull, Isaiah & Sattath, Or, 2021. "Revisiting the Properties of Money," Working Paper Series 406, Sveriges Riksbank (Central Bank of Sweden).
    16. Auer, Raphael & Tercero-Lucas, David, 2022. "Distrust or speculation? The socioeconomic drivers of U.S. cryptocurrency investments," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    17. Schilling, Linda & Fernández-Villaverde, Jesús & Uhlig, Harald, 2024. "Central bank digital currency: When price and bank stability collide," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    18. Raphael Auer & Rainer Boehme, 2021. "Central bank digital currency: the quest for minimally invasive technology," BIS Working Papers 948, Bank for International Settlements.
    19. Paulo Rupino Cunha & Paulo Melo & Helder Sebastião, 2021. "From Bitcoin to Central Bank Digital Currencies: Making Sense of the Digital Money Revolution," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-19, June.
    20. Morten Linnemann Bech & Jenny Hancock, 2020. "Innovations in payments," BIS Quarterly Review, Bank for International Settlements, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    stablecoins; cryptocurrencies; crypto-assets; blockchain; distributed ledger technology; central bank digital currencies; fintech; central banks; regulation; supervision; money;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E42 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Monetary Sytsems; Standards; Regimes; Government and the Monetary System
    • E51 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Money Supply; Credit; Money Multipliers
    • E58 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Central Banks and Their Policies
    • F31 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - Foreign Exchange
    • G28 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • L50 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - General
    • O32 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Management of Technological Innovation and R&D

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bis:biswps:905. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Martin Fessler (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/bisssch.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.