BIS Ex–Chief: Stablecoins Should Coexist With Fiat—With Global Regulation

Former Bank for International Settlements (BIS) general manager Agustín Carstens said stablecoins can support financial innovation, inclusion and lower costs, and argued they should be allowed to coexist with fiat money. Speaking at the Point Zero Forum, he said policymakers should “establish conditions where we can live with fiat money and stablecoins,” softening his earlier BIS-era warnings. Carstens previously criticized stablecoins in 2022 over risks that issuers could invest reserves in ways that make them “risky,” and he later warned in 2025 about liquidity risk and the need for money to meet core trust tests. However, he now argues that stablecoins can flourish if regulators create a cooperative, global framework and a “level playing field” for issuers. The BIS’s current leadership remains cautious. BIS general manager Pablo Hernández de Cos said the stablecoin market is still “small,” and its structural features limit its ability to function as money. A BIS preview ahead of its 2026 Annual Economic Report reiterated that today’s stablecoin designs may fail key properties needed for trust in money, and that broad adoption could pose financial-stability risks, affect bank funding, and challenge monetary sovereignty. Still, the BIS also endorsed tokenization within the two-tier banking system, suggesting programmable finance could expand while preserving “trust in money.” Carstens pointed to existing jurisdictional rules: the US GENIUS Act (100% high-quality reserves, including cash and short-term Treasuries) and the EU’s MiCA framework (authorization, approved white paper, full reserve backing, and segregation of reserves).