This "Stablecoins, Stablecoins" clip summary of Bitcoin 2025 was super funny:
Anyway, here's the FT doing a biiiig read feature on them
stablecoins exist in a grey area, somewhere between a payments network, a bank deposit and a security. Issuers have liabilities like a bank, but don’t make commercial loans. They are tradeable and invest in assets like money market funds, but US regulators have ruled that they are not securities if the coins can be fully redeemed on demand and do not pass the investment income to holders.
This is at least undeniable:
Nkiru Uwaje of Mansa says stablecoins, which track the value of the US dollar one-for-one, are far superior to the network of correspondent banks that handle most of the world’s cross-border transactions
...for Mansa and its customers they represent one thing above all: ready access to a proxy for US dollars. Stablecoins track the value of the currency one-for-one but the money is transferred across the internet, outside the banking system. That makes them highly attractive in countries afflicted by high inflation, weak or volatile currencies, unstable banks or capital controls.
Theeeen, author/editor go batshit schizo for a minute
Stablecoin issuers have been likened to the US “wildcat banks” of the 19th century, which took advantage of weak national banking regulation and the lack of a nationwide currency to issue promissory notes backed by very little collateral. Many collapsed, leaving customers holding worthless paper
You legit just described how they're backed by a ton of safe, tradfi U.S. gov bonds that throw off interest and fuels Tether's massive profits. What's it gonna be, funneling public money to private profit or wildcat banking ripping off unsuspecting consumers?
And now they're wildcat banks that defraud depositors and don't keep anything in reserve...?
and the very chart that they themselves include.
Cmoooon, with the wildcat accusation
There are no criminal activity checks in decentralised finance, the loose network that does away with centralised intermediaries like banks or exchanges
Really fucking pathetic, too, to dress up — or at least heavily imply — the incumbent fiat banking system as some for of crime-prevention superhero. Eeeh, no, they're the worst perpetrators of "criminal" transactions.
There's plenty of valid criticism to levy against stablecoin, plenty of investigative journalism available. Too bad the FT's own "journos" can't be bothered.
archived: https://archive.md/oKP2l