The Daily Peg: Academic dispositions
A round-up of all the essential stablecoin news
Regulation news
— The Global Dollar Network says it is now MiCA compliant meaning “Over 450M people across 30 countries can now access a truly global dollar.”
— Politico reports: EU risks financial crisis with “permisive” crypto rules, lawmakers warn.
Key graf: “In a letter to the Commission, seen by POLITICO, the Greens’ Rasmus Andresen, Eero Heinäluoma of the Socialists and Democrats and Johan Van Overtveldt from the center-right European Conservatives and Reformists said the refusal of the EU executive to ring-fence stablecoins issued within the bloc from those issued overseas could lead to a run on the continent’s banks.”
Industry news
— BitMine raises $250 million to launch Ethereum corporate treasury.
Key graf: “Thomas Lee, chairman of BitMine, said that stablecoins are “the ‘ChatGPT’ of crypto” and that he expects Ether to appreciate thanks to their adoption.”
Attestations
— USD1’s first attestation is now available.
Key observations: It has a total 2,127,970,380 tokens outstanding and $2,127,970,380 in assets. Tokens outstanding increased 1,500 percent within 8 days in April.
The assets are held in MMFs and cash equivalents. The CUSIP for the government money market fund is disclosed (31607A703), which points to the Vanguard Federal Money Market Fund (VMFXX)
Academic news
— Cryptomercantilism vs. Monetary Sovereignty: Dealing with the Challenge of US Stablecoins for the EU (European Parliament-prepared study by Monnet, D. Martino and van’t Klooster).
Key graf: “Unilateral promotion of USD stablecoins is potentially a grave threat to monetary sovereignty: the ability of the EU and other countries to govern money within their territory.”
What ChatGPT says about the political-economy motivations of the respective authors?
Van’t Klooster: “Progressive “green-macro” interventionist. Van ’t Klooster wants the ECB and supervisors to move beyond price stability toward actively steering the credit mix in favour of decarbonisation, and he is comfortable expanding central-bank toolkits (tiered rates, collateral tweaks) to do so. He also stresses stronger parliamentary oversight, so the agenda is green and democratic.”
D. Martino: “Regulation-first, sovereignty-minded pragmatist. Martino is sceptical of laissez-faire fintech and stresses the primacy of the state (or EU) over money creation. He favours ex-ante creditor bail-ins, tougher governance, and public safeguards around crypto. Expect him to support stronger regulatory buffers and legal “guard rails” rather than wholesale public ownership — centre-left on prudential issues, but technocratic rather than activist-green.”
Monnet: “Historically informed “moderate interventionist.” Monnet embraces an expanded central-bank balance-sheet (including green or social objectives) provided democratic checks accompany it. He is open to public digital currency, sceptical of unregulated crypto, and sees targeted credit as normal policy. Think social-democratic with an institutional-reform twist.”
— Stablecoins and digital euro: friends or foes of European monetary policy? (European Parliament-prepared study by Dirk Bezemer, Mark Sanders, Brenda Kramer and Aleksander Simic)
What ChatGPT says about the political-economy motivations of the respective authors?
Bezemer: “Post-Keynesian/Green developmentalist. Bezemer views free-flowing, indiscriminate credit as the root of inequality and crisis; he wants states and central banks to guide credit toward productive, climate-aligned activities, even if that means selective rates, stricter LTV caps, or public development banks. Expect him to push for activist macro-prudential policy and progressive taxation of asset gains.”
Sanders: “Ordo-/social-liberal pro-entrepreneurship reformer. Sanders is market-friendly but not laissez-faire: he supports smart regulation, venture-friendly capital markets, flexible labour with robust safety nets, and mission-oriented green innovation funding. Think pro-competition, anti-monopoly, inclusive capitalism rather than either hard neoliberalism or state-planning.”
Kramer: “Pragmatic green-finance regulator. Kramer’s agenda is to bake sustainability into every financial rulebook — taxonomy, SFDR, solvency rules, even crypto oversight. She is market-based in means (disclosure, standards, risk pricing) but interventionist in ends: steer capital to net-zero, safeguard pensions, de-risk green infra. Squarely centre-left/progressive on climate-finance governance.”
Simić: “Historically-minded green-monetary activist. Simić sees climate stability as a pre-condition for price stability and pushes the ECB to deploy all balance-sheet tools (green TLTROs, collateral haircuts) within a democratic, transparency-heavy framework. Ideologically close to van ’t Klooster/Monnet’s “green-macro” camp.”