Former BIS head softens rhetoric: stablecoins and fiat can coexist under unified rules
Former General Manager of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Agustín Carstens made an unexpected statement at the Point Zero Forum in Zurich, marking a notable departure from his previously hardline stance. Carstens, long considered one of the most uncompromising critics of private digital currencies, now acknowledges that stablecoins may not only exist but also provide benefits.
"We should try to create conditions under which we can live with fiat money and stablecoins," he emphasized. According to him, stablecoins can stimulate financial innovation, enhance inclusivity, and reduce transaction costs. However, the key condition for such coexistence is international regulatory coordination, which, in his assessment, is currently seriously lagging behind market needs.
It is important to note that this statement is diametrically opposed to his previous position. As recently as January 2022, Carstens warned that stablecoins could not be considered reliable money due to their issuers' incentives to invest reserves in risky assets. And in June 2025, he argued that these assets fail three key tests of money: unity, elasticity, and protection against illicit activity. The current rhetoric is certainly softer, but does not imply full endorsement. Carstens no longer heads the BIS, and his words represent a personal opinion, not the organization's position.
BIS Maintains a Hardline Stance
The BIS itself continues to adhere to a more conservative approach. In the chapter of the Annual Economic Report 2026 published on June 23, the organization reiterated that stablecoins, while demonstrating some benefits of tokenization, do not meet the basic properties of trusted money. Moreover, they create risks for financial stability, bank funding, and monetary sovereignty. The BIS supports tokenization, but exclusively within the regulated banking system, relying on central bank money, regulated intermediaries, and clear legal frameworks. Stablecoins are viewed as private assets whose reliability depends on the reserves and rules of the issuer.
Carstens' shift in rhetoric occurs against the backdrop of the formation of regulatory frameworks for stablecoins in the US (GENIUS Act) and the EU (MiCA). However, as the former BIS head rightly noted, for the cross-border use of these assets, national rules are insufficient — global coordination between jurisdictions is necessary.
Against this backdrop, I recall that Tether co-founder Reeve Collins previously predicted that within five years, all currencies could be represented as stablecoins. Analysts at Jefferies, in turn, warn about an outflow of deposits from traditional banks, forecasting the stablecoin sector's market capitalization to grow to $1.15 trillion over the next five years.
My analysis: Carstens' words are not so much a change in his views as an acknowledgment of inevitability. Regulators can no longer ignore the hundreds-of-billions-dollar stablecoin market. However, his key message about the need for international coordination remains critically important. Without unified global standards, we risk ending up with a fragmented system where stablecoins thrive in some jurisdictions and are suppressed in others, negating their potential benefits.