Agustin Carstens (아구스틴 카르스텐스), former general manager of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), has softened his position on stablecoins and publicly mentioned the possibility of coexistence with fiat money.
On June 23 local time, blockchain outlet Cointelegraph reported that Carstens, in a welcoming address at the Point Zero Forum, assessed that stablecoins could contribute to financial innovation, expanded inclusion and lower costs.
Now serving as an international advisory board member of a global finance and technology network, he said, “I have come to recognise what stablecoins can do to promote financial innovation and inclusion and lower costs.” He added, “We need to create conditions under which fiat money and stablecoins can live together.”
The remarks differ markedly from the hard-line stance he showed while at the BIS. In a 2022 speech, Carstens pointed out that stablecoins would struggle to serve as sound money. At the time, he warned that issuers have an incentive to manage reserve assets in a risky way to increase profits. In a speech delivered ahead of the end of his term as BIS general manager in 2025, he also criticised stablecoins, saying they could increase liquidity risk and fail to meet key requirements that social money must satisfy.
Some analysis also suggests the BIS as a whole has not changed its position. Pablo Hernandez de Cos, Carstens’ successor as BIS general manager, said in April that the stablecoin market remains limited in scale and structurally constrained in performing monetary functions.
The BIS also said in materials released on June 23 ahead of its 2026 annual economic report that the current stablecoin structure does not sufficiently meet the core trust requirements needed for money. It warned that widespread adoption of stablecoins could burden financial stability, banks’ funding structures and national monetary sovereignty.
Market discussions have recently focused less on whether stablecoins should exist and more on how they should be integrated into the institutional system. Carstens assessed that the traditional financial system can actively use the advantages of stablecoins, distributed ledger technology (DLT) and tokenisation. He stressed that an internationally coordinated regulatory framework is needed to increase trust in stablecoin issuers. He also forecast that the stablecoin industry could “flourish dramatically” if issuer regulation is strengthened and a fair competitive environment is put in place.
At the same time, the BIS has maintained caution toward stablecoins themselves while showing a more favourable stance toward the use of tokenisation technology. It believes that bringing tokenisation, which represents assets in digital form, into the existing financial system could enable new services such as programmable finance while maintaining trust in money.
Major regions have already introduced separate regulations. In the United States, the GENIUS Act enacted in July 2025 established the first federal regulatory framework for payment stablecoins. The law requires 100 percent reserves in highly liquid assets such as cash and short-term U.S. Treasury securities. The European Union is also regulating stablecoin issuers under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA). Key requirements include obtaining issuance authorisation, publishing an approved white paper, maintaining full reserves and keeping reserve assets separate from company funds.
Against this backdrop, Carstens’ remarks show that the debate over stablecoins is moving beyond simple support or opposition toward a regulated coexistence model. Still, concerns within the BIS about monetary functions and financial stability remain, and the future focus is expected to be on the conditions under which stablecoins are connected to the existing monetary system.
Leave a comment