货币在教科书中是交易媒介、价值尺度和记账单位，而在现实中它是一场庞大的信任游戏，依靠单一性、可转让性和弹性这三个要素来运转。近期，经济政策研究中心（CEPR）和国际清算银行（BIS）的报告将焦点聚集在稳定币这一数字创新上。根据国际清算银行的数据，在锚定法定货币的稳定币中，按价值计算有99.4%与美元挂钩，其总市值已超过3000亿美元，相当于美国国债未偿还总额的约1%。
这些以美元为基础的稳定币主要由Tether发行的USDT和Circle发行的USDC主导，主要由国债、逆回购和银行存款提供支持。在2023年硅谷银行倒闭期间，USDC的价值曾短暂跌至88美分，而目前在其741亿美元的备付资产中，有123亿美元存放于大型安全银行。稳定币能够通过智能合约加速结算、降低跨境支付成本，并在本地货币不稳定的新兴经济体中提供美元敞口。然而，由于缺乏单一性且在没有中央银行支持下面临赎回弹性挑战，稳定币目前更接近货币市场基金，而非银行存款。
稳定币的发展还伴随着助长区块链非法活动、削弱新兴经济体央行铸币税和货币政策有效性等风险。全球监管机构正试图规范这一领域，均不倾向于允许稳定币发行方支付利息以避免与银行存款直接竞争，尽管美国的《天才法案》（GENIUS Act）明年将允许分销商支付奖励。在准备金要求方面，英格兰银行建议将30%的准备金存入央行，70%投资于短期国债；而欧盟则要求必须有一定比例存放在商业银行存款中。这些监管规定将决定稳定币是否能成为更广泛使用的货币形式。
In textbooks, money serves as a means of exchange, a store of value, and a unit of account, while in reality, it is a giant confidence trick operating on three pillars: singleness, transferability, and elasticity. Recently, reports from the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) have focused on stablecoins as a significant digital innovation. According to the BIS, among stablecoins pegged to fiat currencies, 99.4% by value are tied to the US dollar, with their total market value exceeding 300 billion dollars, which is equivalent to approximately 1% of the outstanding value of US Treasuries.
These dollar-denominated stablecoins are dominated by Tether's USDT and Circle's USDC, backed primarily by Treasury bills, reverse repos, and bank deposits. During the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in 2023, USDC's value briefly dropped to 88 cents, but today Circle keeps 12.3 billion dollars of its 74.1 billion dollars in backing assets in large, safe banks. While stablecoins can accelerate settlements through smart contracts, reduce cross-border payment costs, and provide dollar exposure in emerging markets with unstable local currencies, they still lack singleness and face elasticity challenges during redemption runs without central-bank access, placing them closer to money-market funds than bank deposits.
The development of stablecoins also brings risks, including facilitating illicit blockchain activities and stripping emerging-market central banks of their seigniorage and monetary policy effectiveness. Global regulators are striving to govern this sector, with none inclined to allow issuers to pay interest to avoid competing directly with bank deposits, though America's GENIUS Act will permit distributors to pay rewards next year. Regarding backing requirements, the Bank of England proposes keeping 30% in central bank deposits and 70% in short-term gilts, whereas the EU mandates a minimum share in commercial bank deposits, with these varying rules determining if stablecoins will achieve wider adoption.
Source: Are stablecoins money?
Subtitle: Policymakers’ job is to make them safe as well as useful
Dateline: Jul 02, 2026 01:07 PM