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Stablecoins’ Primacy Drives Rules Campaign, Treasury’s Liang Says

Stablecoins’ Primacy Drives Rules Campaign, Treasury’s Liang Says

Treasury Undersecretary for Domestic Finance Nellie Liang said U.S. financial regulators have focused on stablecoins because of the central role they’ve begun playing in the world of cryptocurrencies.

“We believe they’re kind of foundational to crypto and future crypto services,” Liang said Thursday during a virtual event sponsored by the Institute of International Finance.

“They’re being used mostly for crypto trading currently. They also have the potential and have started to be used for payments -- and may be widely used for payments, and that raises a whole set of issues that the President’s Working Group wanted to focus on,” she said.

The PWG is a group of regulators led by the Treasury that includes the heads of several federal agencies. It’s aiming to issue a report on stablecoins, which are tied to the value of a sovereign currency, by the end of the month.

The PWG’s efforts will focus on four areas, Liang said:

  • Consumer and investor protection
  • Regulation to prevent financial crimes
  • Regulations to protect the integrity of the payments system
  • Protecting the stability of the overall financial system

Liang said the group would issue a report “in a few weeks.”

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