Stablecoins could become a new medium of exchange – Fed Financial Stability Report

The US Federal Reserve has released its latest financial stability report.

In the report, the constant mention of stablecoins proves that they are taking the concept seriously.

They kick off the comments by saying:

the possibility for a stablecoin payment network to quickly achieve global scale introduces important challenges and risks related to financial stability, monetary policy, safeguards against money laundering and terrorist financing, and consumer and investor protection.

But then there is a change in the tone:

Stablecoins attempt to address this volatility by seeking to tie their value to an asset (for example, domestic currency) or a basket of assets (for example, a portfolio of sovereign currencies). Stablecoin initiatives that are built on existing large and cross-border customer networks, such as Facebook’s Libra, have the potential to rapidly achieve widespread adoption. These initiatives are referred to as “global stablecoins”

The Fed then go on the address familiar concerns with terrorist financing and anti-money laundering. When they go on to say “The Federal Reserve is closely monitoring the risks of stablecoins”

All of this comes after Fed’s Mester said that the Federal Reserve may be looking into a digital dollar. It seems that a central bank coin from the US could be on the way.