Agustín Carstens, former general manager of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and a member of the Global Finance & Technology Network’s international advisory board, praised stablecoins for their ability to promote financial inclusion and innovation.
“I have come to appreciate what stablecoins can do to promote financial innovation, inclusion and to reduce costs,” said Carstens during a welcome address at Point Zero Forum on Tuesday. “We should try to establish conditions where we can live with fiat money and stablecoins.”
The remarks reflected a softer stance on stablecoins than Carstens took during his time at the BIS, when he was among the most prominent crypto critics. In a January 2022 speech, he said that stablecoins may not function as “sound money” because issuers have incentives to invest reserve assets in a “risky manner” to generate returns.
In one of his final speeches as BIS general manager in June 2025, Carstens also warned that stablecoins could emerge as a source of liquidity risk and still fell short of the three key tests money must fulfill to serve society.
Agustín Carstens during a livestreamed welcome address at the Point Zero Forum. Source: Point Zero Forum
While Carstens has taken a more favorable view of stablecoins, current BIS officials have remained critical of their role in the broader financial system.
Carstens’ successor and current BIS general manager, Pablo Hernández de Cos, said in April that the stablecoin market remains “small” and that its structural features constrain its ability to function as money.
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The BIS reiterated that view in a preview released Tuesday ahead of its Annual Economic Report 2026, arguing that current stablecoin designs fall short of key properties that underpin trust in money and warning that widespread adoption could create challenges for financial stability, bank funding and monetary sovereignty.
However, the BIS endorsed bringing tokenization into the two-tier banking system, arguing that digital representations of assets could enable new forms of programmable finance while preserving trust in money.
Stablecoins need global regulation to flourish
The traditional financial system can benefit from stablecoins, distributed ledger technology and tokenization, but a coordinated global regulatory framework is needed to strengthen trust in stablecoin issuers, according to Carstens, who added:
“If we really want a global system where stablecoins can interact with global currency, this has to be a cooperative effort worldwide. And I see this lagging behind.”
He said that more regulations and a level playing field for issuers could help stablecoins “flourish in a dramatic way.”
Several major jurisdictions have already introduced stablecoin-specific rules. The GENIUS Act created the first federal regulatory framework for payment stablecoins in the US. Signed into law in July 2025, it requires 100% reserves in high-quality liquid assets such as cash and short-term US Treasurys.
In the European Union, stablecoin issuers are regulated under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA). The framework requires issuers to obtain authorization, publish an approved white paper, maintain full reserve backing and segregate reserve assets from company funds.
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