Tether CEO: Stablecoins are almost fully backed by U.S. Treasury bonds, questioning BIS's push for tokenized bank deposits

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino stated that stablecoins are a more trustworthy form of currency than tokenized bank deposits, the former being almost fully backed by U.S. Treasury bonds, while the latter typically only has 10% of liquid assets backing it. Pablo Hernandez de Cos, General Manager of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), mentioned that stablecoins face issues such as redemption capability, supply, interoperability, and facilitating crime, and he referred to tokenized bank deposits as a more direct path to preserving the monetary system's foundation while utilizing tokenization.

Ardoino pointed out that the market capitalization of USDT has exceeded $183 billion and is used by some emerging markets for domestic and cross-border commerce. In discussions surrounding the Digital Asset Market Transparency Act (CLARITY Act), banks are concerned that allowing cryptocurrency exchanges to provide incentives for stablecoins could lead to a shift in deposits.