The Biden Administration Stablecoin Report Misses The Mark

The Biden Administration Stablecoin Report Misses The Mark

The President's Working Group on Financial Markets released a new report on stablecoins this week. On the surface, the Biden administration punted. Dig deeper, and the details make the policy whiff look much worse. For starters, the report fails to provide the regulatory clarity that the crypto industry has been seeking for years. Rather than provide concrete proposals and guidelines for federal agencies to implement immediately, the report urges Congress to pass a new law. The report even disappointed groups that typically support more regulation. Todd Phillips, the director of financial regulation at the Center for American Progress, told American Banker "I think this is a very problematic report, in that the recommendations really just look at what Congress can do, and not the current authorities of the regulators." But this critique is minor compared to the details the report does provide. Specifically, the administration wants new legislation to "limit stablecoin issuance, and related activities of redemption and maintenance of reserve assets, to entities that are insured depository institutions." In case that's not clear enough, the report reiterates that the bill should "prohibit other entities from issuing payment stablecoins." The administration apparently believes that stablecoins can harm their users and