At the beginning of the 1990s, telephone companies made ads for long -distance calls that highlight the cost per minute for an American client to speak with someone in another country. Today, that business does not exist. Now you can facetime or zoom to anyone, anywhere, for free.
What changed?
The change to the voice over the Internet protocol (VOIP) finally caused the price of calls to almost zero.
Today, we are experiencing a similar transformation as a global and integrated financial layer arises within the Internet. Ultimately, this will generate money transfer costs closer to zero, transforming a system loaded by high rates, delays and intermediaries.
Stablecoins are the application that drives this evolution. The maximum “adoption is slow until it is fast” Captures its explosive growth in recent years. To obtain an idea of scale, the volume of stablecoin transactions increased above $ 27 billion in 2024, exceeding the visa and the combined teacher. Today, there are Stablecoin suppliers, such as Tether, who have more treasure bonds from the United States than entire countries such as Germany and the Netherlands.
The stables are no longer a niche experiment. They are becoming more deeply integrated in our global financial ecosystem. While US legislators discuss stable legislation, the objective must be clear: reinforce the domain of the dollar as the global reserve currency while extending its reach to the corners of the world that traditional bank cannot touch. This should include many important players, not only those based in the United States.
Two paths, a future
The Congress is at a crossroads between two general positions. One is a closed market approach in which Stablecoin emitters based in the United States would have privileges about their non -American competitors. This is myopic and will finally suffocate innovation.
The other approach is to build a regulatory framework that cultivates a fair and free global competition. By allowing international players such as Tether to compete along with the emitters based in the United States, the United States can foster a dynamic ecosystem where the best ideas and technologies go up to the top. Competition is what would boost excellence.
A myth is being perpetrated that only the emitters based in the United States support their tokens with sufficient reserves, attest to those reserves and take the necessary measures to avoid money laundering and terrorist financing. That is simply not true. Tether, the largest issuer of Stablecoin, the application of assisted US law and more than 230 law enforcement agencies in 50 countries to block $ 2.5 billion in illicit activities worldwide. The reality is that Stablecoin’s issuers exist both inside and outside the United States (Tether, based in El Salvador, represents more than half of the Stablecoin market).
Excessively restrictive regulation could also be counterproductive in the economy of the United States. If Stablecoin’s legislation takes out foreign companies in the United States, could lead to a decrease in the demand of the United States Treasury bonds, the domain of the weakened dollar and a less competitive stable space.
Congress is at an important crossroads: “Two roads diverged” as Robert Frost wrote once. I could take advantage of this moment to elaborate a regulatory framework that defends competition and transparency, or could take the narrow path by adopting a protectionist approach and an innovation of suffocation. Market diversity is not a mistake to solve. It is a characteristic for the harness.
It is time to make a careful decision since bets could not be higher. Let us make us do this correctly for the future of finance.
