BIS: Stablecoins should make way for CBDCs

also: Bitcoin in Bhutan, macro softness, market reactions and more

“How did it get so late so soon? Its night before its afternoon. December is here before its June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon?” – Dr. Seuss ||

Hi everyone, and happy Friday!!! Also, the last Friday of the first half of the year. Wow that went by fast.

The big news of the week for this newsletter is its new sponsor, blockchain data provider Allium – a huge welcome! More information below 👇.

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✨In my haste to get the newsletter out, I forgot to mention yesterday that the edited recording of our Bits & Bips livestream is out! You can watch Anthony Scaramucci, James Seyffart, Alex Kurger and myself talk about macro and crypto trends here (YouTube link), or listen here (Spotify link).✨

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IN THIS NEWSLETTER:

• BIS: Stablecoins should make way for CBDCs

• Bitcoin in Bhutan

• Macro-Crypto Bits: markets, PCE, GDP, rates expectations and more

(Uff, a long one today and I didn’t get to everything on the backlog 😫 – still pending: Hong Kong and South Korean stablecoins.)

If you’re not a premium subscriber, I hope you’ll consider becoming one! You get ~daily commentary on markets, tokenization, regulation and other signs that crypto IS impacting the macro landscape. As well as relevant links and music recommendations ‘cos why not.

WHAT I’M WATCHING:

BIS: Stablecoins should make way for CBDCs

Crypto criticism from monetary officials is by now fairly mundane, barely worth commenting on for their repetitiveness and lack of impact. Progress towards a more tokenized marketplace seems to be moving forward at a fair clip regardless, one of the more encouraging trends of 2025.

But this week, the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) – the sort-of central bank of central banks – published a report worth taking a run at. It is authored by Hyun Song Shin, Head of its Monetary and Economic Department. This is not content-filler from just any analyst, his voice carries weight. And, it touches on some key market infrastructure developments and misunderstandings.

The report focuses on stablecoins, and how they are not reliable enough for securities settlement.

At first read, I have more quibbles with the paper’s assertions than I could possibly fit into one newsletter, so I’ll focus on a handful that jumped out at me – I may come back to some of the others later.

To be fair, Shin does raise some valid points.