Nobel laureate warns: Insufficient regulation of stablecoins could force government bailouts

PANews reported on September 1st that according to a report by Jinshi citing the Financial Times, Nobel Prize winner in Economics Jean Tirole warned that the current regulation of stablecoins is "insufficient" and that if these tokens collapse in a future financial crisis, the government may be forced to invest billions of dollars in rescue.

In an interview, he expressed "great, great concern" about the regulation of stablecoins and the potential for a run on depositors if doubts arise about the underlying reserve assets pegged to these digital tokens. Tirole stated that while stablecoins may be viewed as "perfectly safe deposits" by ordinary users, they can become a source of losses and trigger calls for massive government bailouts. He also warned that using U.S. Treasury bonds as stablecoin backing assets could become unpopular due to the relatively low yields on these underlying assets. Consequently, stablecoin issuers could be tempted to invest in other assets with "higher returns but greater risk."