Stablecoin Law and Regulation
* Report: The Stablecoin Toolkit: Part II — Law, Regulation, and Monetary Policy. The Wharton Blockchain and Digital Asset Project (BDAP).
Description
"Part I mapped the financial and market dimensions of stablecoins; Part II follows that heterogeneity into the domains that determine how stablecoins are actually used: private law, financial regulation, and monetary policy. Its central claim is that the same design choices separating one stablecoin from another, namely reserve composition, redemption mechanics, and custody architecture, are exactly what determine how each is treated under law and policy.
Three findings stand out. On private and commercial law, the report traces how “control” has emerged as the functional equivalent of possession for digital assets. On regulation, the report documents genuine convergence: the US (GENIUS Act), EU (MiCA), UK, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and UAE had each arrived independently at a similar regulated instrument, a fiat-referenced token redeemable at par and fully backed by segregated reserves, though algorithmic, crypto-collateralized, and synthetic designs remain largely outside these frameworks. On monetary policy, the report examines how reserve-backed stablecoins resembling narrow banking affect central bank reserve access, deposit competition, and currency substitution as dollar-denominated stablecoins circulate globally.
The report closes with policy recommendations across all four areas and detailed appendices mapping regulatory and bankruptcy treatment across major jurisdictions."