Antonella Pellicani
- 11 July 2022
- MACROPRUDENTIAL BULLETIN - ARTICLE - No. 18Details
- Abstract
- Stablecoins are in the spotlight due to their rapid growth, increasing global use cases and potential financial risk contagion channels. This article analyses the role played by stablecoins within the wider crypto-asset ecosystem and finds that some existing stablecoins are already critical to liquidity in crypto-asset markets. This could have wide-ranging implications for crypto-asset markets if a large stablecoin were to fail and could also have contagion effects if crypto-assets’ interlinkages with the traditional financial system continue rising. To date, the speed and cost of stablecoin transactions, as well as their redemption terms and conditions, have fallen short of what is required of practical means of payment in the real economy. Their growth, innovation and increasing use cases, coupled with their potential contagion channels to the financial sector, call for the urgent implementation of effective regulatory, supervisory and oversight frameworks before significant further interconnectedness with the traditional financial system occurs.
- JEL Code
- E42 : Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics→Money and Interest Rates→Monetary Systems, Standards, Regimes, Government and the Monetary System, Payment Systems
G13 : Financial Economics→General Financial Markets→Contingent Pricing, Futures Pricing
G18 : Financial Economics→General Financial Markets→Government Policy and Regulation
G28 : Financial Economics→Financial Institutions and Services→Government Policy and Regulation
- 11 July 2022
- MACROPRUDENTIAL BULLETIN - FOCUSMacroprudential Bulletin Issue 18, 2022Details
- Abstract
- This article describes the main features and risks of decentralised finance (DeFi), focusing in particular on similarities and differences between DeFi and traditional finance. While the financial services provided through DeFi mainly replicate those of traditional financial services but within the crypto-asset ecosystem, they are provided in a novel way that relies on automated protocols and cuts out centralised intermediaries. The article explains how this novel method of service provision entails specific financial stability risks and regulatory challenges.
- JEL Code
- G23 : Financial Economics→Financial Institutions and Services→Non-bank Financial Institutions, Financial Instruments, Institutional Investors
G28 : Financial Economics→Financial Institutions and Services→Government Policy and Regulation
G01 : Financial Economics→General→Financial Crises