Stablecoins can drain from banks and nations at lightning speed

Highly liquid and settling 24/7, stablecoins can leave banks and countries at lightning speed. But whether stablecoins are a risk — or an opportunity — depends on your perspective.

Anyone who’s ever sent a bank transfer overseas is familiar with the painful process of waiting for things like working hours, correspondent banks and settlement times.

In many cases, it would be faster, cheaper and just more efficient to strap the physical cash to a homing pigeon, or slap it in an envelope and send it via DHL.

Stablecoins can move money across borders around the clock, without waiting for the legacy system to fire up its steam engines.

They can settle transactions 24/7, cut out layers of intermediaries and give people access to digital dollars without even needing a traditional bank account.

So do we even need banks any more? And what are the ramifications of stablecoins offering a faster, cheaper and easier way to move money?

Anthony Vassallo, director of crypto at Silicon Valley Bank, which failed in March 2023 and now operates as a division of First Citizens Bank, tells Magazine competition from stablecoins will show up across two time frames:

The European Central Bank raised concerns about the impacts, arguing that large amounts of stablecoin reserves held in bank deposits could trigger cascading withdrawals if there were a surge in redemptions.

The bank points to a “liquidity mismatch” between digital money and the banking system that supports it, with reserve assets subject to traditional settlement timelines, while stablecoins settle around the clock.

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We already saw that dynamic in action in March 2023 when USD Coin lost its dollar peg after Circle’s disclosure that $3.3 billion of its reserves were held at the failed Silicon Valley Bank. The incident turned a banking failure into a stablecoin crisis almost overnight, with authorities having to step in to guarantee deposits.

Large stablecoin reserves could trigger a bank run. Source: ECB