Visa

Stablecoin settlements can surpass all major card networks in 2023: Data

While on-chain stablecoins settlements are growing rapidly, many people pointed out that comparing stablecoin settlements to Visa transactions is not fair as they represent two different things.

Stablecoins play a very critical role in the crypto economy today and despite the recent run-down in the broader market, stablecoin volumes continue to dominate most exchanges.

According to Coin Metrics data, on-chain stablecoin settlements reached over $7 trillion in 2022 and are expected to end the year at around $8 trillion. While the largest card network, Visa, processes ~$12tn/yr.

Peter Johnson, co-head of the venture at Brevan Howard Digital, said that stablecoin settlements had already surpassed Mastercard and American Express. Furthermore, he predicted that in 2023 on-chain stablecoin volumes will surpass the Visa transaction volumes.

He also noted that stablecoins volume would not only surpass Visa but most likely surpass the aggregate volume of all four major card networks (Visa, Mastercard, AmEx and Discover). Johnson added that these on-chain stablecoin volumes don’t include a trading volume on centralized exchanges, which has a significant chunk of its own.

While the comparison definitely indicates a significant increase in stablecoin usage, many users pointed out that the comparison between the two entities doesn’t hold ground as they are two different things.

Related: Stablecoin regulations in the US: A beginner’s guide

There is a distinction to be made between credit card volumes and stablecoin settlements. Credit card transactions are typically associated with consumer spending, whereas fiat-pegged crypto assets are primarily associated with crypto trading and decentralized finance.

A key barrier for stablecoins to be actively used by consumers in their daily lives, just like Visa and Mastercard, is regulations. However, Republican Senator Pat Toomey, who is set to retire from U.S. Congress at the end of the term, aims to change that with his stablecoin bill. The bill proposes to permit non-state and non-bank institutions to issue stablecoins as long as they obtain a federal license created and issued by the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and as backed up by “high-quality liquid assets.”

In terms of market capitalization, stablecoins currently make up about 16.5% of the total. CoinGecko data indicates that the value of all of the stablecoins together is about $140 billion. Tether-issued Tether (USDT) currently dominates the stablecoin market with a total supply of 66.3 billion USDT followed by Circle’s USDC with a 44.3 billion in USD Coin (UDSC) market supply.

Ethereum bounces above $1.2K, but derivatives metrics show traders fear a collapse

Demand for leverage buying remains absent in ETH despite the recent bounce to $1,200 as the U.S. Federal Reserve continues to hike interest rates.

Ether (ETH) gained 5.6% on Dec. 20 after testing the $1,150 support the previous day. Still, a bearish trend prevails, forming a three-week-long descending channel, a price action attributed to expectations of further U.S. Federal Reserve interest rate hikes.

Ether/USD price index, 12-hour. Source: TradingView

Jim Bianco, head of institutional research firm Bianco Research, said on Dec. 20 that the Fed will keep the economy tightening in 2023. Later that day, Japan’s central bank effectively raised interest rates, far later than its global counterparts. The unexpected move made analysts more bearish toward risk assets, including cryptocurrencies.

Ethereum might have caught some tailwind after the global payment processor Visa proposed a solution to allow automatic funding from Ethereum wallets. Auto-payments for recurring bills aren’t possible for self-custodial wallets, so Visa proposed relying on smart contracts, known as “account abstraction.” Curiously, the concept emerged in 2015 with Vitalik Buterin.

The most pressing issue, however, is regulation. On Dec. 19, the U.S. House Financial Services Committee reintroduced legislation aimed at creating innovation offices within government agencies dealing with financial services. According to North Carolina Representative Patrick McHenry, companies could apply for an “enforceable compliance agreement,” with offices located in agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Consequently, investors believe Ether could revisit sub-$1,000 prices as the DXY dollar index loses strength while the 10-year U.S. reasury yields show higher demand for protection. Trader CryptoCondom expects the next couple of months to be extremely bearish for crypto markets.

Let’s look at Ether derivatives data to understand if the bearish macroeconomic movement has negatively impacted investors’ sentiment.

The recent bounce above $1,200 did not instill bullishness

Retail traders usually avoid quarterly futures due to their price difference from spot markets. Meanwhile, professional traders prefer these instruments because they prevent the fluctuation of funding rates in a perpetual futures contract.

The two-month futures annualized premium should trade between +4% to +8% in healthy markets to cover costs and associated risks. When the futures trade at a discount versus regular spot markets, it shows a lack of confidence from leverage buyers, which is a bearish indicator.

Ether 2-month futures annualized premium. Source: Laevitas.ch

The chart above shows that derivatives traders continue to use more leverage for short (bear) positions as the Ether futures premium remains negative. Still, the absence of leverage buyers’ demand does not mean traders expect further adverse price action.

For this reason, traders should analyze Ether’s options markets to understand whether investors are pricing higher odds of surprise adverse price movements.

Options traders not keen on offering downside protection

The 25% delta skew is a telling sign when market makers and arbitrage desks are overcharging for upside or downside protection.

In bear markets, options investors give higher odds for a price dump, causing the skew indicator to rise above 10%. On the other hand, bullish markets tend to drive the skew indicator below -10%, meaning the bearish put options are discounted.

Ether 60-day options 25% delta skew: Source: Laevitas.ch

The delta skew increased after Dec. 15 from a fearful 14% against the protective put options to the current 20%. The movement signaled that options traders became even less comfortable with downside risks.

The 60-day delta skew signals whales and market makers are reluctant to offer downside protection, which seems natural considering the three-week-long descending channel.

In a nutshell, both options and futures markets point to pro traders not trusting the recent bounce above $1,200. The present trend favors Ether bears because the odds of the Fed maintaining its balance sheet reduction program seem high, which is destructive for risk markets.

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the authors’ alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

Ether bounces above $1.2K, but derivatives metrics show traders fear a collapse

Demand for leverage buying remains absent in ETH despite the recent bounce to $1,200 as the U.S. Federal Reserve continues to hike interest rates.

Ether (ETH) gained 5.6% on Dec. 20 after testing the $1,150 support the previous day. Still, a bearish trend prevails, forming a three-week-long descending channel, a price action attributed to expectations of further U.S. Federal Reserve interest rate hikes.

Ether/USD price index, 12-hour. Source: TradingView

Jim Bianco, head of institutional research firm Bianco Research, said on Dec. 20 that the Fed will keep the economy tightening in 2023. Later that day, Japan’s central bank effectively raised interest rates far later than its global counterparts. The unexpected move made analysts more bearish toward risk assets, including cryptocurrencies.

Ethereum might have caught some tailwind after the global payment processor Visa proposed a solution to allow automatic funding from Ethereum wallets. Auto-payments for recurring bills aren’t possible for self-custodial wallets, so Visa proposed relying on smart contracts, known as “account abstraction.” Curiously, the concept emerged in 2015 with Vitalik Buterin.

The most pressing issue, however, is regulation. On Dec. 19, the U.S. House Financial Services Committee reintroduced legislation aimed at creating innovation offices within government agencies dealing with financial services. According to North Carolina Representative Patrick McHenry, companies could apply for an “enforceable compliance agreement” with offices located in agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Consequently, investors believe Ether could revisit sub-$1,000 prices, as the U.S. Dollar Index (DXY)  loses strength while the 10-year U.S. treasury yields show higher demand for protection. Trader CryptoCondom expects the next couple of months to be extremely bearish for crypto markets.

Let’s look at Ether derivatives data to understand if the bearish macroeconomic movement has negatively impacted investors’ sentiment.

The recent bounce above $1,200 did not instill bullishness

Retail traders usually avoid quarterly futures due to their price difference from spot markets. Meanwhile, professional traders prefer these instruments because they prevent the fluctuation of funding rates in a perpetual futures contract.

The two-month futures annualized premium should trade between +4% to +8% in healthy markets to cover costs and associated risks. When the futures trade at a discount versus regular spot markets, it shows a lack of confidence from leverage buyers, which is a bearish indicator.

Ether 2-month futures annualized premium. Source: Laevitas.ch

The chart above shows that derivatives traders continue to use more leverage for short (bear) positions as the Ether futures premium remains negative. Still, the absence of leverage buyers’ demand does not mean traders expect further adverse price action.

For this reason, traders should analyze Ether’s options markets to understand whether investors are pricing higher odds of surprise adverse price movements.

Options traders not keen on offering downside protection

The 25% delta skew is a telling sign when market makers and arbitrage desks are overcharging for upside or downside protection.

In bear markets, options investors give higher odds for a price dump, causing the skew indicator to rise above 10%. On the other hand, bullish markets tend to drive the skew indicator below -10%, meaning the bearish put options are discounted.

Ether 60-day options 25% delta skew: Source: Laevitas.ch

The delta skew increased after Dec. 15 from a fearful 14% against the protective put options to the current 20%. The movement signaled that options traders became even less comfortable with downside risks.

The 60-day delta skew signals whales and market makers are reluctant to offer downside protection, which seems natural considering the three-week-long descending channel.

In a nutshell, both options and futures markets point to pro traders not trusting the recent bounce above $1,200. The present trend favors Ether bears because the odds of the Fed maintaining its balance sheet reduction program seem high, which is destructive for risk markets.

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the authors’ alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

Nifty News: NFT marketplace says no to opt-in royalties, Visa jumps on World Cup NFTs and more

A new NFT marketplace is giving a hard pass to optional royalties, bucking the trend and NFTs are getting a new home on Ripple’s XRPL.

NFT marketplace says no to optional royalties

While nonfungible token (NFT) marketplaces such as Ethereum-based X2Y2, LooksRare and Solana-based Magic Eden have made the switch over to “optional” creator royalties, a newly launched marketplace is taking a hard stand against it.

Find Satoshi Lab, the company behind the popular move-to-earn app STEPN, has launched its new NFT marketplace named MOOAR on Nov. 1, notably featuring “no optional royalties.”

Instead, its NFT royalty policy will be set to a default of 2% but allows creators to set royalties between 0.5% to 10%. There is no option for 0% royalties, nor can it be set by the user.

“With the raging debate going on surrounding the paying of royalties, we are aware that many users have been vocal in opposing the enforcement of such royalties,” said the MOOAR team in a Medium post.

“Fully empathizing with the sentiment, we strongly believe this ‘cancel culture’ has forced marketplaces into a corner to the point that prominent marketplaces have adopted optional royalties,” it added.

On Aug. 27, Ethereum-based NFT marketplace X2Y2 announced it would be introducing an option that allows buyers to set the royalty fee when buying an NFT.

With the new update, buyers on the platform will be given the liberty of setting the amount of royalties they want to contribute to an NFT project. This means that some creators may not receive royalties when their artworks are sold.

The controversial move was followed by the Solana-based NFT marketplace Magic Eden on Oct. 15, which announced it would also be moving to an optional royalty model after “difficult reflection and discussion with many creators.”

Less than two weeks later, on Oct. 27, NFT marketplace LooksRare became the latest to succumb to pressure from buyers, announcing it was doing away with enforcing creator royalties, allowing buyers to choose to pay royalties on an opt-in basis.

Visa gets in on World Cup NFT action

Credit card giant Visa has become the latest major company set to cash in on FIFA World Cup-related NFTs — unveiling a charity auction for five NFTs ahead of the upcoming tournament in Qatar. 

The auction is in partnership with crypto exchange Crypto.com, with all auction proceeds going to Street Child United, a charitable organization promoting the rights of impoverished children.

Each NFT features digital art inspired by icon goals from five famed soccer players, including Jared Borgetti, Tim Cahill, Carli Lloyd, Michael Owen and Maxi Rodriguez, and is part of the “Visa Masters of Movement.”

NFT titled “Jared Borgetti 2002 FIFA World Cup Korea Japan™”

The credit card company has been a long supporter of NFTs and its ability to provide a “promising medium for fan engagement.”

In a report released on Aug. 23, 2021, Visa said that “NFTs appeal to collectors, fans, teams, leagues, and talent.”

In particular, NFTs can become primary sources of fan engagement, customer relationship management, and newer revenue streams, it said.

Visa’s announcement also comes on the same day that Crypto.com announced it will now be able to self-issue its own Crypto.com Visa card in Singapore after becoming a Visa Associate Program Member in the city-state.

The Crypto.com Visa card will allow the exchange’s users in Singapore to use it for everyday purchases and earn rewards in Crypto.com Coin (CRO) coins.

Visa is the official payment technology partner of FIFA. Other notable sponsors include Crypto.com which became an official sponsor in March, and blockchain network Algorand, which inked a partnership in May as FIFA’s official blockchain platform.

Ripple’s new stomping ground for NFTs

As of Oct. 31, Ripple’s XRPL blockchain has officially become a new home for NFTs.

RippleX developers have been working on the project since the XLS-20 proposal was filed on May 25, 2021, which proposed the goal of bringing NFTs to the XRP Ledger.

At the time, the team described the proposal as one that would introduce extensions to the XRP Ledger that would support a “native non-fungible token type, along with operations to enumerate, purchase, sell and hold such tokens.”

Ripple chief technology officer David Schwartz told his 395,600 Twitter followers on Oct. 31 that the XLS-20 standard has now been enabled on the XRP Ledger Mainnet after a vote approved the roll-out of the technology.

Schwartz noted that “this presents a key milestone for developers and creators to tokenize any asset and build innovative Web3 projects with utility.”

In an accompanying Nov. 1 blog post, Schwartz said the benefits of launching NFTs on the XRP Ledger include much lower costs for minting, trading and otherwise transferring NFTs compared with “leading layer-1 blockchain solutions.”

He also said their “no-smart contracts” approach will make NFTs on the XRPL less vulnerable to hacks, while NFTs will include “automatic royalties” which essentially allow creators to be given a share of revenue whenever an NFT is bought or sold.

Scammers impersonate indie game, adding NFT twist

The indie developer behind farming sim game Coral Island has taken to Twitter to warn its followers of a scammer impersonating them on the internet and purporting to be involved in “GameFi” and NFTs.

The developer Stairway Games pointed to the doppelganger account on Twitter on Oct. 31, clarifying that Coral Island “is not an NFT game” and the page has no affiliation with Coral Island.

Related: Steph Curry files trademark for the Curryverse, where players earn NFTs

The fake Coral Island Twitter page in question describes itself as “Re-imagined farm sim game goes GameFi. Enter the farmverse!” and links to a similar Instagram page, as well as a fully-decked-out website using assets lifted directly from the developers.

The website includes sections such as “Roadmap” and “Tokenomics,” with claims that it would launch staking, airdrops, character NFTs, and a “token earning system” in the future.

Coral Island is a farming simulator game currently in early access, it’s said to be a mix of “Harvest Moon, Story of Seasons, Stardew Valley and a tiny bit of Animal Crossing,” according to one user review on the gaming platform Steam.

More Nifty News

The NFT marketplace for American video game retailer GameStop has officially gone live on Ethereum layer-2 blockchain ImmutableX, all part of the latest Web3 push from the gaming retailer.

There’s been pushback from Silicon Valley CEOs about the current iterations of the Metaverse. Microsoft gaming chief Phil Spencer called it a “poorly built video game,” while Snap CEO Evan Spiegel hinted that the current iterations of the concept are very basic, and he won’t feel like spending time inside it after a long day of work.

2 metrics signal the $1T crypto market cap support likely won’t hold

Despite the 8.5% weekly rally in cryptocurrencies, the lack of stablecoin premiums in Asia and futures markets activity shows buyers’ lack of confidence.

Cryptocurrencies broke the $1 trillion market capitalization resistance on Oct. 26, which had been holding strong for the previous 41 days. Despite Bitcoin’s (BTC) modest 5.5% weekly gains, the aggregate value of 20,000 listed tokens increased by 8.5% between Oct. 24 and 31.

Total crypto market cap, USD (in billions). Source: TradingView

The cryptocurrency market was positively impacted by a 6.3% weekly rally in the Russell 2000 mid-capitalization stock market index. Some encouraging news accompanied the positive tailwinds from traditional markets.

For instance, 55,000 BTC was withdrawn from Binance on Oct. 26, a record high. Typically, analysts consider the reduced number of coins deposited on exchanges a bullish indicator, as the immediate selling pressure eases.

Moreover, exchange and wallet provider Blockchain.com partnered with payment processing giant Visa to launch a crypto card. The cryptocurrency company revealed on Oct. 26 that there would be no sign-up or annual fees, no transaction fees and users would earn 1% of all purchases back in digital assets.

Instead of focusing on Bitcoin, cryptocurrency traders have spread their bets across altcoins. Consequently, comparing the winners and losers among the top 80 coins provides skewed results, as seven rallied 20% or more over the past week.

Weekly winners and losers among the top 80 coins. Source: Nomics

Dogecoin (DOGE) rallied 112% after Elon Musk, the billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, completed his acquisition of the Twitter social media network. Musk’s widely known passion for the memecoin inspired traders to raise expectations of potential payment integrations.

Mina Protocol’s MINA token gained 28% following its ecosystem update report on Oct. 27, which highlighted its zero-knowledge testnet. The protocol promises efficient layer-1 smart contract zkApps, adding unique privacy features and the ability to connect to external data sources.

The native tokens of smart contract networks Klaytn, Cosmos and Avalanche — KLAY, ATOM (ATOM) and AVAX (AVAX), respectively — rallied following Ether’s (ETH) 16.5% gains. Moreover, the Ethereum network has remained clogged, with average transaction fees above $3 for the past three weeks.

Stablecoin demand remained neutral in Asia

The USD Coin (USDC) premium is a good gauge of China-based crypto retail trader demand. It measures the difference between China-based peer-to-peer trades and the United States dollar.

Excessive buying demand tends to pressure the indicator above fair value at 100%, and during bearish markets, the stablecoin’s market offer is flooded, causing a 4% or higher discount.

USDC peer-to-peer vs. USD/CNY. Source: OKX

Currently, the USDC premium stands at 100.8%, flat versus the previous week. Therefore, despite the 8.5% cryptocurrency market capitalization increase, no additional demand came from Asian retail investors. However, such data should not be worrisome, as it partially reflects the total capitalization being down 56% year-to-date.

Futures markets show mixed sentiment

Perpetual contracts, also known as inverse swaps, have an embedded rate usually charged every eight hours. Exchanges use this fee to avoid exchange risk imbalances.

A positive funding rate indicates that longs (buyers) demand more leverage. However, the opposite situation occurs when shorts (sellers) require additional leverage, causing the funding rate to turn negative.

Accumulated perpetual futures funding rate on Oct. 31. Source: Coinglass

As depicted above, the accumulated seven-day funding rate is either slightly positive or neutral for the largest cryptocurrencies by open interest. Such data indicates a balanced demand between leverage longs (buyers) and shorts (sellers).

Considering the absence of stablecoin demand in Asia and mixed perpetual contract premiums, traders lack confidence even though the total crypto capitalization broke above the $1 trillion mark.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk. You should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Visa’s trademark applications suggest more involvement in crypto space

The company’s trademark owner applied for its name to be used in software “to view, access, store, monitor, manage, trade, send, receive, transmit, and exchange” crypto and NFTs.

Major credit card company Visa may be planning to explore digital wallet services based on two recent trademark applications. 

According to records submitted to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on Oct. 22, the Visa International Service Association filed two applications for its character mark to be used in software “to view, access, store, monitor, manage, trade, send, receive, transmit, and exchange” crypto assets and nonfungible tokens, or NFTs. The filings also suggested the credit card company may be exploring a move into the metaverse, with its namesake used in “virtual environments in which users can interact for recreational, leisure or entertainment purposes.”

Some reports suggest that there are more than 1 billion Visa cards in circulation around the world. The company has previously partnered with crypto firms to offer credit and debit cards tied to crypto payments. The trademark filings followed those of Mastercard, which applied to the USPTO in April to use its logo in the metaverse and o NFTs.

Related: Western Union may be planning to expand its digital offerings far beyond remittances

The credit card company has announced gradual forays into the crypto space in recent years. In March 2021, Visa said it planned to launch a pilot program allowing its partners to use USD Coin (USDC) to settle transactions made in fiat. The company also spent $150,000 to acquire a CryptoPunk in August 2021 as part of an effort for “first-hand understanding of the infrastructure requirements for a global brand to purchase, store, and leverage an NFT.”

SWIFT action: JPMorgan and Visa team up on cross-border blockchain payments

Visa is set to integrate its B2B Connect network with JPMorgan’s suit of blockchain-based cross-border payment products.

Traditional finance and payment giants JPMorgan and Visa are teaming up to streamline the use of their private blockchain solutions Liink and B2B Connect to facilitate cross-border payments.

According to an Oct. 11 report from Forbes, JPMorgan’s Liink is a network specifically designed for cross-border transfers and is offered under the bank’s blockchain and payments initiative, Onyx. Onyx provides a platform for institutions to share financial information and validate transactions.

Visa’s B2B Connect is a similar network to Liink that was built for institutional grade use and has now been integrated with Onyx’s Confirm.

Confirm is an account-information validation product, and ensures that transacting parties provide genuine identities and correct information. Onyx touts that Confirm is capable of verifying more than 2 billion bank accounts from 3,500 financial institutions.

Finextra reported on Oct. 11 that JPMorgan is looking to rope in a host of founding member banks across the globe as it works to launch Confirm in 10 countries by the end of this year. Moving forward, the bank is said to be eying a rollout in 30 countries next year.

German financial behemoth Deutsche Bank has also signed on to become a founding member of Confirm.

Confirm’s global head, Alex Littleton, explained in a public statement that “Confirm’s growth is heavily influenced by network effects,” adding that, “Naming Deutsche Bank as a founding member, while also establishing interconnectivity to Visa B2B’s blockchain, will accelerate our adoption on a global scale.”

With Visa teaming with JPMorgan and its suite of blockchain products, it seems that the duo has an eye on providing an alternative to the commonly used Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT) messaging system to manage and facilitate cross-border payments.

Related: SWIFT says it has reached a ‘breakthrough’ in recent CBDC experiments

The notion of cross-border payments has been in the spotlight this week, with the Monetary Authority of Singapore revealing on Oct. 10 that it could look to utilize blockchain tech to provide solutions to current issues with such, including speed and costs.

Ravi Menon, managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, noted in a keynote speech that the current state of cross-border payments is “not fit for the 21st century,” adding that:

“It is slow, costly, opaque, and inefficient, relying on an archaic network of correspondent banks.”

He outlined that the expansion of “private sector blockchain-based payment networks” could be one of the possible ways to solve this.

Ripple Labs has also made moves with its cross-border payments On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) product this week. On Oct. 11, it announced partnerships with payments firm Lemonway and money transfer provider Xbaht that will see the duo leverage the ODL network to provide crypto payments for customers in France, Thailand and Sweden.

Rep. Warren Davidson: Stablecoin bill has ‘outside chance’ of finalizing this year

Earlier this week, new draft legislation on stablecoins came to light aimed at “endogenously collateralized stablecoins.”

There is a small chance the U.S. House of Representatives could pass the bill to regulate stablecoins by year-end, though it’s more likely it will pass in the first quarter of 2023, says U.S. Congressman Warren Davidson. 

According to a Thursday report from Kitco, Davidson made the remarks at the Annual Fintech Policy Forum on Sept. 22, where he suggested:

“There’s an outside chance we find a way to get to consensus on a stablecoin bill this year.”

The “stablecoin bill” seemingly refers to draft legislation aimed at “endogenously collateralized stablecoins” which came to light this week — and would place a two-year ban on new algorithmic stablecoins such as TerraUSD Classic (USTC).

However, Davidson went on to say that while “there’s a chance we get to yes on stablecoins this year,” it’s something that can be achieved by the first quarter of 2023.

“If we don’t, it’s something that I think we can get to with a Republican majority in Q1 next year,” he said.

Davidson is widely seen as crypto-friendly and has previously introduced the “Keep Your Coins” bill which aimed to protect self-custodied crypto wallets from U.S. government control.

A number of bills aimed at regulating stablecoins have been introduced in the U.S., such as the one that was introduced on Feb. 15 this year by U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer.

The Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Rohit Chopra, also reportedly spoke at the event and believes that stablecoins have the potential for widespread adoption, noting:

A stablecoin, riding the rails of a dominant payments system or a mobile OS, I think that could create ubiquity very quickly.

Chopra added that if stablecoins do see this kind of rapid adoption, they could have a serious impact on global financial stability.

Related: 3AC founders reveal ties to Terra founder, blame overconfidence for collapse

The CFPB director also suggested that Washington may be neglecting other areas of fintech development due to its intense focus on crypto in recent months.

The forum was attended by financial giants such as Bank of America, Visa and Mastercard and was reportedly aimed at fostering discussion between executives and policymakers as to how they can work together to ensure developing technologies help businesses, consumers and the economy.

The current draft bill for stablecoins is being negotiated between House Financial Services Committee Chair Maxine Waters and the committee’s top Republican, Rep. Patrick McHenry.