This morning’s panel discussion at the #ParisFinanceForum de Paris Europlace on tokenisation and stablecoins left me with more questions than answers.
Which is probably a good thing.
One comment from the discussion particularly caught my attention:
« Tokenisation does not create value. »
At first sight, this seems obvious. Yet it challenges much of the current narrative around digital assets.
If tokenisation does not create value by itself, then where does the value come from?
Perhaps from better infrastructure.
Perhaps from greater efficiency.
Perhaps from faster settlement.
Perhaps from broader access to financial services and investment opportunities.
Or perhaps not.
As someone who has spent much of her career working on payment systems, financial inclusion and market infrastructures, I find myself looking at stablecoins through a different lens.
What exactly are they?
A new form of money?
A payment instrument?
A settlement asset?
Or simply a new infrastructure layer?
In a cross-border transaction, if we move from fiat currency A to a stablecoin and almost instantly back into fiat currency B, are we creating a new monetary system?
Or are we simply introducing a new private intermediary into the payment chain, much as ACH operators, card schemes or correspondent banks already do today?
Another observation from the discussion was that stablecoins are often presented as being outside the traditional financial system.
Yet regulated stablecoins are deeply connected to it.
A stablecoin issued under an electronic money framework remains backed by funds held in the banking system.
In many respects, this resembles a model we already know well through electronic money and mobile money: a digital representation of money supported by safeguarded funds.
This raises a number of questions that deserve further reflection:
• Can stablecoins be viewed as a neutral infrastructure layer designed to improve payment and settlement services?
• If so, what are the implications for monetary sovereignty?
• Who ultimately controls that infrastructure?
• How resilient is a financial system increasingly reliant on digital assets and private issuers?
• What happens if a significant share of cross-border flows depends on a small number of global stablecoin providers?
• Are the implications the same for payments and for securities markets?
The discussion also highlighted another important point: technology is no longer the main challenge.
The real questions concern governance, regulation, interoperability, resilience and trust.
Perhaps the future debate is not « stablecoins versus traditional finance ».
Perhaps it is about understanding how new infrastructures can coexist with existing ones while preserving competition, stability and sovereignty.
I would be interested to hear how others in the payments, banking and regulatory communities view these questions.
#ParisFinanceForum #Payments #Stablecoins #Tokenisation #FinancialInfrastructure #CrossBorderPayments #DigitalAssets #CBDC #FinancialInclusion
#Payments #Tokenisation #Stablecoins #DigitalAssets #Fintech #FinancialInnovation #CBDC #FutureOfFinance
Reflexions 