Waller sees potential for stablecoins to improve retail, cross-border payments

A speech to be given by Fed Governor Christopher Waller at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium 2025 that was released by the central bank states in part: “Stablecoins are the latest example of private sector-led innovation in payments. The original use of stablecoins was to facilitate crypto trading. Crypto-asset prices can be volatile and as with any financial market, there is a need for traders to move out of relatively risky positions into safer ones with a stable asset price. As the stablecoin market matured, firms found that the properties of stablecoins using distributed ledger technology- including 24/7 availability, fast transferability, and their freely circulating nature -could be attractive for other use cases as well. That includes providing a means to access and hold U.S. dollars, particularly in countries with high inflation or without easy or affordable access to dollar cash or banking services. In fact, I believe that stablecoins have the potential to maintain and extend the role of the dollar internationally. Stablecoins also have the potential to improve retail and cross-border payments.” Publicly traded companies in the stablecoin and cryptocurrency space include Circle Internet (CRCL), Bit Digital (BTBT), Bitfarms (BITF), Coinbase (COIN), Core Scientific (CORZ), Greenidge Generation (GREE), Mara Holdings (MARA), Riot Platforms (RIOT), Strategy (MSTR), Stronghold Digital Mining (SDIG) and TeraWulf (WULF).