Share
For nearly a decade, Agustín Carstens was the most credible institutional voice arguing against crypto. As general manager of the Bank for International Settlements from 2017 to June 2025, he called Bitcoin (BTC) a bubble, a Ponzi scheme, and an environmental disaster. He described stablecoins as instruments that piggybacked on sovereign credibility without earning it.
On June 23, speaking at the Point Zero Forum in Zurich, he said something different.
LATEST: ⚡️ Former BIS chief Agustín Carstens, once one of crypto's most prominent critics, says he has come to appreciate what stablecoins "can do to promote financial innovation, inclusion and to reduce costs." pic.twitter.com/k5TN3WULCM
— CoinMarketCap (@CoinMarketCap) June 24, 2026
“I have been known for some years to be very negative on crypto and stablecoins,” Carstens told delegates. “I have come to appreciate what stablecoins can do to promote financial innovation, inclusion, and efficiency.”
His statement is beyond a minor rhetorical adjustment; it is a substantive reversal from the most influential central banker of the past decade, delivered at the same moment that regulatory frameworks for stablecoins are being locked in across the US, EU, and UK.
Carstens, who now sits on the international advisory board of the Global Finance and Technology Network, did not disavow his earlier skepticism entirely. His concern was never about stablecoin technology specifically. It was about trust, and whether private issuers could be relied upon to maintain the foundations that give money its value.
His current position is that stablecoins can coexist with fiat money, but only inside a regulatory perimeter strong enough to generate genuine public confidence.
“The interaction between public and private sector can be very, very powerful,” he said at the PointZero Forum. Without coordinated global rules, that power remains unrealized.
The interaction between private and public sector can be very powerful, Agustin Carstens shares with delegates at @pointzeroforum in Zurich this morning. #PZF2026 #PointZeroForum #DisruptionBanking pic.twitter.com/T0sYU5nlLv
— Digital Startup (@digitalstartup5) June 23, 2026
He identified the trust infrastructure around stablecoin issuers as still insufficient, argued for a level playing field across jurisdictions, and warned that regulatory fragmentation remains the single largest obstacle. Proper rules, he said, may impose short-term constraints but will ultimately allow the sector to flourish.
Carstens spoke the day after the Bank of England published a revised stablecoin framework, dropping its earlier proposal to cap individual sterling stablecoin holdings at 20,000 British pounds for retail users and replacing those limits with a temporary aggregate issuance ceiling of 40 billion pounds per systemic stablecoin.
Reserve requirements also loosened, with issuers now permitted to hold up to 70% of backing assets in interest-bearing short-term UK government debt. Regulated stablecoin operations are expected to begin in the UK in 2027.
Carstens’ pivot is not shared by the institution he used to run.
Current BIS general manager Pablo Hernández de Cos said in April that the stablecoin market remains small and structurally limited. The BIS published a preview of its Annual Economic Report 2026 the same day as Carstens’ speech, warning that widespread stablecoin adoption could challenge financial stability, bank funding, and monetary sovereignty.
That gap between Carstens’ current position and the BIS’ institutional line reflects a genuine open question in global finance: whether stablecoins are best understood as a threat to monetary architecture or an extension of it.
Carstens has now placed himself firmly on one side. The regulatory rulemaking now underway across three major jurisdictions will determine whether he is right.
Share
preferred on
