WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis issued the following statement about today’s release of the President’s Working Group report on stablecoins:
“I appreciate the effort that the President’s Working Group put into their report. I agree with many of their recommendations, including the need for Congressional legislation and prudential risk management. However, proposing that only insured depository institutions may issue a stablecoin is misguided and wrong. As of now, it’s not even clear that FDIC insurance is available for stablecoins. There are other, safer ways of achieving the same objectives. For example, we could require 100% of stablecoin reserves to be maintained off-balance sheet, or require stablecoin reserves to be maintained at a Federal Reserve Bank, which is, by definition, risk-free. We already have a case study in this – Wyoming’s special purpose depository institutions are already doing this. I am concerned that this recommendation will only serve to benefit big banks and will restrict innovation. We should all be able to agree that startups should have the same chance as Wall Street institutions to succeed. As the report clearly states, though, Congress will, and should, have the final say.”
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