News Summary

• Stablecoins are being touted as the technology that will finally bring the world’s unbanked poor into the financial system.
• But the hype is unwarranted.
• Everyday domestic payments are the cornerstone of financial inclusion, and money and bank accounts linked through an inclusive instant payment system are clearly superior to stablecoins for this purpose.
• For a woman farmer in northern Kenya, who has a basic phone and no data connection, stablecoins are no solution.
• Even where governments have pushed hard to launch their own digital currencies, such as in China and Nigeria, there has been little uptake.