BIS Project Agora: Stablecoins Just Got a Death Sentence From Banks

Agora is the West's response to China's mBridge guaranteeing dollar hegemony

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Global cross-border payments totaled $195 trillion in 2024, projected to reach $320 trillion by 2032, and Project Agora is banks’ way of saying that they won’t surrender the market to stablecoins without a fight.

That’s why 40+ institutions are participating with the BIS on Agora, this isn’t a thought experiment, it is an existential fight for the future of payments that banks aren’t going to lose.

The most important takeaway from Agora is that it maintains the two-tier nature of money, which guarantees the participation of the central banks, particularly in the EU, which are loath to surrender monetary sovereignty to stablecoins.

The BIS delivers a death sentence to stablecoins, without ever saying their name, by proclaiming that Agora “preserves the safety and integrity of settlement in central bank reserves.”