Stablecoins: the real crypto craze
Stablecoins are typically backed by cash or government bonds and run on public blockchains. Unlike bitcoin, the ur-cryptocurrency, their price barely fluctuates: tether, the biggest (whose issuer bears the same name), fetches a flat $1, within a few hundredths of a cent. They are mostly used to trade other cryptocurrencies, providing a stable bridge between wobblier digital assets. According to Chainalysis, a data firm, trading, payments and transfers in stablecoins hit $27.6trn last year, or two-fifths of all value settled on public blockchains, up from a fifth in 2020.
In part, this reflects a broader rise in crypto prices over the period—but stablecoins are increasingly used for…
