Macro Musings with David Beckworth · Monday, June 29, 2026
Law professors Chris Odene, Andrea De Soto, and Yesha Yadav argue that the key to understanding stablecoins lies not in their backing or technical efficiency, but in their legal and institutional "moneyness." They propose a framework to assess this, asserting that current stablecoins fall short due to uncleared legal hurdles, even after legislation like the "genius Act."
“The authors developed a framework they call Moniness: the degree to which an instrument functions like money. Their central claim is that Moniness is not just an economic property, it is fundamentally a legal institutional construction.”
“They argue that stable coins currently fall short of true Moniness, even after the genius Act, because they still have legal hurdles to be cleared.”
“our disciplines haven't really been talking to each other, even though they intersect so deeply.”