Macro Musings with David Beckworth · Monday, June 29, 2026
The legal scholars emphasized that to assess stablecoins' "moneyness," a blend of financial regulation and private law analysis is crucial. This interdisciplinary approach is necessary because money itself comprises both public law rules (like legal tender) and private law mechanisms that govern transactions.
“We need to blend together the financial regulation analysis and the private law analysis, because money comprises both these elements.”
“So, in the context of financial regulation, like we talk a lot about safety and soundness, we talk about the institutional needs for like what makes claims safe. But we're not looking at that underlying plumbing, the legal plumbing that actually defines the private laws and obligations that really contribute to people using this stuff, feeling safe when they do so, and helping it to propagate and have the network effects across the payment system.”
“And then underneath that, all the different private law mechanisms that make sure that the transfers of value made by those claims can in fact qualify as money.”