Courtesy of Pam Martens
Senator Sherrod Brown
The Senate Banking Committee held a hearing yesterday titled “Stablecoins: How Do They Work, How Are They Used, and What Are Their Risks?”
Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), the Chair of the Committee, set the tone for the hearing by including the following poignant remarks in his opening statement:
“Last month, I wrote to some of the biggest stablecoin issuers to get more information on how they manage their funds that back their coins, and to ask what rights their users have. Their responses were not particularly enlightening – and should lead us to assume most ordinary customers don’t have much in the way of rights at all.
“So let’s be clear about one thing: if you put your money in stablecoins, there’s no guarantee you’re going to get it back. They call it a currency, implying it’s the same as having dollars in the bank, and you can withdraw the money at any time. But many of these companies hide their terms and conditions in the fine print, allowing them to trap customers’ money. And if there’s no guarantee you’ll get your money back, that’s not a currency with a fixed value – it’s gambling.
“And with this much money tied up, it sure looks to me like a potential asset bubble.
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