Pablo Hernández de Cos, General Manager of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), said in a speech at the Jackson Hole conference on August 28 that stablecoins are not reliable as a large-scale payment method. Hernández de Cos, who is considered a candidate to succeed Christine Lagarde as President of the European Central Bank (ECB), pointed out that stablecoins currently fail to meet requirements in three areas: the "singleness" of money, "interoperability," and "financial soundness." Cross-border transfers involving different stablecoins may involve secondary market trading and may not settle at face value, and a custody structure centered on self-custody wallets makes anti-money laundering measures difficult. While acknowledging that stablecoins could lower government borrowing costs through demand for short-term government bonds, he noted that higher bank funding costs could be passed on to borrowers' interest rates, and argued that tokenized bank deposits should play the leading role in everyday payments. On August 27, the Financial Stability Institute (FSI), a subsidiary of the BIS, published a report comparing issuer regulations in the United States, the EU, the UK, Hong Kong, and Singapore, revealing significant differences in regulatory content.
Bitcoin Rallies to Two-Week High Above $80,000 as Altcoins Outperform
Bitcoin rallied to a two-week high on Friday, climbing back above the psychologically important $80,000 level, with the broader crypto market joining the advance. According to Bitget Wallet research analyst Lacie Zhang, US spot ETF inflows and short covering helped push it through the psychologically important $80,000 level. The surge came despite a Fed rate hike earlier in the week and the failure of the Clarity Act, legislation that would have created a federal framework for the broader digital asset industry; after the measure failed to advance in the Senate, the Securities and Exchange Commission stepped in on Thursday with a conditional exemption allowing the trading of certain tokenized stocks on blockchains for the next five years. While bitcoin led the move, ether, binance and solana have outperformed over the past month, gaining 35%, 25% and 41% respectively, and rotation into alternative tokens and tokenized versions of Nvidia, Tesla and the S&P 500 helped lift the total crypto market capitalization to $2.66 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap. Fundstrat's Sean Farrell said crypto has absorbed a fairly aggressive hawkish repricing without much damage, while Compass Point's Ed Engel last week upgraded Coinbase to Neutral from Sell, citing that BTC is recovering from a cyclical bottom.
ECB President Personally Intervened to Block Binance's MiCA Approval, WSJ Reports
European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde personally intervened to stop crypto exchange Binance from obtaining authorization within the European Union, the Wall Street Journal reported on September 18. Binance had applied for authorization under the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation, MiCA, through the Hellenic Capital Market Commission, but withdrew its application on June 24 and indicated it would seek approval in another EU member state. MiCA's transition period ended on July 1, and unauthorized operators are in principle required to stop accepting or soliciting new customers, yet as of September 4 Binance remained unauthorized while continuing to serve some EU customers, citing the reverse solicitation exemption. According to the WSJ report, Greek authorities told Binance by late May that the application process was complete, and the company, expecting approval, was preparing an announcement, but officials later said Lagarde intended to hold off on a decision until a reform transferring authority over crypto firm licensing to the European Securities and Markets Authority is realized. Approval in Greece was seen as important because it would open access to the entire EU market through MiCA Article 65's EU passporting regime, and although licensing decisions rest with each member state's competent authority and the ECB has no formal power, Lagarde was reportedly concerned that Binance's EU expansion would spread the use of dollar-denominated stablecoins and hinder adoption of the digital euro and euro-denominated payment methods.
S&P Global Acquires OpenZeppelin to Rate Smart Contract Risk
S&P Global announced on September 17, 2026 that it has acquired OpenZeppelin, the industry standard for smart contract security, in a move that extends the ratings firm's risk-assessment mandate into the technology-risk layer of digital assets. OpenZeppelin's libraries underpin over $37 trillion in cumulative transfers and power 8 of the top 10 stablecoins, including USDC, and 10 of the top 10 tokenized money market funds, such as BlackRock's BUIDL and Franklin Templeton's BENJI. OpenZeppelin will operate as a separate business unit led by CEO Demian Brener, who will report directly to Yann Le Pallec, President of S&P Global Ratings. The deal lands on the same day the SEC granted a 5-year exemption for tokenized NMS stock trading, aligning with the broader GENIUS Act framework, and ahead of the DTCC Tokenization Service launch in October 2026. S&P Global is positioning itself as the gatekeeper of the technical standards regulators are expected to require for tokenized markets.
