Desk

Currency & FX

Which currency a market settles in and what the choice costs: dollarisation, non-dollar tokens, foreign exchange spillovers and monetary sovereignty.

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Coverage

Central bank money

European Parliament adopts negotiating position on the digital euro regulation

The European Parliament approved its position on the digital euro regulation on 9 July 2026, following a committee vote in June.

9 Jul 2026 Banca d'Italia 4 reports

Stablecoins

BIS Annual Economic Report concludes stablecoins fail key tests of money and flags emerging-market risks

The Bank for International Settlements published the money and payments chapter of its 2026 Annual Economic Report on 23 June 2026, arguing that stablecoins fall short on singleness, elasticity and integrity of money.

23 Jun 2026 Bank for International Settlements 3 reports

Stablecoins Tokenized deposits Global

Africa & emerging markets

IMF urges Nigeria to bring stablecoins under stronger regulation after 2026 Article IV consultation

The IMF Executive Board concluded its 2026 Article IV consultation with Nigeria on 9 June 2026 and identified stablecoin oversight as a priority.

9 Jun 2026 International Monetary Fund 4 reports

Stablecoins Nigeria

Regulation

European Commission opens MiCA review consultation targeting multi-jurisdiction stablecoin issuance

The European Commission opened a two-part consultation on revising the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation in May 2026, with responses due by 30 August 2026.

20 May 2026 European Commission 5 reports

Stablecoins European Union

Currency & FX

IMF working paper measures stablecoin inflows and spillovers to foreign exchange markets

An IMF working paper published on 27 March 2026 examined cross-border stablecoin flows and their effects on emerging-market foreign exchange rates.

27 Mar 2026 IMF Working Paper 2026/056 4 reports

Stablecoins Global Nigeria

Analysis

Dollar access without dollar accounts

Receiving $200 in Sub-Saharan Africa cost 8.46% in the third quarter of 2025; the tokens undercutting that price are almost entirely dollar-denominated, and the flows are unmeasured.

25 July 2026

Analysis

The euro stablecoin gap

Circle's euro token held €381.8m in June 2026 against $72.6bn of its dollar token, and MiCA's ban on paying interest sent what euro demand exists onchain into money market funds instead.

25 July 2026

Concepts on this desk

Currency substitution

The displacement of a domestic currency by a foreign one in the store-of-value, unit-of-account and payment functions, now increasingly mediated by dollar-referenced stablecoins rather than by physical cash or bank deposits.
Monetary sovereignty

A state's capacity to determine the unit of account used in its economy and to control the supply and price of the settlement asset in which domestic obligations are discharged.

On the record

10 November 2025
Banco Central do Brasil brings virtual asset providers inside foreign exchange rules
27 October 2025
JPYC begins issuing a yen-referenced stablecoin in Japan
25 September 2025
People's Bank of China opens an e-CNY international operation centre in Shanghai
16 July 2021
People's Bank of China publishes the e-CNY white paper

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Currency & FX

Coverage

Analysis

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