Paul Ryan, the former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, has expressed his strong support for stablecoins and believes that once regulated, they could be worth trillions of dollars. In an interview with Bloomberg, Ryan emphasized that stablecoins could be a potential solution to the US sovereign debt crisis. With the nation currently burdened with $34.7 trillion in debt and making interest payments of over $1 trillion annually, Ryan believes that stablecoin legislation would be a step in the right direction. Stablecoins are digital tokens that are backed by assets with relatively stable value, typically the US dollar. They are widely used in decentralized finance (DeFi) for trading, borrowing, and lending, as well as for accessing the stability of the dollar in countries where it is difficult to obtain. Stablecoin issuers such as Tether and Circle back their tokens with short-term US Treasury bills and other dollar equivalent instruments, profiting from the interest they provide. The demand for stablecoins directly translates to demand for US government debt. Currently, the stablecoin market is valued at over $140 billion, but it is still unregulated. Ryan believes that a bipartisan agreement on stablecoin regulation, currently being negotiated between Patrick McHenry and Maxine Waters of the House Financial Services Committee, could address this issue. He predicts that with a legal framework in place, the stablecoin market could grow from a couple hundred billion dollars to trillions of dollars. Ryan also sees the adoption of stablecoins as a way to integrate the US dollar into the ongoing digitization of currencies and strengthen its overall adoption. His comments align with the increasing pro-crypto sentiment among Republicans, who have been more supportive of the industry compared to their Democrat counterparts. Even former President Donald Trump, who was initially critical of cryptocurrencies, has recently expressed his support for keeping crypto in America.
