Are Stablecoins Stable?

Usman W. Chohan ()
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Usman W. Chohan: Economic Affairs and National Development

Chapter Chapter 5 in The Cryptocurrency Market, 2025, pp 87-102 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract This chapter aims to situate the “stable” element in stablecoins within notions of trust and confidenceusing the ontological framework of extitutional theory. As an intermediary instrument, stablecoins require even greater participant trust and confidence than cryptocurrencies alone, because they fill three roles: a liquidity-provision role, a financial-intermediary instrumental role, as well as a volatility-mitigation role. The chapter illustrates notions of trust and confidence in stablecoins with the help of two case studies: (1) Terra/Luna, and (2) Tether (USDT). The former case embodies a rupture of trust and breakdown of confidence due to severe extitutional and institutional deficiencies, while the latter might pose looming dangers in that regard. Furthermore, the case studies embody extitutional theory’s distinction between trust and confidence, and the findings of the chapter suggest both institutional elements (rules, procedures) and extitutional elements (norms, values, practices) can help restore the ruptures of trust and breaches of confidence that have already marred, and may continue to mar, stablecoins as a financial instrument in the digital economy.

Keywords: Stablecoin; Tether; USDT; Bitcoin; Blockchain; Terra; Luna (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:psincp:978-3-031-90542-1_5

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-90542-1_5

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