The Dollar's Digital Lifeboat Might Be A Trojan Horse

Forbes

9 hours ago

ANKARA, TURKIYE - NOVEMBER 22: In this photo illustration, a phone screen displaying a graphic chart ... More showing an upward trend, with the label '$100K' is seen over another screen showing 'Bitcoin' coins and dollars in Ankara, Turkiye on November 22, 2024. (Photo by Hakan Nural/Anadolu via Getty Images)
In 2008, the world learnt the cost of financial opacity the hard way. Wall Street alchemised housing risk into triple-A rated gold, and when the music stopped, we all paid the price. Today, the rhythm is different, but the instruments are familiar. The risk this time doesn't sit with mortgage-backed securities or subprime borrowers. It sits with governments.
The new CDO is the sovereign bond. And the next crash, if it comes, will be state-led.
Japan is already blinking red. Last week, GDP contracted. Yields on its ultra-long government bonds surged, even as the Bank of Japan kept its grip on the yield curve. Investors, it seems, are no longer buying the myth of infinite refinancing. Japan's debt-to-GDP ratio stands at 220%, nearly double where Greece was when it triggered the eurozone debt crisis in 2010.
The world is staring at a sovereign version of the same problem: not enough return, too much risk, and a deep belief that someone, somewhere, will always step in.
For years, that someone has been the U.S. Issuing, rolling, and selling Treasuries at a scale that only the world's reserve currency can sustain. But even that advantage is starting to fray. In March, foreign holdings of Treasuries hit a record high. Yet the demand curve is flattening. A recent $16 billion auction of 20-year bonds failed to sell out.
WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 16: The U.S. Treasury Building, photographed on Friday, July 16, 2021 in ... More Washington, DC. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
The Fed had to step in. Again.
This is not just about a bump in yields. This is about investor psychology shifting under our feet. Trillions in U.S. debt need refinancing in the near term. $9 trillion, to be exact.
Investors are rightly asking: what happens if we're the last ones holding the bag?
When private markets get nervous, they hedge. When governments get nervous, they innovate. The result: a new wave of financial engineering built on sovereign debt. The most ambitious iteration is the tokenisation of Treasuries, wrapping government IOUs in crypto clothing. Stablecoins backed by Treasuries are one flavour. Synthetic credit products, using sovereign debt as collateral for risk-sliced instruments, are another.
It's the same logic that gave us the collateralised debt obligation: take something illiquid, give it a shiny wrapper, and make it move. But the wrapper doesn't change the core. Debt is still debt. What's different this time is who's doing the repackaging: not banks, but governments.
Enter the GENIUS Act.
On May 19, the U.S. Senate advanced Bill S.1582, the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act. At first glance, it looks like a regulatory framework for crypto payment systems. But in practice, it could become the legal scaffolding for a new asset class: stablecoins backed by sovereign debt.
As Stefan Rust noted:
'The GENIUS Act signals a bold U.S. move to cement dollar dominance in the digital era. With the dollar already driving 98.9% of crypto transactions, this legislation lets any bank with U.S. Treasuries mint its own dollar-backed stablecoins—bypassing central banks and unleashing a surge of liquidity,' said Stefan Rust, Founder of Truflation and Laguna Labs. 'The result is faster transactions, broader access, and a dramatic acceleration of digital dollar velocity. The GENIUS Act isn't just policy—it's high-octane fuel for America's financial leadership.'
Supporters argue this is a necessary step. The EU has MiCA, Singapore and Hong Kong are sprinting ahead, and the U.S. risks falling behind in digital finance. The GENIUS Act provides long-overdue clarity. It mandates reserve backing, enforces redemption rights, and creates a federal framework that pulls stablecoins out of the regulatory shadows.
On its own, that's a good thing. But paired with $9 trillion in refinancing pressure, the incentives start to warp. Treasury-backed stablecoins could unlock new demand from crypto markets. Tokenised debt could offer short-term liquidity.
And synthetic structures could spread risk across jurisdictions, just like CDS once did.
But here's the paradox: while U.S. regulators are building the legal rails for stablecoins, the largest one, Tether, isn't saving the dollar. It may be preparing to replace it.
At Bitcoin 2025, economist Saifedean Ammous delivered a talk that peeled back the narrative around stablecoin demand being "bullish for the dollar." Tether, he argued, may purchase Treasuries today, but its real bet is elsewhere. It's quietly accumulating Bitcoin. If its BTC reserves continue to grow, eventually they could outpace its dollar ones. The peg might not break—it might revalue. A dollar-plus stablecoin, backed not by fiat, but by finite digital commodity.
Saifedean Ammous at Bitcoin 2025
In that world, Tether doesn't reinforce U.S. financial dominance. It undermines it. 'The real risk to Tether isn't volatility,' Ammous said. 'It's U.S. default. And Bitcoin is the hedge.'
That framing flips the conventional narrative. Stablecoins are often treated as satellites of U.S. monetary policy—dollar proxies that expand liquidity and shore up Treasury demand. But as crypto-native entities become more risk-conscious, they're hedging against the very foundation they once anchored to. In doing so, they expose a deeper structural weakness: the assumption that government debt will always be the safest asset in the room.
But here's the real problem: even in the most optimistic scenario, stablecoins won't solve the debt crisis. At best, they can touch a small fraction of total U.S. liabilities. As Ammous points out, even if Tether grew 100-fold and allocated 80% of its reserves to Treasuries, the impact would be marginal — a 5% reduction in debt costs over a decade.
That's not a backstop. That's a rounding error.
If policymakers begin treating stablecoins or tokenised debt as scalable demand engines, they're mistaking liquidity optics for solvency. These tools might offer short-term relief, but they don't address the structural reality: too much debt, too little yield, and too few reliable buyers.
When all else fails, governments fall back on the one tool always within reach: inflation.
It's the path no one wants to advertise. But if investor appetite falters and refinancing costs climb, governments will have few alternatives. Debase the currency. Inflate away the obligations. Devalue the promises.
That's why the outlook for the dollar is weakening. And why assets like Bitcoin and gold — scarce, uncorrelated, and outside the system — are increasingly appealing hedges.
A cutout of US President Donald Trump holding a Bitcoin is displayed on a group of servers during ... More The Bitcoin Conference at The Venetian Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada, on May 27, 2025. (Photo by Ian Maule / AFP) (Photo by IAN MAULE/AFP via Getty Images)
The GENIUS Act is trying to get ahead of this, offering rules before crisis sets in. That's smart. But regulation won't stop the fundamental question from looming over the global economy: how do you refinance trillions when no one wants to buy?
The 2008 crisis taught us that complexity can't paper over unsustainable fundamentals. In 2025, we'd be wise to remember that lesson. Because the next crisis won't start in a hedge fund or a housing market. It'll start in a Treasury auction.
And this time, it may end with a stablecoin leading the exodus.