Many stablecoins started out with claims of being fully backed. Over time, they then retreated into more ambiguous territory, and independent audits were few an

Many stablecoins started out with claims of being fully backed. Over time, they then retreated into more ambiguous territory, and independent audits were few and far in between. Putting stable coin issuers under banking regulations would have obvious benefits for the public in terms of trustworthiness. It would even have benefits for the no-coin public by reducing systemic risk. And it would have benefits for stable coin issuers and crypto exchanges by making it easier for them to establish conventional banking connections for their customers — right now, the on/offramps for many of exchanges seem to look dangerously close to money laundering in many cases. For instance, the largest stablecoin right now, Tether: * Has issued $16B in new currency in 2020 alone, after starting the year with $4B total: https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/tether/ https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/tether/ * Has never been independently audited, and the size, composition, and location of its reserves is not known. * Has ownership with significant overlap with Bitfinex, one of the larger Cryptocurrency exchanges, and seems to have commingled funds with them to some extent. This is really a situation that ought to be audited sooner rather than later. And, whether that audit reveals massive fraud or an upstanding, misunderstood business, the cryptocurrency community should welcome such transparency.