Europe’s largest asset manager is sounding alarms as U.S.-regulated stablecoins surge, threatening to erode dollar dominance and destabilize global money flows at massive scale.
US Dollar’s Global Role Challenged by Surge in Regulated Stablecoins
A sweeping shift in global financial dynamics could be triggered by the U.S. push to regulate dollar-backed stablecoins, prompting fears of monetary destabilization worldwide. Amundi, Europe’s largest asset manager with over €2 trillion ($2.36 trillion) in assets under management, raised concerns on July 3 that the U.S. Senate’s recent passage of the GENIUS Act—a bill establishing oversight for U.S.-dollar-pegged crypto tokens—could significantly reshape global money flows.
Vincent Mortier, chief investment officer at Amundi, told Reuters the bill “could be genius, or it could be evil,” expressing skepticism about its potential consequences. Since the GENIUS Act requires these assets to be pegged to the U.S. dollar, this may stimulate greater demand for U.S. Treasury bonds. Mortier cautioned that this trend might backfire, stating:
In doing so, you create an alternative to the U.S. dollar and that could lead to more weakening of the dollar.
“Because if a country is pushing a stablecoin, it could be perceived as pushing the message that the dollar is not that strong,” he opined.
The Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act successfully passed the Senate in June 2025. This legislation aims to create a comprehensive federal framework for regulating payment stablecoins, intending to boost financial stability, enhance consumer protection, and foster innovation within the digital asset space. The GENIUS Act is now set for a pivotal House vote in mid-July.
While U.S. policymakers largely advocate for the GENIUS Act as a strategic move to solidify the U.S. dollar’s preeminent position in the evolving digital economy, global institutions like Amundi are articulating specific, nuanced concerns. As Mortier highlighted, despite the explicit requirement for stablecoins to be pegged to the U.S. dollar, the act could inadvertently subtly diminish the dollar’s unique global status, potentially contributing to its overall weakening. JPMorgan, for instance, projects stablecoin circulation reaching $500 billion by 2028. This rapid expansion of a dollar-pegged digital currency market, even as over 90% of stablecoins are dollar-denominated and a significant portion of transactions occur outside the U.S., raises complex questions about its long-term impact on global money flows and the risk of broader monetary destabilization.
