The Bank for International Settlements has published a special chapter of its Annual Economic Report 2026 arguing that the next generation monetary and financial system should build on the existing two tier structure rather than replace it. The BIS says digital innovation and tokenisation can improve payments and financial intermediation if they are anchored in sound institutions, clear legal frameworks and strong supervision, but preserving trust in money requires policymakers both to fix weaknesses in current stablecoin arrangements and to incorporate tokenisation into the existing system where central banks provide the monetary anchor and commercial banks serve the public. The chapter says current stablecoin designs fall short on core properties of money, especially singleness, meaning different forms of money should be redeemable at par into central bank money. It also identifies structural issues tied to use on public permissionless blockchains, including challenges for resilience against financial crime, redeemability and interoperability across ledgers. Wider adoption could alter bank funding and credit provision, create financial stability risks, increase volatility in capital flows and challenge monetary sovereignty in economies with weaker fundamentals, particularly given that most stablecoins are currently denominated in USD. As a longer term model, the BIS points to a unified ledger that would bring tokenised forms of money together on a common platform, citing Project Agorá as an example for improving wholesale cross-border payments through tokenised commercial bank deposits and jurisdiction-specific tokenised central bank reserve ledgers. The full BIS Annual Economic Report 2026 and the BIS Annual Report 2025/26 are scheduled for publication on 28 June.
Bank for International Settlements2026-06-23
Bank for International Settlements says stablecoin weaknesses must be addressed while tokenisation is brought into the two tier monetary system
The Bank for International Settlements says the future monetary system should preserve trust in money by integrating tokenisation into the existing two tier system and by addressing current stablecoin weaknesses. Its report says stablecoins in their current form fall short on key properties of money and could create risks for bank funding, financial stability, capital flows and monetary sovereignty if adopted more widely. The BIS also highlights a unified ledger model, including Project Agorá, as a way to support programmable and cross-border payments.