The post ECB warns stablecoins threaten bank funding as Visa, Mastercard expand appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.

New paper flags risk to bank funding just as payments giants ramp up tokenized settlement. Summary The ECB warns euro-denominated stablecoins could drain bank deposits and blunt monetary policy, citing risks to lenders’ ability to fund the real economy. Visa is expanding stablecoin-linked cards to 100+ countries via Bridge after volume “more than quadrupled” last year; SoFi and Mastercard launched SoFiUSD for settlement across Mastercard’s global network. BTC trades near $67k–$68k, ETH near $2k, SOL mid-$80s — markets treat the ECB paper as a medium-term structural risk, not an immediate price shock. The European Central Bank (ECB) has fired a shot across the bow of the stablecoin industry, warning that widespread use of private tokens could undermine its grip on monetary policy and squeeze traditional lenders’ funding bases. In a new research paper, the ECB argues that if euro‑denominated stablecoins gain serious traction inside the bloc, they could “weaken the effectiveness of monetary policy” by siphoning deposits out of commercial banks and into tokenized rails that sit at the edge of the regulated system. The authors caution that such a shift could “hamper lenders’ ability to support the real economy,” especially in stress scenarios where deposit flight accelerates. The warning lands just as major payment firms move to normalize stablecoin settlement. SoFi and Mastercard recently unveiled a partnership that will allow SoFiUSD, a fully reserved dollar stablecoin, to be used for settlement across Mastercard’s global network, spanning SoFi Bank and its Galileo platform. Visa, meanwhile, is expanding its collaboration with Bridge, aiming to bring stablecoin‑linked cards to more than 100 countries, after seeing volume on Bridge “more than quadruple” last year. Industry advocates frame these moves as proof that stablecoins are evolving into mainstream payment infrastructure rather than just trading collateral, with crypto.news already tracking how tokenized cash is bleeding…

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Filed under: News - @ March 3, 2026 7:29 pm