How stablecoins improve US dollar utility — Paxos CEO
2024-12-12
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The CEO of crypto brokerage and stablecoin firm Paxos said the global financial system will eventually run on blockchain rails. 
At the Bitcoin MENA event in Abu Dhabi, Paxos co-founder and CEO Charles Cascarilla told Cointelegraph in an interview about its new Global Dollar stablecoin network and how stablecoins improve the utility of the dollar. 
On Nov. 5, Paxos announced the launch of its Global Dollar (USDG) stablecoin and the Global Dollar Network in partnership with financial companies including Robinhood, Galaxy Digital and Kraken. The network aims to create a consortium supporting stablecoin adoption.
Cascarilla said that the network allows partners to earn interest on balances and share in the economic benefits from off-platform funds.
“That’s incentivized through several metrics,” he said. “It’s about enabling distributors and institutions to earn interest and pass it on to their users.”
The platform offers two products: One provides interest to individual users, while the other lets businesses determine how to distribute interest. Cascarilla said these products address the stablecoin market’s demand for interest-yielding options.
“That’s meant to address this issue within the stablecoin market, which people want to get access to interest,” he added.
How stablecoins improve dollar utility
On Oct. 29, Cascarilla wrote an open letter to the next presidential administration saying that the global financial system is outdated and inefficient. He said the industry is vital to the US but operates at the “speed of the post office.” 
He criticized its closed nature, comparing it to an intranet, which restricts accessibility and innovation: 
He added that one of the important things about stablecoins is that they “change the utility of a dollar.” He explained that stablecoins being available 24/7 and supporting instant transfers anywhere worldwide make them a huge improvement over dollars. 
The executive pointed out that stablecoins allow anyone to hold a dollar without needing a bank account. Cascarilla said that more people have smartphones than bank accounts, which makes stablecoins a significant innovation. 
“I think it could be the most transformative use of blockchain technology,” Cascarilla said. 
Stablecoins role in Web3 adoption
When asked how stablecoins can help onboard people into Web3, Cascarilla said the purpose of stablecoins is to solve a problem for people: 
Cascarilla said Web3 can’t be just a cool thing; it has to help people’s lives to get society to adopt it. “It’s solving a problem and a need that people have. And that’s what stablecoins are doing,” he added.