[Financial Geopolitics] Private Money Rewriting National Credit (2026.8.6)

Can states control private money?

The rules of 'credit' being rewritten by stablecoins

'Stablecoins are becoming widespread.'

In recent reports, this sentence often marks the end of the discussion.

Holding U.S. Treasuries as reserve assets, lowering settlement costs, and enabling 24-hour remittances—.

All of these are facts.

However, they are merely phenomena.

The change that is truly happening lies much deeper.

It is that

private companies are beginning to support 'credit,' which has been the sole responsibility of the state.

Currency is, by nature, the credit of the state itself.

It is issued by central banks, backed by government legal systems, and supported by the entire financial system.

However, that structure is now beginning to change little by little.

The expansion of stablecoins is not a story about 'digital currency.'

It is the beginning of a new financial order where state and private credit intersect.

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The state has monopolized 'credit'

Modern states have held two monopolies.

One is violence.

The other is currency issuance.

Collecting taxes, issuing government bonds, and central banks supplying currency.

The state's fiscal system is built on the circulation of these three.

That is why governments have long been cautious about the rise of private currencies.

When Meta (then Facebook) announced the Libra project in 2019, that was the reason central banks around the world were alarmed in unison.

If a giant IT company were to have its own currency,

'Who manages credit?'

the very foundation of the state would be shaken.

At the time, many countries moved to 'suppress private currencies.'

However, the situation changed completely in the following few years.

States gave up on stopping them entirely and

steered toward incorporating them into their systems.

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Stablecoins have become a device for exporting the 'dollar'

The most symbolic example is the United States.

Under the GENIUS Act, authorized issuers were required to hold sufficient reserve assets.

At the center of this are short-term U.S. Treasuries.

What is important here is

who is buying U.S. Treasuries?

The traditional main players were



* Foreign central banks* Pension funds
* MMFs
* Commercial banks
.

However, in recent years, there has been talk of 'de-dollarization' globally.

Diversification of foreign exchange reserves has progressed, and countries like China have reduced their holdings of U.S. Treasuries.

Normally, this would be a headwind for dollar hegemony.

But in reality, new demand is emerging to fill that void.

It is the stablecoins held by individuals and companies around the world.

Every time USDT or USDC is issued, short-term U.S. Treasuries are purchased as reserve assets behind the scenes.

In other words,

a structure has been created where the more the private sector uses the dollar, the more it supports the U.S. government's funding.

Even if the move away from the dollar progresses,

demand for digital dollars compensates for dollar demand.

This is where the ingenuity of U.S. institutional design lies.

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Private companies are not competing with the state

Looking at stablecoins,

it might appear that 'the state and the private sector are competing.'

But in reality, it is a bit different.

The current structure is

not competition, but symbiosis.

The state develops the legal system.

Private companies provide the technology.

Users gain convenience.

As a result,

the state can secure demand for government bonds.

This is a very rare relationship.

The state uses private technology to maintain credit, and

private companies use the state's credit to expand their business.

They need each other.

Therefore, current stablecoin regulation is

rather than 'tightening regulation,'

it is closer to reality to think of it as a system where the state has welcomed the private sector as an official partner.

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What blockchain changes is not 'money' but 'credit'

During the crypto asset boom,

only the prices received attention.

However, that is not the true value of blockchain.

What is important is

who proves the credit?

Until now,



* Registries* Banks
* Clearing houses
* Government agencies
and others have guaranteed 'correct records,' but now

the entire network can guarantee them.

That is why the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Digital Agency are also promoting applications in trade, logistics, and real estate registration.

In other words, blockchain is

not a technology for crypto assets, but

a technology that remakes the credit infrastructure itself.

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CBDCs have shifted from 'offense' to 'defense'

Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) were initially expected to be

'the currency of the future.'

However, in reality,

private stablecoins have spread more rapidly.

High processing performance has been confirmed in Bank of Japan demonstration experiments.

No major technical obstacles have been found.

Even so, social implementation remains cautious because

it is not a technical problem, but

an institutional one.

A CBDC is a payment infrastructure used by the entire nation.

Failure is not an option.

On the other hand, private companies can start small and make improvements.

This difference in speed

created the current power balance.

As a result, central banks are

shifting their focus toward utilizing the private sector for retail payments and maintaining their role in wholesale areas such as interbank settlements and international remittances.

This is not a defeat.

It is a change in the division of roles.

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What is Japan aiming for?

Japan is walking a different path from the United States.

While refining its system through the amended Payment Services Act,

it is also continuing research into CBDCs.

It is a stance that prioritizes safety and reliability over rapid market expansion.

This can be said to be a uniquely Japanese institutional design.

On the other hand, the global financial infrastructure race will not wait.

If private services become the international standard,

even if the system is refined later, the initiative cannot be seized.

The focus going forward is shifting

from 'whether to regulate'

to 'which credit infrastructure will become the global standard.'

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What is being questioned is not 'currency' but 'the role of the state'

If you look at stablecoins as a type of crypto asset, you lose sight of the essence.

The change currently taking place is

not a power struggle between the state and private companies.

Rather, it is

the formation of a new governance model where the state attempts to maintain its own credit while incorporating private technology.

The United States has developed its system for that purpose.

It is trying to create a mechanism that maintains dollar demand and U.S. Treasury demand while utilizing the technical capabilities of private companies.

Japan continues to design its system cautiously, but

the private sector is ahead in the speed of social implementation.

This structure will not end with payments alone in the future.

It will likely spread to all fields that require 'credit,' such as real estate registration, trade finance, securities settlement, administrative services, and supply chain management.

In other words, what we are seeing is not the spread of digital currency.

How to share the credit that the state has monopolized with private technology.

The creation of those new rules has quietly begun.