Stablecoins and the Battle for Money: Regulation, Control, and Digital Currency

This piece examines how stablecoins challenge traditional finance, the regulatory questions at stake, and the shift in central bank influence in the coming era.

Rich by Coin

2026-01-03

This year we are going to face up to an unexpected question – what exactly is the future of money?
The traditional ‘cash or card’ debate is only the start of it.
We have all tried to understand crypto – and only, at best, half succeeded in doing so.
But 2025 saw clear signs of an emerging battle to control the flow of money and transactions – much of it based around a new creation called stablecoin that may, or may not, live up to its name over time.

To understand the coming battle, we need to focus on two things.
One is the kind of anarchic, anti-establishment mood that led to the creation of crypto.
It was money created and controlled outside the normal rule book.
It was a power play by the tech sector and crypto promoters to barge into an area traditionally the preserve of governments and central banks.

It is the kind of Wild West finance that – no surprise – Donald Trump really loves.
The other, related factor is that this is in large part a battle for control of the plumbing of the financial system.
For years, this has been the preserve of central banks, commercial banks – via the Swift system, for example – and a range of regulated financial intermediaries.
The advent of crypto was based on blockchain, a decentralised database or ledger that allows users to communicate and make payments directly, rather than via the traditional route, using an intermediary such as a bank.