Go Unlimited with Magzter GOLD
Get unlimited access to 10,000+ magazines, newspapers and Premium stories for just
Stablecoins are not superfluous: They play a useful signalling role
Mint Mumbai
|December 19, 2025
These tokens reveal our fear of missing out and beliefs as digital creations join the world of finance
The Reserve Bank of India's deputy governor T. Rabi Sankar recently responded to a question at a Mint conference on whether stablecoins have a role in the financial system by saying they serve no purpose that fiat money cannot serve. We respectfully disagree. Stablecoins do serve a role within today's fiat-money system—not by replacing it, but by placing a wrapper of imagined stability over it.
That this wrapper is thin need not concern us for now. Demand for 'stability' allows us to picture an alternative world of finance. Fiat currencies, backed by nothing more than the word ('IOU') of a nation state, have always embodied a power asymmetry. The history of nation states and empires is littered with examples of sovereign defaults on obligations or currency debasement, often via hyperinflation. Fiat currencies, and even their gold-backed predecessors, have always been prone to bouts of instability.
This story is from the December 19, 2025 edition of Mint Mumbai.
Subscribe to Magzter GOLD to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 10,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
MORE STORIES FROM Mint Mumbai
Mint Mumbai
New code to overhaul securities market rules
Bill to consolidate three laws, proposes stricter conflict norms for Sebi officials
3 mins
December 19, 2025
Mint Mumbai
Airtel eyes zero debt, Vi borrows to stay afloat
Two of India's biggest private telecom operatorsBharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea (Vi)-are looking to shore up their finances and fund network investments from vastly different starting points, pursuing sharply different strategies of equity-led deleveraging and debt-led survival, respectively.
4 mins
December 19, 2025
Mint Mumbai
India's landmark Oman trade deal deepens Gulf push
India on Thursday signed a comprehensive economic partnership agreement (Cepa) with Oman that seeks to strengthen the country's economic and strategic engagement with the Gulf and deepen its footprint in the region.
3 mins
December 19, 2025
Mint Mumbai
Chatbot qualms
It's a reasonable hope that no single platform comes to dominate India's adoption of AI chatbots. Social media saw free services join forces with network effects to place all major formats under the control of X and Meta's three popular platforms.
1 min
December 19, 2025
Mint Mumbai
DATA RECAP: THE WEEK IN CHARTS
In this weekly Plain Facts compilation, we present to you data-based insights, with easy-to-read charts, to help you delve into the stories reported by Mint in the week gone by.
2 mins
December 19, 2025
Mint Mumbai
TVS Supply Chain moves NCLAT
TVS Supply Chain Solutions has moved appellate tribunal NCLAT, challenging an NCLT order which had rejected its plea to initiate insolvency against the Indian unit of telecom gear manufacturer ZTE.
1 min
December 19, 2025
Mint Mumbai
Learnings from a micromanager while on vacation
There are certain characteristics about ourselves that we accept, fight against or simply learn to live with over the passage of time.
3 mins
December 19, 2025
Mint Mumbai
Capping UPI transaction share a tough ask for NPCI
To avert concentration risk, a UPI app's market share must be capped at 30% by Dec 2026
3 mins
December 19, 2025
Mint Mumbai
FinSight to step up India push with primary, secondary deals
US-based venture capital firm FinSight Ventures plans to step up its investment activity in India in 2026.
1 mins
December 19, 2025
Mint Mumbai
Mitsui to bet on AM Green's clean push
Backed by the founders of Greenko, AM Green has signed a memorandum of understanding with Japan’s Mitsui & Co. for strategic collaboration on energy transition initiatives and potential investment pathways in low-carbon aluminium, the company said in a statement on Thursday.
1 min
December 19, 2025
Listen
Translate
Change font size