U.S. Weighs Global Dollar Stablecoin Push to Reinforce the Greenback

According to Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, U.S. officials are discussing an initiative to promote dollar-pegged stablecoins in international markets as part of an effort to preserve the dollar’s position as the world’s leading reserve currency. The proposal remains under discussion and is not yet an approved government program.

The U.S. government is considering partnerships with private companies to establish joint ventures for stablecoin projects abroad. Several federal agencies could be involved, including the Treasury Department, the State Department and the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC).

Washington is pursuing two goals in parallel: expanding access to the dollar in economies outside the United States and turning stablecoin growth into a new source of demand for U.S. government debt.

Dollar stablecoins are backed by reserve assets, with cash and short-term U.S. Treasury securities typically accounting for a significant share. The more tokens enter circulation, the more liquid assets issuers need to hold against them.

The market is already large enough to have a meaningful impact. A July 2026 joint study by Citizens and Allium estimated that roughly $295 billion in circulating stablecoins supported about $170 billion in U.S. Treasury exposure. The authors stress that this figure should not automatically be treated as entirely new net demand, because some funds may have shifted from bank deposits, money-market funds or other assets already linked to U.S. government debt.

At the same time, Washington needs to raise increasing amounts in the debt market. Wall Street banks estimate that the United States could issue about $1 trillion in additional Treasury bills over the next year as the budget deficit remains high and long-term borrowing costs rise.

Federal Reserve research also indicates that reserve-backed stablecoins could increase demand for U.S. government debt, although the final effect depends on the composition of reserves and the source of the incoming money. If funds move out of bank deposits or assets already invested in Treasuries, much of that demand would be reallocated rather than new.

Even so, the Trump administration has repeatedly described stablecoins as part of a broader strategy to preserve the dollar’s strength.

In February 2025, David Sacks, then the White House adviser on cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence, said stablecoins could extend the dollar’s international dominance and generate trillions of dollars in new demand for U.S. government debt.

In July 2025, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also said the GENIUS Act — the federal framework for payment stablecoins — could strengthen the dollar’s role as the world’s reserve currency, broaden access to the dollar economy and support demand for U.S. Treasuries.

That strategy is gradually being translated into law. On August 17, 2026, the U.S. Treasury published proposed rules to implement the GENIUS Act, which is expected to take effect on January 18, 2027. Bessent said the department aims to give businesses regulatory clarity while strengthening the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency. FORECK.INFO previously examined the Treasury’s proposed GENIUS Act rules in detail.

The global digital-currency race

The world’s largest economies are building their own digital payment networks, creating cross-border transfer channels that do not necessarily depend on the traditional dollar-centered financial infrastructure.

China has incorporated the digital yuan, or e-CNY, into Project mBridge, a cross-border payment platform that uses central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). China, Hong Kong, Thailand, the UAE and Macao participate in the project. Saudi Arabia’s central bank said in September 2026 that it had ended its formal participation after completing its proof of concept on May 13, 2025: the decision was made earlier, although it became public only recently.

Europe is also accelerating work on the digital euro. The European Central Bank (ECB) is preparing a 12-month pilot program expected to begin in the second half of 2027. A final decision on issuing the digital euro has not yet been made.

Stablecoins nevertheless remain controversial among policymakers. In an August 28, 2026 speech, Bank for International Settlements (BIS) General Manager Pablo Hernández de Cos said that, in their current form, stablecoins do not yet possess all the properties of money needed to function credibly as a means of payment at scale. He also warned that their wider use abroad could accelerate digital dollarization and affect monetary sovereignty, bank funding costs, lending and financial stability in recipient countries.