Stablecoins’ Free Toasters Can Be Very Costly: Andy Mukherjee

Stablecoins aren’t allowed to pay interest, but can’t an early adopter or a loyal user at least expect a free toaster as a gift?

The legality of consumer rewards, hotly contested by crypto bros and Wall Street, has opened a new battlefront in their rivalry. Superficially, it appears to be a somewhat comical scuffle. Scratch the surface, however, and it’s a serious contest with global ramifications.

As private copies of fiat money go mainstream, digital-asset exchanges and brokers want to entice people to make everyday payments with stablecoins, instruments that have been mostly used by traders to buy and sell Bitcoin or Ether.

That’s raising the stakes for banks. They ...