Stablecoin Bills Could Upend Finance, Say Boosters and Critics

Stablecoins had once seemed like yesterday’s news. Now they’re a Washington obsession.

Stablecoins are a special flavor of cryptocurrency. Unlike Bitcoin or countless wildly traded memecoins, whose values rise and fall based on market moods, the most popular versions of these digital tokens are supposed to always be worth $1 each. They greased the wheels of the pandemic-era crypto boom by giving traders a digital substitute for cash. Advocates touted them as the future of money. After the collapse of the FTX crypto exchange in 2022, however, they fell off many people’s radar, along with the rest of crypto.

Flash-forward ...