“Instead of issuing a retail [central bank digital currency], central banks could support stablecoins by allowing them to be backed one-for-one with balances in a central bank account,” said Antoine Martin, a financial stability advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

“Adapting our regulatory and legislative environment to support stablecoins is already a formidable task, but it is probably easier than managing a CBDC for retail use, especially as the private sector currently provides all retail digital means of payments on legacy technology,” he told policymakers at the Gillmore Centre Policy Forum at Warwick Business School in London, according to a statement.